01/06/2021
So, at IWP:
31 people from 1 unit were infected with covid about 7 days ago. No new tests have been administered to the rest of the unit to determine if other infections are present.
A maintenance worker is presently 14 days into being sick with covid and is at work in my unit's bathroom with 2 incarcerated workers masks not properly being worn. (The shower had been stuck on for 7-10 days). No cleaner is overseen who will clean the bathroom when he leaves. No cleaner cleans the units regularly and efficiently anyways-because no staff person or c/o oversees and regulates the cleaning.
Used PPE was put in my area. Signs are posted in two places that state, "No PPE". The PPE was exposed to me while I was working alone without a mask.
The substance abuse issues that are played out are not addressed at all. Substances are still available with no preventative measures being employed by staff. No substance abuse or mental health counseling is provided regularly, or at all.
True to the nature of a female facility, the prospect that females are homosexual companions is running the safety and security declarations of the prison's most available female sergeant. The prospect determines all processes in the facility including chow hall rotation of units, volunteer labor, and non requested unit moves. However, requested bed moves are denied, and discrimination is high in the application of staff interpretation of the nature of ppl's relationships. Fighting is permitted and in fact, making someone's face bleed does not result in lock. However, "girlfriend" status will get you harassed and involuntarily moved, denied opportunities because of the companionship. Mentally ill women and two women caught in the same shower take up the 22 disc. segregation beds here. Also, covid cases. Only 1 person is assigned to clean the lock rooms after it is emptied, and no one guarantees covid was removed.
The conduct adjustment board will not hold the hearings of two women caught hugging simultaneously, but will hold hearings of two women fighting simultaneously. "Girlfriends" are not to live together, but not all are denied the companionship. Only those who reach high levels of observation such as:gender non conformist, certain race, certain hair style, overly pretty? All women seem to dual-up with another...just an observable fact. Major conduct reports are written and being heard today for being in the common areas for more than two or four hours a day, for cursing at staff over the common area need, for tattered or torn state clothing although none has been issued almost the entire year, or for placing pockets in purchased clothes. The captain wrote that one up. Yet, serious issues: cleaners, fairness of process and procedure, staff responsibilities, true safety and security needs, none of this matters. The new rules being overly and wrongly applied to this population is the new "interfering with staff duties" or "alteration to property". Probably written to address the male populations such as altering devices for chargers or weapons, or preventing intervention by staff in stopping fights, etc.
Rec staff are here, collecting paychecks offering no rec. No rec, no movies rotated all year, no use of the rec fund for any items needed by the incarcerated. I was told rec money bought a broiler.
It is all wild. No single staff person is held accountable for violating their duties, no accountability on work performance... money is not even accounted for.
It is all bad and irritating among an already scary pandemic.
Night
At 11:30pm the fire alarm started going off. We stood in the cold during a pandemic outside with 250 people for the past 30 minutes. The fire alarm is still going off at 12:15am. They knew from the beginning it was a fluke because we haven't had a fire alarm all year. We have ice cold water for showers and I would bet maintenance hasn't even been notified by bracket supervisors. Now, the fire alarm is still screeching and the brackett has no idea how to turn it off. We haven't had fire alarms for the entire year. We don't even have a fire inspector. We will all still be expected to work: no sleep and cold water. How many hours will it continue to sound the alarm?
Morning
The fire alarm stayed on until 1 am. 3 ppl had seizures caused by the alarm. We could barely get staff attention because of the tint on the windows and the alarm. Two people hit their heads during seizures and were not given medical care.
Still ice cold water with the response, "it happens."
Yesterday brought another positive covid case. With staff being made to work before having successfully overcome covid it is probably spreading rapidly through the prison.
-Natalie Medley #122409.
You can support Natalie by setting up an account at web.connectnetwork.com and, with which you can send her messages and money. Or you can write to her at 727 Moon Rd. Plainfield, In. 46168
