End of 2023 and Still No Covid-19 Services in TN Prison

Our facility was unwilling to offer Covid-19 vaccines, masks, and PPE from 2020 until now [December 2023], and is currently unwilling to supply booster shots altogether. As it stands for the moment, no inmate at our facility has received their first booster shot, let alone the second or third. There is still no protective wear, no social distancing, and absolutely no housing or treatment rules for separation of positive and negative testing inmates. If your cellmate tests positive you are required to quarantine with her without exception, despite the lack of vaccines and mask options. If you have a medical appointment and cannot find someone to loan you a mask you are refused, even though neither medical nor security staff offer masks. You are denied all medical treatment if a mask cannot be borrowed.

I personally had to wear another inmate’s mask after she removed it from her sick face just to see the nurse I’d waited months to finally be treated by, because if I hadn’t I would’ve been denied medical services. At this point they’ve given up the battle, I’m tired of fighting with everyone. We have water fountains for the dogs in training when there isn’t a single water fountain for inmates in the building.

We are literally denied water fountains at school (8 AM - 2:30 PM) besides when we leave the building, yet the dogs are hydrated. This unfair practice has made us women realize our worth in their eyes. Our toilet tissue is handed out by the ply each time we use the bathroom by the CO on duty, we get less than 10 plys unless we’re on our menstrual cycle.