Our Pandemic

Our Pandemic

Covid-19
Pandemic
Family
Prison

"The pandemic has changed a lot of things but won't change human nature."

Craig A. Sorrell

Inside Books Project Archive

Texas After Violence Project

11 July 2020

public -- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

document

English

testimony

[Page 1]
IBP/TAVP, 7-11-20
I’ve decided to write to you and share with you guys my experience being in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality o a person with limited options in the face of a potential killer that you can’t even see.
First of all I would like to say hello to you all. My name is Craig A. Sorrell, I am 39 years old, an African-American, from San Antonio, Tx, and currently incarcerated at the McConnell Unit in Beeville, Tx.
It would be easy for me to complain and c̶r̶i̶t̶i̶c̶i̶s̶ critique everything that has been done wrong by the administration during these crazy times but that would be wrong of me to do so. Could things be done better? Yes. But the fact of the matter is none of us have ever been through anything like this before. We are all learning and adjusting to this crisis together. We are all humans and we all are under threat by this virus. Some of what I say may come off as a complaint but I am just going to tell it like it is.
In the beginning, to us (inmates), this whole pandemic just seemed like an outside problem. Washington state was just so far away that there was no way Texas would have to worry. Besides, in order for us to get it the guards would have to have it but they would be to sick to come back to work. That’s what we thought. That’s what I thought. Everything was going normal until a saturday morning in March.
Here in prison I work in the garment factory and what we do here is make the inmate uniforms. Our work days are Monday-Thursday. So imagine my surprise at being [Page 2] called in to work at 5a.m on a saturday. I thought that it was a mistake but it turned out not to be. We had been tasked with making mask for the inmate population. All of the sudden things got real. Guards started coming to work wearing mask and soon after that so were we.
I put my all into making those mask because it felt as if I was doing my part, you know? I was in the fight. 7-days a week 12hrs a day you could find me at a sewing machine, along with 50 others, making mask. The whole time the virus is getting closer to us. Now the stress factor is in play because the ones we love are in danger. The death toll is climbing and reality sets in. You start to look around you and wonder, who’s gonna get it? Which one of you will get it first? No one voices their thoughts because we want to keep the narrative and that’s make one mask save one life. In 3 months we made 250,000 mask. Not bad for 51 inmates.
Out in the world it’s easy to stay away from people who you don’t want to be around. In here it’s not so simple. People are here because they couldn’t or wouldn’t follow the rules in society and in here is no different. When a guard yells “6 feet” some people move closer to the person the guard is telling them to back away from. Then you have a cell-mate and it’s all but impossible to be 6 feet away from your cellie in your cell.
You also have guards who get sick and are determind to infect as many inmates as possible. They will come in without their mask on coughing in the air, touching all the doors and [Page 3] things of that nature. They know that if you get one sick it will spread like a wild fire. You also have inmates that will do the same thing. They could feel all of the symptoms but they won’t get checked out because they don’t want to get quarantined. I know that this happens in the “free world” as well but it’s more noticeable in here because we are always close to each other.
For the most part we do what we can to stay healthy. Most guys just want to make it home to their families. Some of us have lost loved ones to the corona virus and it’s pretty tough to go through that. You hate that you couldn’t be there for them and that if you were there it was nothing you could’ve done about it anyways. We all know that our chances of contracting the virus is very high. Like most of you we just try to stay vigilant and do our part.
This is all new to everyone. We have to help one another and move forward. Learn from past mistakes and share positive outcomes with others. We go through alot by just being in prison but resolve is everything. We will make it through this together. We are human. We will adapt and move forward.
Thank you for allowing me to share with you guys. The virus is real, it is here on this unit, and it is causing pain. The power will always remain in the hands of the people. Keep safe.

Your Friend,
Craig A Sorrell [name Craig A Sorrell in cursive signature]