The Feds’ answer to everything: Lockdown

Isolation is becoming standard operating procedure in federal prisons

I paced the floor this morning, thinking. (I’m alone in my cell 24 hours a day, so have only my thoughts to occupy me — so much so that I’ve grown tired of thinking.) Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed rays of sun beaming through my window. Instinctively, I rushed over and jammed my face into the small sliver of space between the metal bars that divide my window. I haven’t been outside since March, besides getting on and off a bus in transit here. It felt so good! It was like I intuitively understood that I had better get me some sun NOW, because it would be a while before I am able to go outside and soak in the sun’s rays.

Sadly, this is the state of the feds (Bureau of Prisons) during COVID-19. We are now almost a year into this pandemic and its only way of dealing with it seems to be “lockdown.” There’s no outside rec. No work (besides “essential” jobs like food servers and shower cleaners). No programming. No school. No religious services. No mental health services, even for inmates who are supposed to see a psychiatric specialist weekly. No visits, including lawyers. No nothing. We are fed in our cells. We work out in our cells. For the most part, we bathe in our cells. We watch TV from our cells. Twenty-four hours a day, we’re left in our cells to stew, suffer, wither…