CORONAVIRUS IN FCI- ALICEVILLE
FCI ALICEVILLE is a relatively new medium security detention facility that houses mostly immigrants and violators from other prisons. I got here in 2017 when they needed “head count” due to the devastating effects of tornados, reconstruction, and relocation of inmates that took place the year prior. FCI Aliceville, located in Alabama, a Southern State next to Florida. Like all prisons in FBOP, we’ve been on lockdown since March of 2020. Besides holding inmates locked in their cells, FCI Aliceville has not taken any meaningful measures to prevent CORONA VIRUS from spreading.
FCI ALICEVILLE is not in compliance with any local Alabama State regulation, Federal guidelines, or CDC recommendations. It has not reduced head count, and the facility is still overcrowded. In addition to overcrowding, it is also short staffed. On many occasions we do not get to come out from our cells because there is no officer; inmates subsequently miss their video visits and phone time, as well as are unable to use the showers. Our officers are currently assigned to two cell blocks, or units, of about 240 inmates. When the officer is on unit, he/she can’t be on the other, leaving inmates entirely unsupervised. In addition, that officer regularly goes in/out from other units, which creates the risk of contamination and entirely defeats the purpose of lockdown. Many prisons are consciously operating below the minimum staffing levels in order to maximize profit margins, so it remains unclear as to whether FCI-Aliceville’s understaffing is therefore intentional. However, with THE CARES ACT and additional funds and grants appropriated by Congress, there is more funding now than ever before to hire additional staff to handle this pandemic, and with the current staggering unemployment rate, there is plenty of labor force to tap into.
New arrivals keep being placed with general population after 14 days in quarantine. Recently, because there were staffing issues and no officers in quarantine area, new arrivals were just let out without screening or completing quarantine. My last bunkmate, T.K., was COVID-19 positive, (asymptomatic). I have previously informed the staff, Unit Team, and Warden of my underlying health condition and potential risk of placing someone COVID-19 positive in the same 6×9 cell with poor ventilation, closed door and 22+ hour daily lockdown. Not only have no measures been taken, but also, I was told I would get a “shot” (disciplinary report) for refusing housing. When you refuse housing, they send you to the SHU (segregation housing unit) and there are more sick people there. There is no way to self-isolate or maintain a 6-feet distance from other inmates or staff members at any time. Officers from the SHU, quarantine, and other units are being constantly rotated, thus causing further risk of contamination as well as violating CDC recommendations.
We do not have proper cleaning supplies and our commissary is constantly out of hygiene items. We do not have other options- we are in FBOP custody. Additionally, we have no jobs and many of the inmates at FCI-Aliceville are indigent and unable to shop for necessities. Prisons are not exactly a place where somebody will come forward and offer you something, especially this one- we are all in the same boat here. We are locked in and entirely dependent on the FBOP. Our food is substandard and malnutricious. We have no clean drinking water and insufficient exposure to sun. Even though we have 1 (one) hour REC (recreation) since around September of 2020, our REC time rarely happens because of the shortage of officers, staffing issues, prison events, holidays and weather. When it does happen, our time frequently gets cut in half. All that leads to weakened immune systems, and when combined with already high stress levels, this makes inmates more susceptible to COVID-19. Most inmates have some chronic or pre-existing health condition, and about 79% of inmates have mental health issues that only exacerbate during the lockdown. That can translate into suicides, aggression, and mental health outbreaks.
Because of lockdown, we do not have access to the law library, and counselors operate on modified schedule. During the lockdown (because we are completely cut off from all resources) the counselors only have more work instead of less. However, instead of assigning someone to help with their work, they are being assigned to other duties and constantly get pulled to do other jobs. Staffing issues affect an inmate’s ability to properly litigate their cases in courts, and courts do not automatically extend the deadlines. Many inmates have missed deadlines as a result, and the few lucky ones who knew how to properly file extensions where they had usually granted them. But extensions do not always work in our favor. We are the ones sitting in prison, on LOCKDOWN. I have seen only one person leave on compassionate release from our unit, when so many are qualified! Our medical records officer, Ms. Hester, is perfectly aware that in times of this crisis, this is a life and death issue for every inmate who requests them. Yet she takes six months to produce the proper medical records that could potentially save lives. Our medical care is substandard. Health care contractors have suspended non COVID-19 related care and our local hospital shut down due to financial insolvency.
A stirring rally to remember New Jersey inmates who died of the corona virus took place in Trenton, Patch.com reported. “More than 450 cars gathered from across the state at the Trenton War Memorial for a “Say Their Names” funeral procession. Bearing photos of diseased loved ones, the vehicles cavalcade served as a grim reminder that social distancing is a near impossible task when you are trapped behind bars”. Who will stand up for or remember inmates in FCI-Aliceville when most are immigrants and have families who can’t travel or enter the United States? Likewise, if deported to their home country, they will pose no risk of re-entry and no threat to society. For humanitarian reasons it would only make sense to deport those eligible who are non-violent, first time offenders, have already served the majority of their sentence, and pose no risk. Ninety five percent (95%) of these women are mothers; they are daughters, sisters and family to someone who needs them now more than ever before. First Step Act (FSA) mandated early deportation, but NONE are being implemented by FBOP, DOJ, Sentencing Courts, Immigration Courts or ICE, even upon numerous motions and requests by the inmates.
