I call this “COVID-19 to Life.”
I never believed that jailhouse rumor pertaining to a world catastrophe or an invasion on U.S. soil, which would prompt the correctional officers to go to each cell and kill us prisoners one-by-one in accordance to a written law, which prohibited our release in this world event due to us being threats to society, deeming us enemies of the state.
Fellow prisoners, usually the older ones, will point out that I can find this law located in some book in the law library. I’ve never ventured there and I disagree to their promulgations, maybe out of denial or, better yet, fear, but I will reject it even more strongly when my peer spoke of them releasing poisonous gases in the ventilation systems connected to our cells, thus eliminating us and exiting the prison compound in gas masks peacefully.
Hold the humor. There’s a saying we’ve all heard about, how the same thing that’ll make you laugh will make you cry, and it’s ironic today. My smile has vanished. And what with the jailhouse rumor, in my opinion, on the contrary has become actual reality for me and for countless others housed inside this prison industrial complex, overcrowded and unsanitary. The catastrophe is the obvious pandemic of COVID-19 and the invasion where all the activists in places such as Oregon, according to Trump, which begins a war on U.S. Soil.
Now, as far as the correctional officers killing us prisoners one by one, opening each cell, this is true also. Each time they come and open the cells, they wear [] with no masks on their faces protecting us; this is similar to them using a rifle to annihilate us, especially when they sneeze and cough. I don’t to laugh anymore. The new arrivals with possible signs of COVID-19 are placed in adjacent cells next to me, arriving from COVID-19 hotspot, such as Chino and San Quentin.
Thus the rumor of poisonous gases in our ventilation systems manifests ironically, and we’re all left to die. I don’t laugh anymore. I asked for disinfectant to clean around the housing unit, more in a myriad of other COVID-preventing material. On this grievance I filed to help myself and others be protected from this pandemic. I was denied.
I’m a tier tender and that’s my slave occupation in this facility. I’m responsible to clean the housing unit such as the showers, rec area, and phones. So every day, I’m exposed, and I could die from COVID or the hands of an officer, because of me being the rat for exposing their precarious behaviors for [inaudible] sanitation.
If you could observe the hoodlums right now, you would agree how immature they are, throwing rubber gloves at each other with no masks on and grappling one another. My friend, Jay, is in his mid seventies. He’s been in prison longer than my 27 years of existence on earth. And they refused his release from prison. He’s asked for it because of debilitating health factors and higher chances of death, if infected by COVID-19. So the rumor was a fact all along.
So I don’t laugh anymore. I wrote “I can’t breathe” on my face mask. I didn’t get any static from the COs, but then I wrote “defund,” as in defund all officers, I received a look that could kill today. Well, before I die, BLM baby! Black Lives Matter.
I love you mom. Joadanus Olivas.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)