Shaka Nantambu in San Quentin Prison on death row. “Prisoners Concerned of Covid 19”.
How would it reach the population, not if, but when it will spread through the cell blocks, having seen how the flu virus hit us. [Covid] 19 is a whole different monster.
How do you fight the unknown? [Unclear] in prison? Yeah, right, wearing masks, washing hands, cleaning daily, and it doesn’t seem like that’s enough to slow down this beast of a virus. Airborne virus in these cell blocks; ventilation is not perfect. When they pepper spray someone close by, or down away, pepper spray get all of us, even with hands on eyes [or] blowing out.
Thursday the 16th, they gave us a hand sanitizer; handed out masks on the 20th. Alarms went off in my mind each time [and] asked myself, who else tested positive? Prisoner or guard? Was this the beginning? How would they react? No phones, no showers, no canteen, no [unclear], or all of the above.
How does people stay safe in unsafe environment? Quarantine. Inmates will try to hide the sickness because quarantine means going to the AC [Adjustment Center]– worst unit in San Quentin –to clean the new cells, because we know AC guards didn’t sanitize it after the last sick prisoners moved out.
By keeping quiet we’ll only help virus spread. It will hit all of us, some harder than others. I never thought I would even think San Quentin was the place to be. This virus is in other prisons. Don’t know how bad things are there. Just know that with each passing day, more is known about this Covid 19 and giving us a chance to fight to survive this in San Quentin. Call me crazy, but I find it hard to believe there’s no cases in San Quentin.
I do believe the officers will work hard to keep a safe environment to work in– self interest, of course. We have no choice again to deal with this disease, and every day in prison or out, we must fight this. Bottom line is, I hope that if I get sick, I’m the last one to get sick. [If] there’s no empty cells in AC, then they won’t be able to move me, and I know that the cell I’m in is clean, and I can deal with fighting off this virus in a clean and safe space.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
