COVID-19 & IDOC #2: Punishment for Social Distancing, Lack of Transparency, Rebellion Spreading
The COVID-19 pandemic has now reached Indiana prisons and jails and is spreading rapidly. In a week, the number of confirmed and reported infections in Indiana prisons increased from a total of 5 incarcerated people in two facilities, to 23 incarcerated people in 6 prisons, and 33 staffers. As of today, April 13, the number of staffers with the disease has reached 48, and the number of people in IDOC custody who have tested positive has reached 27. IDOC is barely testing the people in it’s custody, however, so the rate of infection is likely much higher than they’re reporting, and they won’t say which facilities staff who’ve tested positive work in.
As we saw the crisis unfolding around us, prior to the first reports of infection in Indiana prisons, people concerned with the well-being of incarcerated people have been calling, loudly and clearly, for mass release from prisons and jails. In Indiana, a coalition of prisoner advocates released, and presented to all three branches of government, a plan for the safe and orderly release of over 6000 people incarcerated in the prison system, who have less than a year left to serve to complete their sentences. There are about 27,000 people incarcerated in Indiana prisons, and releasing around 6000 would significantly increase the possibility of effective social distancing among the remaining prison population. The proposal was rejected out of hand: no branch of the Indiana government saw a reason to prevent their prisons from becoming death camps. The ACLU has also filed a petition with the Indiana Supreme Court for some people to be released from prison, which disgraced and despised Attorney General Hill responded to by ignoring everything going on around him. Instead of concerning himself with the fact that many people are about to die at his hands, he argued the ACLU petition should be dismissed because according to the Indiana Constitution, the power to release people from prisons resides with the executive, rather than the judiciary. Never mind that at this very moment the Indiana prison system is preparing to murder hundreds, if not thousands, of people by intentionally failing to prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Absurdly, the Indiana Supreme Court found that the IDOC ‘s policies for dealing with COVID-19 are consistent with CDC guidelines, and denied the ACLU’s petition.
COVID-19 is highly contagious, and in many cases most contagious prior to the emergence of symptoms. The pre-symptomatic period of infection can last around 2 weeks. Without effective social distancing and/or widespread testing, there is no way to contain the spread of the virus. In prison, social distancing is not only impossible, but prohibited. The IDOC’s plan for dealing with COVID-19 completely ignores how the disease spreads among people who do not show symptoms, and will be incapable of preventing infection on an enormous scale. It is impossible to slow the spread in prisons without mass release. IDOC was already incapable of preventing drug trafficking inside it’s facilities, illegally used solitary confinement to deal with dissent and mental health issues, and is already severely short on correctly trained staff, so there is no chance the department would be able to appropriately manage a pandemic, if it were even possible to do so, without mass release.
IDOC Watch is organizing with a grassroots coalition of groups [1] around the state to call for mass release from Indiana prisons before the crisis worsens and we start seeing lots of deaths in the prisons. We currently have a Phone & Email Zap campaign going on, and we’re preparing for caravan demonstrations like those that have been organized around the country calling for #MassReleaseNow. We demand that the Governor use clemency powers to release everyone with less than a year left on their sentence (~6,000 people), use stimulus funds for law enforcement to house those released in hotels, ensure free medical care and access to masks and cleaning supplies, and allow free video visits and communication throughout the duration of the pandemic. We endorse the recommendations of the emergency plan drafted by formerly incarcerated individuals and advocates.
We demand that Marion County judges release incarcerated people who are elderly or who have underlying health conditions, with a goal reduction in the jail population to a level that allows for proper social distancing. We demand that the Marion County Sheriff stop honoring ICE holds, ensure free medical care and access to masks and cleaning supplies, and provide free video visits and communication throughout the duration of the pandemic.
It is estimated that 100,000 US prisoners will die due to COVID-19. The risk, and severity of infection are much higher in prisons than elsewhere, because the severity of COVID-19 increases according to the intensity of exposure. [2] In a prison, jail, or detention center, the intensity of exposure is inevitably going to be much worse than outside, because movement is restricted and space is cramped. So if someone in the cell next to you has it, or in the same open unit as you, it is going to spread from person to person, until nearly everyone has it - before symptoms are detectable in anyone!
What follows are reports from several Indiana prisons and jails about the conditions that incarcerated people are being subjected to during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is clear to us that IDOC is not being honest about the situation with COVID-19 in it’s prisons.
