Again, what the hell was happening?
A week after we were told to wear masks, we started seeing many inmates who had underlying medical conditions being moved to different units, as they were at a higher risk of catching COVID-19. Now I’m a Type-2 diabetic, but I control my blood sugar levels, so the prison doctor allowed me stay in the unit I was in. The next day I started seeing inmates who couldn’t breath, pissing and sh*tting on themselves, barely able to walk – let alone move.
A few days later, the warden and his staff were coming around with a bullhorn yelling, “If any of you feel sick, have a temp, or can’t breath, tell staff immediately.” Many inmates who were sick were also afraid to tell staff they had a fever or that they couldn’t smell or taste. I literally sat in my bed for one week and watched four men die in front of me, because they did not want to be moved to another unit. I had a friend who I had known for 15 years die only three feet away from me. I ended up catching COVID twice, and the LORD had mercy on me, as I didn’t get too sick. I was even helping to clean up a few of the inmates and helping to feed them. They were like family to me, and would have done the same for me. I can’t lie. That was the worst and scariest time in my whole life.
They had us on lockdown from March to December 27th, weren’t feeding us proper meals, and didn’t let us go to commissary to buy cold medication and other stuff we needed. It was so bad that we had to call our families and few friends and have them call the prison and Washington, DC, asking why the inmates at FCI Ashland were being fed cold bag lunches, how they only had one working bathroom for over 100 inmates in the unit, and how medical staff were only concerned with temperatures greater than 101 degrees.
We got a late Thanksgiving dinner right after Christmas, all thanks to the families calling, and Washington DC finally getting the picture of how badly we were being treated. But once that was over, we went right back to slimy mystery meat, dry bread, and old green apples.
As the months passed things slowly got better, but when a pandemic hits the world, prison is the LAST place you want to be!
Advocate / Mentor
Leonard E. Love