In my recent commentary on prison environments, I spoke about the toxic air. I want people to imagine a place where your eyes begin to itch, your throat begins to burn, and your nose begins to run freely without any warning and without any way to identify the cause. The air is that toxic at Haynesville Correctional, Building Number Four. I’m actually told it’s like that in all the buildings. In fact, having spent 10 years enduring one toxic prison after the next, five in total, and having had this issue at every single prison, every cell, every pod, Haynesville is the worst to date. I have an allergy to nut products. It is severe enough to be possibly fatal, and having been through anaphylaxis, I know what it is to quite literally force every single breath I take as a matter of survival.
The air quality at Haynesville is only a degree or two separated from that. All-day throat clearing, all-day stuffy and runny nose, plugged with a napkin one nostril at a time, a constant physical feeling of suffocating as a part of everyday life. It has also come to my attention that two other captives have an odd rash, as of yet unidentified. Its cause is likewise unidentified. Apparently, medical staff told one of these captives that it is a reaction to something in the building, and they are not certain about how to treat it beyond antihistamines and steroids, which thus far have provided little relief.
There is, there was a time where practitioners of medicine were obligated to, “Do no harm.” At Haynesville, the Virginia DOC, and prisons nationwide, their silence is murderous. It is worth noting that the Virginia DOC is hemorrhaging money as a general rule, including an endless train of rumors, some showing evidence of tens of millions disappearing without a trace. One of those proverbial gaping wounds is medical care costs. The Virginia DOC burns through this portion of its budget, and yet still has expansive holes in its care, often deliberately. Something must change drastically and immediately, and those in charge must be brought to account. Virginia has to stop being the worst place to pay your debt.
My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writer at prisonjournalismproject.org, davidannarelli.wordpress.com. You can Google me for tons more, and check me out on Instagram @david_annarelli. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