Plainfield CF (IYC), where there are reports that at least 26 people have the virus, and possibly multiple deaths. Plainfield is a hospital facility, and many people incarcerated there have compromised immune systems.
The audio below is from someone incarcerated at Plainfield CF, who wished to remain anonymous in order to avoid retaliation. He has not received a report for bad conduct in 11 years. This past week, he was warned by others not to go into a certain area of the prison because there were sick people there. When he refused to go there, staff placed him in a cage covered in blood and vomit for 6 hours, before moving him to solitary confinement. His shoes, sheets, and other property were not returned to him when he was moved.
He reports that the staff at Plainfield is not being professional. They unnecessarily moved the mental health unit, causing the virus to spread. Unit Team Manager Morgan Feaney, in particular, has acted unprofessionally and vindictively, and deliberately put him in harm’s way.
The person who provided that report is now sick. He still has not received his property that went missing when he was transferred to solitary.
The report above corresponds with other reports we’ve received from Plainfield CF. Here is what one woman whose fiance is incarcerated at Plainfield told IDOC Watch, on April 8:
My fiance is at Plainfield Correctional Facility he works for ICI [Indiana Correctional Industries] in the warehouse. They have not been giving them protective gear and if they miss more than 3 days of work they will give them a Class B major write-up. He is on Chronic Care and has a heart condition and high blood pressure, and arthritis he's very vulnerable and he's been trying to take off work a few days here and there.
This morning when he went in he was telling the guys that they're not giving them protective gear and the correctional officer told him that he was going to write him up for interfering with his duties because he told the guys that they're trying to kill them and they're going to die if they keep going to work unprotected. So my loved one left and went back to the dorm. They have over a hundred and sixty inmates from South dorm and East dorm working in the warehouse picking items for the commissary and putting them in a box to be packaged up to be sent out to all the Correctional facilities throughout Indiana.
When they returned from work around 3 p.m. the working inmates informed him that one person passed out and five others were sick. They quarantine all of East dorm. They put 30 guys in a room to change clothes at the same time to go to work in the warehouse and the same thing when they returned to change clothing. None of those men had their temperatures checked prior to having them return back to South dorm or East dorm. I was just informed that the HazMat team has been down there and East dorm they confirmed One inmate dead which was confirmed by a woman who is in a support group for those incarcerated and her husband is in East dorm and this was confirmed by a correctional officer as her husband saw an ambulance come in and the HazMat team take the body out.
Now instead of them worrying about writing up my fiance they have to write a death certificate out. This could have all been prevented. We have been screaming to get the protective gear. All they did today was give them a mask after my loved one left the job this morning and they put those masks in a little paper bag and put all of them in a cardboard box with their names on them so they can reuse them the next day.
The men in South dorm are the most vulnerable; they are older & have diabetes, many of them are on dialysis, and have high blood pressure and other issues.
They did not take us serious but the governor got up there and prided himself on using slave labor at Miami to make protective gear and gowns for our hospitals but those guys that are sewing that stuff are not wearing masks! They just started to hand them out at Westville yesterday and Plainfield today. Even when you are on an airplane they teach you to put the oxygen mask on yourself before you can save anyone else!
What good is a mask going to do a dead body?
Pendleton Correctional Facility
We received the following message on April 8 from someone whose husband is incarcerated at Pendleton CF and is experiencing retaliation for attempting to practice social distancing. Again, names are omitted in order to protect from retaliation:
MY HUSBAND is on the suicide unit of the facility! He's been standing his ground of the 6 feet rule since no other way of being protected from the covid-19 was offered. NO SANITIZER, NO MASKS, NO GLOVES & NO WORD OF EARLY RELEASES ON THEM!!! He was in a program that required [him] to attend group sessions ( no masks or 6 ft rule was enforced)They have stripped him of EVERYTHING. They cuffed him to call me for 2 mins to tell me he loves me.Then again last night! They haven't given him his meds. They took our video visit away! My husband is scared, my husband is terrified, my husband is losing his mind. My husband was doing so well now he has slipped through the cracks😭PTSD from things in his childhood on top of him being in prison then this covid 19 crisis has turned the man who is my husband into someone i don't even know right now.JUST SEND HIM HOME TO ME PLEASE❗❗❗ 😭 but my vows was for better or worse & in sickness & in health. Right now we just going through the worse & sickness. We will make it! ❗❗❗The prison system is BROKEN! so inhumane❗❗❗
Today we heard from the same person that her loved one hadn’t been allowed to shower in 5 days. The lack of masks and social distancing protocols at Pendleton was also reported to us by another person who has a loved one incarcerated there, who informed us that there are two cases of COVID-19 at that facility. Those cases have not been reported by IDOC, which as of two days ago had not reported any testing at Pendleton CF or 14 other facilities around the state.
