Coronavirus diaries is a series of papers that explore how the coronavirus is affecting people’s lives. For the latest public health information, see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. To view Slate coronavirus coverage, click here.
This diary is based on a conversation with Adamu Chan, a journalist incarcerated in the San Quentin State Prison in California. San Quentin is experiencing a massive COVID-19 outbreak, more than 1,400 cases, after the state transferred infected people from another prison to San Quentin. The conversation has been transcribed, condensed, and edited for clarity by Aviva Shen.
Probably in early March, maybe in late February, we started hearing about the virus. It was on the news. There was a lot of speculation about how it was going to affect life in general. I remember that at that time things were relatively normal inside the prison. I am part of a team of video journalists who produce a televised program in all 36 California prisons. So, at the time, we were developing content that talked about the coronavirus, and also, at the same time, we were interviewing people in the prison and getting their views on what people were feeling and what they felt was coming.
And then on March 17, the prison entered a quarantine lock, and I was transferred to this part of the prison, Unit H, which is made up of dormitories. I was in the cells before, in North Block. This part of the prison has yet to experience an outbreak, which is quite surprising since more than 1,000 people in prison at the moment have confirmed that they have the virus. I feel blessed to be able to talk on the phone and be healthy right now.
Back then, they were moving people around the prison, and I think they were trying to make sure that certain vulnerable populations were in places where they could distance themselves socially. But we have realized in recent months that those measures did not really work, because the prison is very overcrowded. There is no form of social distance. There is no way to isolate people. It has been a catastrophe.
Since March we have been out of the media center, which is where we all work: the podcast Ear hustle it’s there, the newspaper is there, so that’s the kind of information center that comes out of prison in the world. I have been isolated from the other journalists I work with. I have been trying to receive messages from them through people we know, people with whom we have common contact.
I still have friends at North Block. North Block is a great cell block. They all have a double cell in a really small cell, which is like 5 by 10 feet. There is no adequate ventilation. No air enters the cell block. Everyone breathes the same air. So the stories I’ve heard, which I think are to be expected, are that people can’t breathe and that people collapse and fall from left to right. That is very scary. I know many people in vulnerable populations (older people, people with pre-existing health conditions) who are there who matter to me. I am really concerned about them.
It is very, very overcrowded. This is a public health emergency.
In other parts of the prison, they do not have access to the phone the way we are here, because we are the dormitory: it is an open space and the phones are accessible. Up in the cell blocks, the phones are outside the cells. So if you are locked in a cell, you cannot use the phone. Therefore, it is more difficult to obtain information from there. I know some people who have the virus and are asymptomatic. But I also heard someone I know, who was the subject of a movie I made, is in ICU right now. I don’t know much about his condition.
I realized that statements by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to the media have revealed that they have been providing disinfectants and hand masks, which is true to some extent. We got masks, I think a month after the quarantine shutdown. Where I am, there is a hand sanitizer dispenser in a 100 person building, and it was not always available. But I think the idea of talking about hand sanitizer is not really the point. Like, the virus is already here. There are already outbreaks. I’m not sure if the hand sanitizer is going to stop an outbreak here. It is very, very overcrowded. This is a public health emergency.
Overcrowding has been a problem for decades. Even in the years leading up to the pandemic, the Supreme Court ruled that prison conditions in Southern California were unconstitutional and ordered the state to alleviate the overcrowding problem because people died from lack of medical care and lack of mental health care. . And this was in the years before the pandemic. Now here we are, in the heat, and we are still not getting any response on when the overcrowding will ease. There are people in the community who have recently stepped up and said they will assist in the re-entry of people who are released from prison. There are numerous family members who are willing to take people home. So there are places for people to go and people who are willing to accept them. Our number one demand is that people can leave this place. I think demand # 2 is for CDCR to stop transferring people across the state and to spread the virus to other jails.
I think a lot of what I was doing, even beyond journalism work, was just working to build a community here. I mean, this is a community. There is a great creative arts community here. People are involved in theater and in writing and graphic arts; other people participate in education and teaching; There is a university program here, a music program and, above all, many people here interested in self-development and trying to find solutions to violence and investigating their childhood and the like. Those things have been interrupted at this time. So I am concerned about the people that society called violent or wrong and who were actively working to assume new identities and new ways of being. And that is being interrupted now. I worry about it. And I also worry about that. I think those community ties that I share with other people are really important. I can’t see those people. I don’t know what’s going on with those people.
I am trying to stay as healthy as possible and trying to stay as clean as possible. I am trying to wear my mask. But other than that, I’m not really sure what I can do to prevent the coronavirus from entering here. There is quite a distance between Unit H and the cell blocks in the other parts of the prison, so I think that is one of the reasons it hasn’t gotten here yet. But there are correctional officers who work shifts in the affected areas and then come down here. There’s more ventilation here, and as you know, that’s one of the best ways to fight the virus. We have windows here, and there is a door that stays open. But this bedroom is also crowded. If it was to enter here, there is not much social distancing here. We all use the same bathrooms; We use the same showers. Our sleeping areas are close together, about an inch apart. So this area is also problematic. And somehow it seems like we’re just waiting until the virus gets here. That’s what it feels like. It looks like we’re sitting here waiting.
