Photo by Noah Matteo on Unsplash

While the pandemic is rounding the corner and most people have been vaccinated, these changes don’t affect those of us on the inside. Our state governor lifted the mask mandate in June, but because we are housed in close quarters, we still need to wear a mask.

But I have a question. We don’t leave the facility, only the staff do. Most of the staff here refuse to take the shot, and the laws in Ohio say you can’t make the facility staff get vaccinated, nor can they lose their jobs for not being vaccinated. So my question is: when will my life be worthy of being saved because someone else wants to be a dick?

The prison warden is now talking about instituting a system where inmates who have been vaccinated wear a special color zip tie on their IDs, and vaccinated staff carry special cards. 

Mind you, the governor has lifted all COVID-19 restrictions for the entire state of Ohio. But the warden wants to do his own thing and go against the governor, who is his boss.

It’s a slow process to return to the old normal. What is the old normal in prison? Things change like water and you have to adapt on the fly.

 

 
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. The Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned. The work is lightly edited but has not been otherwise fact-checked.

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Marvin Myers

Marvin Myers is a writer from Columbus, Ohio, who is incarcerated at the Belmont Correctional Facility in Clairsville, Ohio.