Westville Correctional Facility
IDOC has confirmed 4 cases of COVID-19 at Westville CF, though there are rumors of many more. Our sources there have informed us that they are using the Control Unit, which is a solitary confinement unit that houses many inmates that experience severe mental illness, to quarantine people infected with COVID-19. On Tuesday, April 7, people incarcerated in B-House at Westville protested the conditions they are being subjected to by taking a guard hostage and rioting. From what we’ve gathered, the principal concern of the demonstrators was that programs which provide time-cuts, allowing people to reduce their prison sentences, were being cut or altered so less people would have access to them, meaning people will be incarcerated for longer than they expected. Apparently dogs were brought in to put down the riot.
There have also been many reports of National Guard presence at Westville CF, for reasons that remain unclear to us.
New Castle Correctional Facility
We have been hearing reports that ordering from the commissary has been eliminated completely at New Castle CF for the time being, but that the National Guard is going to be brought in to distribute commissary orders soon.
Indiana State Prison
At Indiana State Prison, a guard named Dave Smith’s girlfriend tested positive and then he started showing symptoms and after coughing and sneezing on people they made him leave. Sgt. Gordon was sent home with a fever, and another 2 guards have tested positive, according to reports we’ve received. As noted above, due to the way COVID-19 spreads, the fact that these guards weren’t tested until they started to show symptoms means that they likely spread the disease throughout the areas of the facility where they work before they were tested and sent home.
Miami Correctional Facility
At Miami CF, incarcerated people have been threatened with disciplinary action for wearing masks to protect themselves, even as people incarcerated there are making masks that are being sent elsewhere. No social distancing measures are being implemented, and incarcerated people are being asked to form cleaning crews, without compensation, to maintain the sanitation of the facility. Please listen to the audio report below from Angaza Iman Bahar, who has been threatened with disciplinary action for wearing a mask to protect himself and went on a hunger strike to protest the conditions people are being subjected to at Miami CF.
Wabash Valley Correctional Facility
IDOC Watch has been receiving reports from the SHU (Secure Housing Unit, which is a solitary confinement unit) at Wabash Valley CF that there are cases of COVID-19 in the facility and the SHU is being used for quarantine. To date, IDOC has not confirmed any cases or testing there, but all gym recreation was shut down on April 9, and face masks were distributed on April 7. According to our source there, the staff and administration “are acting like covid-19 has hit the general population.” Our source also told us that “the slaves are revolting,” because there was a disturbance on the right side of G-House in which the people incarcerated there refused to lock-in to their cells when ordered to by guards. That unit is now on lockdown. Our source said that people are very much on edge due to concerns about the virus.
County Jails
Please see the reports we’ve published recently on conditions in Marion County Jail 2 and the Knox County Jail. Some counties have begun to release people to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but in other counties, like Marion and Knox, local jails are needlessly holding many people in custody, recklessly putting them in danger of infection.
The Riots Will Continue
In all likelihood, the situation in Indiana prisons and jails is only going to get more dire as the virus spreads. Worsening conditions and fear of the virus will cause more uprisings, as has already been seen around the country in places like Monroe Corrections Complex in Washington State and Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas. We will keep fighting for mass release!
[1] Indy10 Black Lives Matter, Indianapolis Showing Up for Racial Justice, Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance, Black Lives Matter South Bend, Michiana Autonomous Defense Collective, Party For Socialism and Liberation - Indianapolis, ANSWER Indiana, For the People - Bloomington, Black Lives Matter NWI-Gary, Central Indiana DSA, Evansville Letters to Prisoners, Summit City Anti-Fascist Action, The Other Victims’ Advocacy, and the Indiana Chapter of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party.
[2] Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, “When Mass Incarceration Becomes Mass Murder,” <https://medium.com/@TarenSK/when-mass-incarceration-becomes-mass-murder-e089e852d61e>.