No one deserves these conditions
East Elmhurst: I’m a 36-year-old man currently incarcerated at Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. I fear for my health here due to poor conditions during a horrific pandemic. I have made dozens of 311 calls to report conditions since February to no avail. Nothing has been done about my complaints. Follow-ups by Department of Correction captains haven’t taken place since March.
There are no social distancing guidelines in place. My housing unit of 50 beds — 47 of them are occupied; one-third of my unit has received vaccinations. The building is short on staff, causing an unsafe situation. My medical appointments keep getting pushed back, citing my denial of appointments, which is far from the truth. I’ve been waiting months to take a COVID test. I currently have several symptoms.
There is no clean air to breathe here because vents are covered in inches worth of dark gray to black dust throughout the entire building. Masks are hardly available to inmates who sleep less than two feet away from one another. We haven’t had outside recreation in more than 75 days, which we are supposed to be afforded an hour of each day. There has been no barbershop in more than six months now, no access to nail clippers; we have finger and toenails that are as long as four to six inches that can be used as weapons. For many weeks, cleaning chemicals have not been afforded to our unit, making it impossible to maintain a clean living area.
Many of us fear for our lives and we have no way to make the public aware of such poor conditions we are forced to live in.
Francis Digena