Interestingly enough, when inmates are infected and die from COVID-19, courts do not view that as “deliberate indifference” on the part of the detention facility. On June 16, 2020 Miami Metro West Detention Center (MDCRD) reported 592 prisoners, 123 employees tested positive, and one died. In the lawsuit, Swain v. Junior, 961 F. 3d 1276 (11th Cir. 2020), the court stated that if defendants (MDCRD) showed that they “did their best”…”neither the resultant harm of increasing infections nor the impossibility of achieving six-foot social distancing in a jail environment establishes the defendants acted with “subjective recklessness as used in criminal law”, relying on Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834 (1994). In other words, prisons’ non-compliance resulting in death and irreparable harm was justified. Those sort of inhumane conditions of confinement, which are likely to result in death with no consequences, is commensurate to Nazi concentration camps where people were tortured, slaughtered and placed in gas chambers. Locking someone in a 6×9 cell with COVID-19 is no different.
In “Corona virus: A Second Wave of Infection”, Michael D. Cohen, M.D. describes long term damage from COVID-19. He says: “Evidence continues to accumulate that many patients who have recovered from acute COVID-19 infection have suffered long term organ damage…heart muscle damage…brain damage that has lasting effects on memory and other higher functions. Loss of smell and/or taste…persistent lung, liver and kidney damage have also occurred. Others have reported fatigue, “brain fog”, irregular body temperatures, rashes, and insomnia persisting after COVID…PTSD, depression and persistent anxiety, including nightmares, fear of being alone, and fear of going to sleep”. PLN, November 2020. People in prisons are exposed to the risk of highly infectious COVID-19 with no action taken on the part of the prisons and the government and no meaningful measures taken to prevent it at the detention level.
Is this the United States of America? Is this not an infringement of our Eighth Amendment Constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment? If it was decided that “Infringement of Haze’s First Amendment Rights itself constitutes an INJURY” in Haze v. Harrison, 961 F. 3d 654 (4th Cir. 2020), then infringement of the Eighth Amendment should constitute an INJURY. An INJURY should translate into remedy, relief, and injunctions.
Inadequate medical care, inaccessible mental health care, malnutrition, inability to access the law library, and insufficient recreation time are only a few examples of Eighth Amendment violations. In McCray v. Lee, 963 F. 3d 110 (2nd Cir. 2020) it was decided that lack of exercise due to snow in outdoor exercise yard constituted an Eighth Amendment violation. In a suit filed in October 2020 by Raymond Skelton in NJ, deprivation of properly nutritious food is alleged to be an Eighth Amendment violation. In Briggs v. Dunn, 257 F. Supp 3d 1171 (M.D. Ala. June 27, 2017) it was decided that mental health services “simply put…horrendously inadequate” is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and the same decision was arrived at in Head v. Dunn, Case No. 2:20-cv-00132-SMD, U.S. D.C. (N.D. Ala. 2020). “The cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment imposes a DUTY upon prison officials to ensure the inmates receive adequate medical care” Salahuddin v. Goord, 467 F. 3d 263 (2nd Cir. 2006), same in Bardo v. Wright, Case No. 3-17-cv-1430 (JBA) USDC (D.Conn). Mental health care is especially important because many inmates lost their family members and there is no counseling available, and inmates are unable to properly grieve in overcrowded facility and contact their family while on lockdown.
Additionally, in “DOJ Finds Frequent Use of Excessive Force in Alabama Prison” published by David M. Reutter in PLN, November 30th, 2020, it is stated: “The US Department of Justice, DOJ, issued a report that found the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) violates prisoner’s Eighth Amendment rights by frequently using excessive force. The report found overcrowding and understaffing are major contributors to the improper use of force”…”Two examples of guards inappropriately using chemical spray were detailed”. “Guards often fail to report or accurately document the use of force”… “evidence of officers placing inmates to segregation to let injuries heal unobserved and undocumented”. This is all too familiar as on April 7th, 2020 this is exactly what happened in my case. I was pepper sprayed because I asked to open my cell door. Records were falsified and I was thrown into the SHU with injuries for thirty (30) days. Since April of 2020 I was continuously requesting medical records and to this day, they have not been produced by FCI Aliceville. The records of the report as well as DHO records were falsified or conveniently incorrectly recorded. All appeals to the Warden, Regional Director and Central Office were returned untimely, with no due diligence or investigation of any asserted claims and rejected for process without merits determination. This is how FBOP operates- the system is designed for them and is only an illusion of any rights to the inmates. It does not matter who is right because they ALWAYS win.
Most inmates in FCI-Aliceville are immigrants and do not speak or write English. This is the only thing I can do being behind bars. FCI Aliceville is not the only Federal Detention facility. Detainees serving unduly harsh and long sentences are similarly situated in other prisons. This is not a humane or fair way to punish people, and this is happening in America, the land of the free. We are a civilized nation and a leader in Human Rights, a Nation for the People and by the People. Not only do the United State Government, lawmakers, Congress, FBOP, DOJ, and other government agencies must take immediate measures to expedite releases and deportations like it was done by many States, but also prison staff and officials must communicate and be transparent about risk of death, inhumane conditions of confinement, and the public safety concerns it creates. Prisons are part of our community: many people work at prisons and live in nearby surrounding areas. The inmates are being released back into these communities and deported. It is absolutely necessary to address COVID-19 in Federal Prisons and find a solution to safely house, deport and release inmates in the most expeditious way.
Time is of essence: Lives are at Stake and All Lives Matter.
Written by Julia Teryaeva – Reed, an Inmate at FCI Aliceville