Prisoners housed in a section of San Quentin State Prison that used to function as a reception center have been told that they will be relocated, so it can be used again to receive people from county jails.
In a meeting called last night, porters and prisoner representatives in the Badger unit were told that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has asked for the roughly 250-cell unit to be emptied. As a representative for those of us, who are racially categorized as Asian/Other, I attended the meeting.
The announcement is causing much uncertainty and anxiety amid the pandemic, and many questions remain unanswered.
San Quentin had one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks last summer after prisoners with the virus were transferred here. In ensuing months, more than 2,200 of its roughly 3,300 residents were infected, and 28 prisoners died, according to a report by the California Office of the Inspector General. I was among them.
One of the biggest concerns in my mind is how they’re going to house us. Last night, officials told us that we would be moved to single cells in the Alpine unit, which would be all right because everything should pretty much be the same. But this morning, they told us to find someone we’re comfortable celling with, or they would find someone for us.
That could create another health problem because currently, there are men, who have completed their vaccinations, men who are waiting for their second shot this week, and men, like me, who haven’t even gotten their first. A few months ago, the administration had safety rules about who could cell with who. For example, a prisoner who has never tested positive for COVID-19 could only be celled up with someone, who was in the positive-resolved category, meaning that they had contracted and recovered from the virus. We haven’t received any information about whether such considerations would be incorporated in this move.
The decision to choose your own cellie is complicated. If you choose a cellie, there is an unspoken agreement that you have to compromise and tolerate each other. If someone is chosen for you, you can stay out of each other’s way. The downside of the latter is that you might end up with a cellie you can’t trust. I wouldn’t feel comfortable using the phone if I’m stuck with someone else, listening to every word. You might also leave for the yard only to come back and find that a candy bar or your coffee is missing.
I chose to be housed in the Badger unit until now because I could be in a single cell away from the others in an environment that is otherwise impossible to social distance. I also liked that they had phones on wheels, so I could safely and privately make calls.
I’m rolling the dice on this move by not choosing a cellmate in the hopes that we will have a chance at a single cell if there are any remaining.
I’ll report more when I know more.
(Reported by Joe Garcia via telephone; Written by Yukari Kane)
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Here are our ground rules:
- You must credit Prison Journalism Project. In the byline, we prefer “[Author Name], Prison Journalism Project.” At the top of the text of your story, please include a line that says: “This story was originally published by Prison Journalism Project” and include a link to the article.
- No republishing of photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No editing the content, including the headline, except to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style. For example, changing, “today” to “last week,” or San Quentin to San Quentin, California. You can also make minor revisions for style or headline size, and you can trim stories for space. You must also retain all original hyperlinks, including links to the Prison Journalism Project newsletters.
- No translation of our stories into another language without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No selling ads against our stories, but you can publish it on a page with ads that you’ve already sold.
- No reselling or syndicating our stories, including on platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. You also can’t republish our work automatically or all at once. Please select them individually.
- No scraping our website or using our stories to populate websites designed to improve search rankings or gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
- Any site our stories appear on must have a prominent and effective way to contact you.
- If we send you a request to remove our story, you must do so immediately.
- If you share republished stories on social media, please tag Prison Journalism Project. We have official accounts on Twitter (@prisonjourn), Facebook (@prisonjournalism), Instagram (@prisonjournalism) and Linked In.
- Let us know when you share the story. Send us a note, so we can keep track.