Covid Dog & Pony Show 2/3/21

 I neglected this journal, again. It is the fiction that's been absorbing what interest I have left over from this quarantine imposed by the Bureau of Prisons.

I have not run a temperature, yet I remain on one of the floors designated for positive cases. None of the other six in my room have noticeable symptoms. I do not know if the bug is less virulent than advertised or if this quarantine is another bungled bureaucratic effort, or a combination of the two. We remain cramped on our two floors. We do get downstairs for ice and hot water. Not only that, but we do not get outside for anything. (Which works fine since we had 3 days of snow.)

The dog and pony show was last Thursday. Word had been going around Fort Dix FCI for a few days before days of a CDC inspection. Wednesday night informational posters (8.5" x 1" pages) appeared on the hallway walls. Thursday morning, Counselor Jones was on the PA system announcing an inspection. I do not believe he had been in the previous few days. Before 7:30 he was on the floor for the first time in a week or two, and in our room (turning the lights on for us). He was lecturing us on the need to be ready for the upcoming inspection, to wear our masks outside the room, and inside if any staff came in. One of the orderlies was spraying down the hallway, the restrooms, and what-not for the first time since we started our quarantine. Case Manager Morales was also on the floor, but he is the only staff member to consistently and regularly visit us.  The unit secretary came up for the first time I can recall since the quarantine's start. Tape was placed on the floor to show a 6' spacing. Someone came on the PA advising us to use spray bottles when we used the telephones - which spray bottle are contraband on non-inspections days. I stayed in the room reading Sue Grafton. 

During the inspection, one of my roomies stood in the doorway talking to the captain. [The officer charged with prison security, as I understood it at the time.] He had his mask on, but the secretary gave hm a shot (notice of a disciplinary action) for not wearing a mask. I could see he wore a mask; I could not see the inspector on the other side of the captain. 

The obnoxiously loud-to-the-point-of-incoherence recorded warning about washing hands went from once a day to hourly. 

One inmate said he got a shot for not wearing his mask while brushing his teeth. 

All the staff acted as if their pensions were on the line.

Words is we did not pass. Why this should surprise is itself surprising. No prison was designed for a plague, any more than they were designed for humane living. Fort Dix's twelve-man rooms were designed to be an Army barracks, not a prison.

Last night, I heard Warden David Ortiz got promoted to a BOP desk job.

[9-15-22: News being regulated in prison, especially about the prison, it is pleasing to have found today confirmation of the scuttlebutt in the last link above:

Long said Ortiz started his new role Monday. He did not comment on if Ortiz is expected to return to his role as warden at Fort Dix in the future. Ortiz could not be reached for comment.

There has been increased scrutiny on Ortiz and the BOP from New Jersey’s Democratic congressional delegation after the number of cases spiked significantly at the Burlington County prison in recent months. Nearly 1,500 inmates have tested positive for the virus, the most of any other facility in the federal system, according to the BOP.

Your tax dollars at work.]

sch