Earlier today we posted the message that Jeff Norman sent out to the incarcerated on 3/24/21 https://www.moprisonreform.org/2021/03/vaccine-letter-from-jeff-norman.html encouraging the incarcerated to get the vaccine. Mr. Norman also stated that visits would be reinstated once 70% of the incarcerated have gotten the vaccine. Here’s a message from an incarcerated man regarding the vaccine and this letter from Mr. Norman.
“We are not given ANY medical treatment for Post Acute COVID-19 Symptoms. And we aren’t given ANY mental health help for dealing with those symptoms, or any of the trauma this is creating for us and our families.
Also, the department sent us an email yesterday that said if 70% of the prisoners at the prison get vaccinated, we will get visits. See below in quotation marks.
“The department plans to resume visits with friends and family when approximately 70% of the resident population of each facility has been vaccinated against COVID-19, significantly reducing the risk of future outbreaks.
Its everyones responsibility.
Including yours. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself, your peers and your family.
Its the fastest, easiest way to get back to normal.
The pandemic wont be over until the virus stops spreading. The more people get vaccinated, the sooner we all can get back to doing things that make our lives better.”
The majority of staff are refusing to get the vaccine shot. From the beginning, it was, has been, and will be, STAFF who brought, and bring COVID-19 into the prisons and spread it to us, each other, and the community. So, why is it the Department is not making it a requirement for STAFF to get vaccinated in order to work here????? The SAFEST and best way to protect us, you, and everyone, is for staff to get vaccinated. Staff getting vaccinated is the ONLY way to significantly reduce the risk of future outbreaks, but the department is completely against it. That is the definition of, “Deliberate Indifference.” They literally send us an email saying it’s everybody’s repsonsibility, but staff. Again, the legal term for that, is “Deliberate Indifference.” And by the way, the Department still doesn’t enforce staff to wear masks, and there is no such thing as social distancing here–it’s too crowded. They just spent weeks, transferring bus loads of inmates from SECC to here. Then with the black mold at PCC and the asbestos at FCC, where are they going to put everyone? Just pile us on top of each other with a bunch of staff who refuse to get vaccinated or wear masks, and with no medical or mental health care. That’s their plan. But wouldn’t it make more sense for the department to start releasing people who are within a year of being parole eligible–especially if they are in the high-risk COVID-19 category? I’m parole eligible on June 15th, 2021. That is less than 3 months from now, yet there is absolutely no talk of releasing me on that day. Does that make any sense to you?
For the record, I don’t blame staff for not wanting to get the vaccine shot. I don’t want it either. But with a job where it is the department’s and staff’s RESPONSIBILITY to keep us not only safe, but protected from an infectious disease, it should be mandatory for staff to be vaccinated in order to work here and interact with human beings.
The other thing everyone needs to know is, they have teachers coming in here for school, they have chaplain coming in for programs, etc. How is it the department can justify allowing all these other people coming into the prison, but not our families? There is no vaccination percentage requirement for all these other people coming in and out of the prison, who can just as easily spread COVID-19 to us, yet there is a bs requirement for the most important and healthiest connection and relationship—-the one with our families and loved ones. And that’s more “deliberate indifference” and “prison officials not protecting us from an infectious disease”—which is another legal right.
You don’t have to read between the lines. The department is boldly putting it right in your face, that they Do Not Care about you, us, or the effects their victimizing has on all of us. They don’t care about more outbreaks in here, which turns into more outbreaks out there. They are showing it, by doing the exact opposite of what it takes to keep everyone safe and healthy.
Maybe keeping COVID-19 going is good for the department’s business? Either way, what they are doing is still a crime and a violation of yours and our constitutional rights”
