Stacy Hakes is several months away from being criminal on his expected release date after more than six years when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March.
While COVID-19 was heading to Arizona and state prisons, some inmates have been terrified, Hakes said.
“For me, it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever noticed because I only noticed what on TV. I knew I had pre-existing conditions . . . so I think, if I have that, I’ll die, ” said Hakes.
After inmates began to test positive in their Tucson unit, Hakes said he only “closed” Whetstone’s unit because inmates had asked for it, meaning inmates had to remain in their housing spaces and yet could move. Hakes temporarily saw that the other inmates were no longer active.
“You start to see part of the capsule or part of your lie as you run in bed with your face covered, you know something’s going on,” Hakes told The Arizona Republic.
According to Corrections Decomposer, Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation spokesman Bill Lamoreaux, Whetstone inmates were blocked, but said they were being separated as a component of the decomposition strategy to mitigate COVID-19.
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Soon after, tests would verify that more than 500 inmates of the Whetstone unit at the Arizona State Correctional Complex in Tucson tested FOR COVID-19 in early August, the largest virus outbreak of all in Arizona prisons. Cases were shot in the state and Governor Doug Ducey announced new closing orders in June.
In several interviews with Hakes and the families of other inmates, the Republic has reconstructed a whole chronology of how Whetstone point 0 of COVID-19, which claimed the lives of at least 10 inmates and set fire to some 1,000 inmates in Tucson prisons in October. . 30, according to the department’s COVID-19 board.
Hakes, 36, described himself as “one more guy” of Lake Havasu who made mistakes and “ended up spending some time in crime. “Hakes was sentenced to criminal for drug-related offences, according to the knowledge of the department’s inmates.
But before prison, Hakes diagnosed him with pulmonary hypertension, a type of upper blood pressure that affects the arteries of the lungs and heart. Merlu also contracted hepatitis C in his first year there.
Hakes eventually moved to Tucson because of his fitness after saying that his physical care in the criminal had diminished. After a few days in Whetstone’s unit, Hakes said a man was discovered dead in the shower.
This was Hakes’ first impression of Whetstone, which is one of nine sets that have a total space of approximately 4,800 people in Tucson State Prison. Hakes described the Whetstone unit as a loop of about a mile with management and visits in a ‘turn’ and accommodation in a ‘straight line’.
The component of the court that is inmate is where the inmates live or work, he said.
For 30 or 40 prisoners, one officer said Hakes. Lamoreaux did not answer La République’s questions about the proportion of prisoners per officer.
In the house, the hake approached a “group” of 130 inmates. He had a small dice four feet to six feet for him, “but I was beside everyone. I had no area at all,” Hakes said.
Approximately 80 other people in the capsule lived in buckets, while the rest lived in bunk beds, he said.
Dice only provide enough area for “a user to lie down” and place all their non-public belongings underneath. Directly on every aspect of the dice is the user, he says.
“It’s a lifestyle I’ve tried so hard to get rid of, but it’s nothing. It’s a lifestyle, that’s all,” he said.
The Whetstone unit is for army barracks or bedroom-style environments and the unit has no cells, according to Lamoreaux. It is a minimum detention unit and the lowest detention unit in the criminal system.
As the number of cases shown of COVID-19 increased across the state, the branch announced its goal of suspending visits, giving up a $4 percentage for flu-like physical care or bloodless symptoms, preventing internal movements of the inmates’ regime, very well blank all amenities each week, and ensuring “solid soap availability. Arrange paper towels, hygiene parts and “bleaching products” for inmates and staff.
The announcement came after the lawyers tensioned and a federal ruling to respond to accusations that the branch did not have a plan in place.
But according to Hakes, Whetstone inmates earned a 15 cent bar of soap for “indigent” made with red meat fats once a month.
“Would you say it would be fair to kill any kind of bacteria?No, not at all, ” he said.
Prison officials said inmates are given non-public soap that is replaced every time inmates request it, but did not say whether red meat fat soap or extra soap. had been distributed to address coVID considerations.
“Cleaning materials are still plentiful and can be taken as a component of the rigorous and uninterrupted cleaning program in each complex,” Lamoreaux said in an email. surfaces, chairs, training equipment, faucets, railings, floors and more. “
Detainees received other pieces of hygiene, such as hand sanitizers or masks, Hakes said.
