The following is a guest blog post, under the series “Rene Records”–Rene is currently incarcerated in a federal prison in Alabama. Please consider giving to her commissary fundraiser (funds are also used to support her reading group and fellow political prisoners). You can also support her boo here, as well as her co-defendant Cody, here. The best method of support for her other co-defendant, MJ, is to send donations to $JohnLungaho on CashApp.
Update from 8/13/24
There’s rumors of a COVID outbreak across the street. And none of the guards here wear masks. Let me explain:
Aliceville is a compound that consists of two facilities. One is Aliceville FCI (Federal Correctional Institution), a low-security women’s prison with a population between 800-1200. This is the main facility on the compound—where the majority of labor and resources are directed.
The other facility is Aliceville SPC (Satellite Prison Camp), a minimum-security women’s prison, where about 200 people—myself included—are imprisoned. When we say “across the street” or “behind the fence/behind the wall,” we’re referring to the other, higher-security prison that’s less than a mile away from us.
The two facilities are strictly kept separate. “Campers” and prisoners at the FCI can’t ever cross paths or communicate, due to our different security levels. However, many prisoners do end up transferring here from across the street, after lowering their “recidivism points” by taking classes or simply by aging. Prisoners can also transfer from here to over there—though it’s less common—by getting in trouble so much that their recidivism points actually increase.
The two facilities share the exact same staff. Many of the correctional officers even split their shifts, working at the FCI for several hours before coming here to the camp to finish, or vice versa.
So the dilemma is now clear: if it’s true that there’s a COVID outbreak at the FCI, and the same COs that work here *also* work there, then there is a very real and significant risk of COVID spreading from the FCI to the SPC. It would make sense, then, to take every precaution to prevent that.
And yet, I haven’t seen a single officer at the camp wearing a mask at any time. I have no idea whether or not they are masking up across the street. I’d like to optimistically believe that they are. I’d also like to believe that perhaps the COs are getting regularly tested for COVID, or have been vaccinated. I’d like to believe that this job requires vaccination.
But I have a sneaking suspicion I’d be wrong. The majority of the COs are white men from the nearby rural area, and many walk around here openly sporting a “Blue Line” shirt. It doesn’t take a lot of evidence for me to make a few educated guesses about what their political views might be—and the connection between right-wing politics, and anti-vaxxers and COVID-denial, is not a subtle one.
Not only that, but an email newsletter I’m subscribed to quotes a prisoner at the FCI: “there’s at least seven people I know of who are sick, coughing, congestion, headache, fever […] they go to sick call and are told by medical they have a ‘severe respiratory infection’ even though we are pretty sure it’s COVID.” Rumors are that these individuals are not getting tested for COVID despite displaying all the symptoms.
The only way any of us can get COVID is from a CO. None of us have any contact with the outside world. Every new prisoner from the outside gets tested for COVID upon arrival.
The COs should have already been wearing masks when interacting with us, if not getting regularly tested for COVID and receiving up-to-date vaccinations (which I seriously doubt they are).
Rene is a queer Korean journalist, sex worker, political prisoner and beloved comrade. You can find her writing at Autostraddle • Truthout • ThoughtCatalog • Arkansas Public Media • and KUAR.