We don’t have cleaning wipes, alcohol-based hand sanitizer (it’s contraband), or anything else that the CDC is recommending citizens use to prevent spreading the virus. Toilet paper scarcity is no stranger to us-having more than two rolls in your room at any given time is an infraction-so we became focused on the things we weren’t prepared for, and just how little we each have in our cells for protection. What measures were being taken to safeguard us from the spread of the virus within the crowded prison walls? We knew that on the outside, people were buying everything they could to prepare for disaster, especially toilet paper. Even in the best of times, it's hard to know how our families are doing.Īnd then we started to wonder about our own safety.

Like everyone in the free world, those of us on the inside began to worry about our families, especially our older folks, and their safety in the face of an unknown predator. The nursing home where the national news was saying that so many people were infected was less than 20 miles away from us. As each day passed, the numbers continued to get worse. We discussed how we could make body armor out of magazines and where we would steal the tape to do so.īut before long, we learned from TV not only that the virus had spread throughout the world, but also that the state of Washington had become the United States’s ground zero. We better stock up on food and be ready with a plan of defense.” He laughed. I remember telling him in jest, “This is it, my friend. A good friend of mine and I are huge fans of apocalyptic movies and shows, so we started to shoot the breeze about how a zombie virus had taken hold in China and would soon spread across the globe.

In fact, my fellow prisoners and I were essentially joking about how the world was coming to an end. Like most things, I figured it was far away-everything can feel especially far away when you’re in prison-and would hardly have an effect on me or those around me. Apparently, there had been some sort of an outbreak in China that officials were starting to call the coronavirus.Īt the time, I didn’t pay much attention.

Published in partnership with BuzzFeed News.Ī few weeks ago, I found myself watching the TV news from here in a Washington state prison, while drinking my morning coffee.

Barbed wire fence 7 days to die