Once the branch suspended the visits, Hakes said that “that’s when it started to be real. “Then the inmates were no longer allowed to leave court to work, Hakes said.
According to Lamoreaux, all workers entering Arizona prison complexes go through the required temperature and symptom checks at the facility. In March, the branch said it would require all workers entering Arizona’s criminal complexes to “go through infectious disease symptom control,” adding a variety of fitness issues.
But the criminal did check the temperature of civilian personnel who would leave and return to work with the criminal, Hakes said. The ministry said when it started.
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As an additional measure, all members of the criminal complex must wear a cloth mask from June 15, and until July 2, all inmates received a mask, Lamoreaux said.
“We asked the officials if they could put on the masks, and they’d laugh at us and tell us we were exaggerating,” Hakes said.
The number of positive cases in COVID-19 reported through staff 767 to 30 October, according to the department’s COVID-19 marker. Approximately 720 staff members have recovered.
If inmates had a temperature of one hundred degrees or more, rather than being examined, they were placed in isolation with “the worst imaginable attention I can imagine” for two weeks, Hakes said.
Lamoreaux said the branch continues to separate inmates with flu-like symptoms from the general population, and then those detainees get adequate medical care.
Finally, news of nearly a hundred positive cases in sets like Yuma reached Whetstone, and Yuma detainees “were not happy with the way Yuma’s backyard handled the situation,” Hakes said.
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Concerned about their health, the prisoners organized a strike.
The inmates went to the backyard to order food in their bedroom, said the spokesman for the Lamoreaux branch, adding that the demonstration ended peacefully and that the next day the government had changed operations to deliver food.
But the strike also took a position because officials were looking to move the detainees before everyone in the unit even tested COVID-19, Hakes said.
“They needed other people to keep running in the yard, they needed other people to cook food, so they were going to move all the kitchen staff to a safe gondola,” Hakes said. “That’s when everyone said, ‘Listen, you’ve already tried no one, we don’t know who’s infected, who’s not infected. We’re already living with those other people, we’re going to stay and live with those other people. “
In early August, the dismantling verified the user in the Whetstone unit as a component of his plan to verify both one and both prisoners in the state.
“Like cattle, they do five at once of chaos and would like to control us anyway and then move,” he said.
According to Lamoreaux, the branch is one of the few state correctional agencies in the United States that controls its entire criminal population en masse. In collaboration with the Arizona Department of Health Services, the branch conducted PCRs on-site inmates at all services in the state, Lamoreaux said.
“Just as the state of Arizona (and other states) experienced an increase in the number of more widely available verification cases, we have also noticed an accumulation in some of our sets as we review our inmate population, which far exceeds the standard network,” says Lamoreaux.
According to the department’s marker, 2614 inmates conducted COVID-19 screening of a total of 40460 inmates assessed in all prisons, representing a positivity rate of 6. 75%. A total of 17 inmates died, according to the panel.
As of 30 October, 2,562 detainees have been recovered.
Eventually, the inmates learned of the effects of the control a week later, Hakes said. Medical personnel stood in the middle of the module and announced the effects loudly.
“Everyone knew who he lived next to and what his scenario was about the virus,” Hakes said.
The branch did not respond to The Republic’s consultation on how COVID-19 tests were distributed or whether they were publicly announced on the pod.
The effects of the controls at Whetstone were publicly announced as defeated on August 4 after a two-day effort to control the unit’s 1,066 inmates, according to branch spokesman Bill Lamoreaux.
Merlu, to his relief, came back negative.
After the significant accumulation of positive COVID-19 cases, hake families and inmates reported that the branch had waited several days before separating prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19 from those who tested negative.
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Of the other 130 people in the Hakes capsule, another 115 people tested positive for COVID-19, Hakes said. But for three or four days, HIV-positive inmates remained mixed with other inmates because the branch “didn’t have an action plan, they didn’t know what to do,” Hakes said.
The branch did not respond to the Republic as to whether the detainees remained in combination for several days after being examined.
Inmates continued to account for the percentage of use of sinks, showers and microwaves while living together, Hakes said. In the Hakes capsule, the 130 inmates feature two microwaves, 16 sinks and 8 showers, he said.
