It’s been a long time since I`ve posted, but not for want of desire to do so. I`ve been waging an arduous battle against the Attorney General of Nevada in Federal court to secure a just resolution of my civil suit, and that has been a full-time job (on top of my prison industries job wherein I`m working 16-27 hours a week). I apologize to anyone and everyone who reads this blog because I really enjoy writing these posts and it’s unfair to expect people to continue reading when there’s so much time between posts. So, to anyone still reading: thanks for sticking around.
Today is May 24th, 2020, and I feel compelled to report on the current conditions of confinement at High Desert State Prison, down here near Las Vegas, so the public can know the truth of what’s going on in here—not just the picture the NDOC is trying to paint. There are around 4,000 inmates here at HDSP, and the previous warden (Warden Williams) had locked down the whole prison for months, depriving us of visits with our families, phone calls, yard, and law library. This was at the end of last year, before Coronavirus. When that lockdown was finally lifted, it wasn’t but a few months before we were slammed again.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I`m a vocal advocate of First Amendment rights and transparency in government. When a government uses the Orwellian tactic of double-speak by telling the public one thing but doing the opposite the public’s view, it requires citizens to pull back the curtain and shine a light on the truth. That is what my current lawsuit is about—battling the government corruption and secrecy. And since I have the first-hand view of what’s going on in here, I get to report on it so every inmate can have contact with their loved ones again.
So, HDSP shut down visiting on March 8th, 2020, then locked all of the inmates down on March 18th, 2020. This was under the guise of protecting staff and inmates from Covid-19. For almost a month, we were locked in our cells 24-7, no yard, no tier, no phone calls…nothing but a shower every three days. Meanwhile, Covid-19 ravaged the world and we couldn’t even call our people to make sure they were okay, and let them know we were still alive. After a week or so of that, we could use our 20-minutes of shower time every three days to do whatever we wanted. I took to skipping the shower in favor of calling my wife and family.
On April 13th, they started allowing us out of our cells for one hour a day. Still no yard or law library or visiting—but at least we could call everyday. During the first month or so, though, guards and other prison staff were not wearing “PPE”(i.e. masks)—some were, but most weren’t. They were conducting temperature checks for everyone coming in, but mostly it’s been reliant on self-reporting by guards on their Coronavirus contacts outside. Sometime last month at HDSP administration started making masks mandatory for all staff, but their main containment strategy continued to be keeping us all locked in our cells. However, the guards have had inmate workers (“porters”) running around the units, serving food to all the locked down inmates, but the porters don’t wear any masks, and guards still wear their masks when they want (not all the time). Starting on April 26th, they started giving us one hour of yard…a week. Yeah, one hour a week.
Meanwhile, they continued running canteen and the package program because profits off of selling shit to inmates is more important than saving lives. Now they’ve been keeping us locked down and completely separated from our loved ones under the guise of maintaining social distancing and quarantine, right? Well, on April 29th, 2020, they started sending all of us prison industry workers back to work. About 130 workers from two units, all packed together on a basketball court before being sent up to a warehouse and packed together in there to make decks of cards to make money for HDSP and NDOC. There is no protective equipment (no masks) for us, and no social distancing. Yet after an eight to nine hour shift, we are locked back in our cells again. For a couple weeks I was working three nine-hour days a week (well, two nine-hour days and an eight-hour day), but last week it switched back to two days a week.
Last week HDSP reported its first case of an inmate having Covid-19, after four guards had already tested positive. A laundry worker told me that the first inmate case actually happened a month ago, but they were just now reporting it. I believe that. There’s no testing going on in here, for either inmates or guards. Supposedly the inmate who tested positive is in intake, and all the guards who were in contact with him were sent home. Here’s the thing, though: all the air systems in all these units are these vent systems that share circulated air, sucking air out of every cell and then pushing that air back into all the cells. Once Coronavirus is in here, there’s no stopping its spread. Yet they locked us down again. This time, though, we get only one ten-minute shower every three days, and we are not allowed to make any phone calls. Meanwhile, other prisons in Nevada (like Lovelock) are still open and operating normally (except for transfers and visits, both of which are shut down statewide). They have had us locked down for over two months now, under the guise of safety, yet they send us to work to make money for the State off of the sweat of our slave labor. NDOC publicly says they are giving us two free phone calls a week to give us contact with our families, but today the guard tells me I can’t use the phone because of orders from Lt. Portillo. I can only take a 10-minute shower, then go back to my cell. What use is the free phone call if you can’t use the phone?
So, that’s where we are at in here: locked down without any visits, phone calls, yard, or law library. Yet packed into a warehouse like sardines to make money for NDOC and the State of Nevada. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? This shit is taking a toll on all of us—not just in here, but out there as well. Imagine, though, not being able to go outside at all, just locked in a cell with one other person 24/7 until they tell you to go to work in a warehouse with 130 other people without masks or social distancing. Then the people controlling your life let Coronavirus into where you’re at while keeping you completely cut off from your loved ones. If (when) Covid-19 spreads in here, a lot of people are going to die without having seen their loved ones for months. I, for one, would risk my own life to be with my family, though I would never risk their lives or anyone else’s lives.
If anyone out there has any loved ones in prison, press the government in Nevada to let us see our families again, to let us call them. Write and call the Governor and the Director of Prisons and tell them to quit cutting all inmates off from their families under the guise of protection from Covid-19 when they are still forcing hundreds of inmates to work in close quarters together and providing no protective measures while simultaneously not properly screening inmates coming into HDSP from county jail.
Well, that’s my report and my cry for help. At the least, I can shine a light on the conditions in here and how they differ from what is being publicly proclaimed by government officials. Stay safe out there, people. I really hope a cure for Covid-19 is close, and everyone can get back to normal again soon. I`ll try to post more often, too.
5/24/2020 6:4o p.m. Update: Thee are 3 confirmed inmates infected with Coronavirus in Unit 1, and Unit 1 is on full quarantine. Forty-seven staff have been ordered to self-quarantine, 40 of them guards, and we will be locked down indefinitely. They are going to give two masks to each inmate. As of right now, porters are serving trays without masks. Coronavirus with your dinner, sir? Why, yes, thank you. SMDH. How long until a complete breakdown in operations at HDSP? I`ll keep you posted.
5/27/2020 Update: Masks have been distributed to all inmates and all inmates will be tested for Covid-19 starting Monday, June 1st, 2020.
a life without parole 