Here are a few notable items from inside Perryville as of this morning, 4/14/2020.
We mentioned that Perryville was expecting a shipment of 200 cots to be used for COVID-19 quarantine somewhere in the complex. Yesterday, Monday, a convoy of 7 military trucks rolled up to the warehouse and unloaded 800 cots. Those cots are all going to Maria to be used for quarantine. There is some confusion about whether these are for staff or inmates (there aren’t 800 staff at Perryville.) It is also unknown what the prison is planning to do with the current residents at Maria if that unit is to become the isolation unit. Are the tents going up again?
As for the staff at the warehouse – these people have contact with all of the various delivery companies and the materials delivered on a daily basis. Their potential for exposure is significant and yet they have no protective equipment. None, zero, zilch, nada. Then they return to the prison complex where inmates are housed. Can you hear the tick tick tick of the time bomb?
One last outrage for this report. This is a women’s prison with an inmate population of over 4000, most of whom are still menstruating. They’ve been short on sanitary products, pads and tampons, for a week now. Women are being issued 2 pads a day, no matter how heavily they might be bleeding. Some of the post-menopausal women are helping by requesting their 2 pad allowance and then passing the supplies along to women in need.