Then criminal staff stopped with tray trucks in the backyard and told HIV-positive prisoners, some of whom had first said they had tested negative, moving to the first two court buildings, Hakes said. those who tested positive had only 15 to 20 minutes to pack their belongings and move.
A guy who tested positive for COVID-19 after waiting for effects for a week also recalled that officials had tried to move all negative and positive instances to separate buildings, moving detainees around 11 p. m. of the night. His mother, Patty, told the facts.
The Republic gives the surname of Patty or her son because he fears he will face retaliation in prison.
“Two days later, however, they were given other effects and realized that they had put an organization of other negative people with the positives. And then they realized there were false positives, and then they tried to move other people again,” Patty said in August. “It was a disaster. “
According to Hakes, the branch retested all other people who tested negative the first time about a week and a portion after nearly a portion of the inmates in the unit tested positive.
The branch did not respond to The Republic if the Whestone inmates who tested negative tested positive at the time.
After more than a week, Hakes was given his results: he had COVID-19.
For five days, Hakes said he had severe headaches, aches and chills at night while having COVID-19.
“I woke up in half about two in the morning. Just, you know, shaking. I had a bloodless freeze like uncontrollable seizures,” Hakes said. “I’ve never felt this way before. “
Hakes said he was grateful that his illness “disappeared as temporarily as it came,” but felt bad for inmates who died after contracting the virus, as Hakes knew he had two years left in his 25-year sentence but “suddenly. “had an attack on the center after positive for COVID-19. Hakes said he and others didn’t.
Hakes also said he felt lucky to have tested negative on the first test circular because “it was bad. A lot of people crowded him. They basically filled them like sardines, as you can’t imagine,” he said. Hakes tested positive, there is no room for him in the area with all the other positives in the test.
Hakes stated that it was also rare for a user with COVID-19 to obtain a remedy or move to the hospital unless they “did not respond”.
If necessary, inmates are “transported to the hospital when they want this point of care,” Lamoreaux said.
Nurses dressed in dangerous, protective fabrics eventually began to take important signs of inmates, but they did “late, as if they weren’t looking to help,” Hakes said.
“But they have our lives in their hands Array . . . and we don’t have a voice in what kind of we get. These are the other people who are meant to be our physical care and probably didn’t need us,” Hakes said. .
After two weeks of inmates, Hakes said the criminal had no longer examined the inmates.
The branch performs “generals” on prisoners at the time of admission and a week before the planned release, Lamoreaux said, adding that the branch continues to ings prisoners with flu-like symptoms and reacts if necessary.
All incoming admissions are tested at admission facilities such as PHAC-Phoenix, where new commitments are made from county inmates and “grouped and supervised” for 14 days before being moved to their designated location, Lamoreaux said.
Shirley Smith said he felt powerless with his son, Jay Smith, who is also being held in Whetstone’s unit but is expected to be released last October.
“I know you’ve done things. He made some bad decisions. But with this pandemic
He said he believed that criminal officials did not sufficiently ingies in ill-health prisoners.
“I think it’s inhumane if they hadn’t done that, you know, keep them all locked up in a position where everyone can get it,” he said after learning of the outbreak in August.
The only action he thinks he can take is to call Governor Doug Ducey’s workplace and say, “What are you doing to protect those people?What are you doing?”
Sherril Lawson, Jay’s girlfriend, wondered how long Jay’s mother could withstand the concern. Shirley is 77 and moved in with Lawson after her fitness deteriorated.
And then it happened.
Smith tested negative for the first time, however, after a momentary test, Smith, who suffers from diabetes and has a high coVID-19 threat, tested positive.
When Jay calls home, Lawson said, “He seems to be optimistic, but you can hear him. You know what I’m saying? The other day when he spoke to (Shirley), I mean, he was coughing all the time. ” He made excuses.
Although Jay turns out to be getting bigger now, Lawson said he kept track of the COVID-19 board every day and worried that inmates would be transferred between units.
When Hakes’ aunt Patricia Rose and her mother, Debra Hunsaker, learned that Hakes had health problems with COVID-19 just a few weeks before his departure from prison, they feared he would die. They also contacted the prison, the governor’s workplace and anyone else who could. Consider requesting your early release.
