Alexander Lacks.
Note: Osborn Correctional Institution is on lockdown after 105 asymptomatic inmates tested positive for Covid-19. An inmate there wrote the following.
(Opinion) I’m at the Osborn Correctional Institution. My story begins on April 20, well after the prison knew about the seriousness of the coronavirus.
I was housed in the B‑41 working unit. Even though all religious programs and visits were cancelled, the facility was not practicing safe distancing. We were still having recreation, where at any given time 30 to 35 inmates were out together. People were working their third shift in the factory with other units. People were in and out of the unit at all times.
On April 20, I started to feel sick. That morning I was taken from my floor, because I was freezing with a very high temperature. I was taken to the medical team and placed in punitive segregation, where the medical staff comes to see you twice a day to take your vitals. It’s like you’re being punished for them getting you sick. The correctional officers are scared and don’t want to be bothered with you.
Two days later, I tested positive for Covid-19.
The next day, on April 24, I was moved to the maximum security Northern Correctional Institution, which holds death row inmates and the baddest inmates in Connecticut. They have created a medical unit there for anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus.
Let me say that it’s the worst experience for someone who has something that can possibly take your life. You are placed in a cell where the air is always blowing so hard that you are always cold. This is why inmates are afraid to say anything when they are feeling unwell.
The medical staff comes in the morning and evening to take your vitals. The 16 days that I spent in quarantine, no one ever came through to check on my mental state. The state has mental health workers everywhere doing nothing. I asked for a pen and paper for two weeks. Nothing. No one can use the phone to speak to their loved ones.
I hear the Department of Correction commissioner speaking on TV about what he is trying to do for inmates who are close to going home. I guarantee you this man has not toured any facility in Connecticut since the outbreak. So how can he relate to what is going on?
I was sentenced to 35 years in 1994. I’ve been incarcerated for 26 years. I was not sentenced to death. I’ve paid my debt to society. I have a family that loves me and, yes, places to stay upon my release.
What I went through with this virus, I pray I don’t have to go through again, because I may not make it this time. We have staff looking at us as though testing positive is our fault. We have no contact with the outside world, so one of them has to have brought the virus in.
I want my story to be told, because it is wrong to be punished for something we have no control over. I know a couple of the brothers that passed away (alone). I feel for their families. No one should have to go through unnecessary suffering.
Alexander Lacks was convicted of a felony charge in connection with aiding in a 1994 murder in New Haven.
State Department of Correction spokesperson Andrius Banevicius offered this response to the above article: “To date, 434 offenders (including Mr. Lacks) of the approximately 530 who contracted the novel coronavirus have recovered, thanks in no small part to the dedication of the Department of Correction’s healthcare professionals.”
On Friday the state put Osborn on lockdown after 105 asymptomatic inmates tested positive for Covid-19. Read a press release about that here.
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