finding ray
07 Apr 2020update (11 april 2020)
ray has been found. thanks for supporting the search!
please leave your name and email here if you’re willing to help laura rockman find her son.
the messages below are from my penpal, bj.
4/5/2020
Dear Lawrence,
I hope things are going a lot better for you than they are for me right now.
I see the chaos surrounding the Coronavirus all over the TV and it seems like a horror movie, but recently that horror flick has become a reality for me.
On Wednesday I was talking to my friend Ray and he just seemed a little out of it. He looked flushed and I could tell that something was effecting him, I just didn’t know what. Then Thursday afternoon I get a message from another inmate that Ray was being placed in quarantine here at the facility for showing symptoms of Covid-19. Later that night (Thursday) he was taken to the hospital for his breathing being complicated and needless to say I’ve been freaking out ever since.
I can’t believe this is happening to us. This shit is spreading around the facility like wildfire. So far there has been 70 confirmed cases of Covid-19 here at this facility alone and 3 inmates have died along with 1 officer. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. The prison is completely shut down. Staff have refused to come to work, the kitchen has been compromised tremendously, inmates have refused to work, they’ve given us all masks to wear and it’s mandatory, and things have just been so chaotic.
I talked to Ray’s mom and she freaking out because the prison administration won’t give her any serious info about her son. She said she called the prison 2 nights ago and the officer told her to call back Monday and hung up on her. She called the hospital that they claimed to have sent him to and they say they don’t have a record of him being admitted so we’re both freaking out about that.
Having something like this happen to someone I care so much about is killing me. I’ve been there for him ever since we met and I’ve been able to keep him safe and protected in every situation. But now for this to happen it makes me feel so weak and useless and I’m just so fucking worried about him. His immune system is already compromised due to an IGG deficiency so he’s at a critical disadvantage.
We were in such a good place and things were finally working in our favor and then this shit comes out of nowhere.
The administration here is completely clueless when it comes to handling this disease. Instead of them offering treatment when they suspect that someone is infected they simply isolate you in a cell for 14 days to die slowly. And its not like the cell is separated from the general population. They’re in the same unit with everyone else so you have all the inmates with confirmed cases of Covid-19 coughing and hacking and spreading the disease to inmates that aren’t infected. These cells have bars so there’s no barriers to protect anyone and its placing us all at risk.
Ray’s mother’s name is [redacted] and she’s willing to contact people on the outside to address this situation with Ray and with the way the administration is neglecting their duty to keep us safe and to prevent the spreading of this disease. You have access to so much information out there and I would be so grateful if you could find some organizations, activists, or whoever that she could contact to help address this issue. Her phone number is [redacted] and this is something the 3 of us would really appreciate so please look into it. And there’s no limitation so whoever you think would be willing to help us please give her the info.
I’ve seen people fight, get stabbed, and even die since I’ve been in here. But for the first time I’m actually worried about my safety. The way this stuff is happening there’s no guarantee that anyone will make it home. Everyday 3 or more people are testing positive and they’re running out of space to put them. They tell the officers who are sick to stay home but what about us. We can’t separate ourselves like that. Then you have the guys that won’t even report that they’re sick spreading this shit around because they’re assholes who don’t want to be quarantined so everyone else suffers.
Anyway, please stay safe out there and away from anyone who even looks like they’re going to sneeze, cough, or say too many words that start with k’s, hard c’s, or sp’s. This shit is serious and I can’t stand to have someone else close to me fall victim.
Take care of yourself.
<3 bj
3/30/2020
but anyway, about this covid situation you’re right about it spreading. its getting so bad that the only place to be safe is in your bed. ppl have stopped going to the chow hall to eat because there were several confirmed cases with both kitchen staff and inmates that worked in the kitchen and its no exaggeration that the kitchen is where its really going to hit us bad and the administration knows it which is why they said effective immediately that we can border an additional $50 worth of commissary every 2 weeks just so guys can survive without having to risk going to chow and getting infected. all it takes is for one sick person to sneeze in the food while they’re serving I and there we go. but for ppl like me who don’t have that support system to afford to eat from commissary we have to take the risk every time we go eat. this is like a way to kill off the poor.
its got so bad that they finally passed out mask last night for everyone to wear but they should have done that a long time ago before everyone got sick. they have a bad habit of being reactive instead of proactive and we pay the price for it every time.
like I told you I don’t want to die in here and I can’t afford to get caught up in all this madness. its like a fucking movie in here. this shit seems so unreal and I never thought something like this would actually be up close and personal like this.
anyway, stay safe out there and please take care of yourself.
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