But its date has come: September 14th. Hakes left Whetstone like a loose man.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Hakes said he had not noticed his daughter or mother for more than a year, and the day he was released, they arrived to pick him up from the unit.
“It’s the happiest day of my life, ” said Hakes. “That’s for me. It’s one of the most memorable days of my life . . . That’s for me. “
As of October 30, all COVID-19s in the Whetstone unit had recovered from COVID-19, Lamoreaux said.
In total, at least 10 inmates are shown to have died of COVID-19 in Tucson prison, and some other deaths are being investigated, according to the department, not all of them are shown to have been in the Whetstone unit.
As of October 31, nearly 1,000 tucson prisoners had tested positive for COVID-19 of the 4731 analyzed, representing a positivity rate of 21%, according to the department’s COVID-19 score.
Hakes said he attributed the outbreak to Whetstone to a lack of proactive efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in the unit.
“Given the lack of evidence, the lack of effort to verify and leave the Array things blank . . . they did everything towards the end, but they came too late,” Hakes said. “They waited until there were diseases in the backyard and others people were already experiencing severe symptoms. “
Overall, Patty said no, the state had done a smart task to protect the criminal population.
“I don’t necessarily think I’ve been unscathed. I mean, everybody’s been affected. But I think they may have done more to the point that they wouldn’t have had more than 50% positive tests in a unit. . “
At a press conference on April 7, Gov. Doug Ducey said the state would release inmates and conduct tests for inmates in internal prisons and “make sure they gain adequate care and coverage benefits. “
Ducey also stated that if prison officials conducted tests to detect COVID-19, they would be placed on leave.
Four months later, on June 29, Ducey said at a press conference that all inmates would receive a mask across the state.
In other states, such as California, the state Department of Corrections announced on June 1 that those jailed for “nonviolent” offenses less than 180 days to serve their sentence would be eligible for supervised release on July 1, according to the Prison Policy Website.
In New Mexico, the Correctional Service reported on June 24 that another 71 people had been released from state criminals due to COVID-19. In May, the state issued a decree through Gov. Michelle Lujan Crisham to “commute” Americans’ criminal sentences within one month of their release date that meet express infringement criteria.
A day after 517 instances erupted in August, advocates condemned Arizona’s reaction to protect the fitness of incarcerated people and called for a swift halt to criminal admissions.
Kim Crecca is a member of the Valley Interfaith Project and the Arizona Faith Network and is the coordinator of the Prison Ministry Program for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. She said she praised the branch for all of the state detainees in a short period of time, but had considerations about its technique for mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Crecca said the branch has no plans to check wastewater for virus lines, a technique that can identify early instances and prevent outbreaks.
“There is no plan in place to further analyze the criminal population. And as we all know, it’s a fluid virus. So, whoever tested negative, you know, a week ago, can be positive today based on anything brought in. Outside. So we’re disappointed with that, ” said Crecca.
The news, Crecca said, is that telephone lines against retaliation have been installed in prisons.
“Several weeks ago,” anti-retaliation hotlines were activated and made available through the inmate phone formula at all complex locations, Lamoreaux said.
“The direct line against retaliation is a big problem,” Crecca said. “We see this as a great advantage, because now it gives inmates the opportunity to have more votes without worrying about wasting their privileges, wasting their jobs. Well.
Hakes said he still had friends at Whetstone Prison and was still concerned about his health, so he said he was first looking to communicate about Whetstone.
“The fitness care provided within the criminal right now, at Whetstone even in Tucson, is horrible. And I have friends who probably wouldn’t faint and get there because they have five years left. And the fitness care is “provided in five years is not enough to survive,” he said.
Inadequate fitness care is a fear shared through Hakes with inmates who wrote letters to the Republic from March to September. The letters included fears such as staff not dealing with chronic and life-threatening fitness disorders such as the pandemic.
Hakes’ aunt, Patricia Rose, said she was also concerned about prison inmates.
“COVID may not leave us soon, at least not yet, you know, this will be a recurring theme for a lot of other people, and it’s affecting families,” Rose said. “Everything that happens to the prisoner affects families, other internal people, other outsiders, in many ways.
Contact the journalist at Audrey. Jensen@arizonarepublic. com or on Twitter at Audreyj101.