So we were notified 2 days ago about a supposed “holiday schedule” that my facility will be using every Friday. What it consists of is this:
Every Friday Carswell will be on holiday schedule. We will be locked in our units and no services will be available, except essential services. Essential services apparently does not include Food Service because we will be receiving bagged meals for the day.
Those bagged meals are: Breakfast: 2 oz. dry cereal, powdered milk, piece of fruit. Lunch: 4 pieces of bread, 2 oz. peanut butter, 1 slice of cheese. Dinner: same as lunch. I will be giving my bags to someone less fortunate than myself because there will be hungry people on this day.
The reason they are able to do this is because lack of staff and/or funding. Institutions now have the option to do this for either 1 day per week, the whole week, or for 1 month depending on how bad it is at your institution. I should be grateful at my institution they chose one day for now and feel sorry for those who have longer lockdowns.
Lack of staff and/or funding has brought us to this. First they send out a memo on SCA and funding trying to change all halfway house dates. Now this. When will it stop because this is not humane treatment? Yes we committed crimes. Yes we are in prison paying for those crimes. But we were not the ones who mismanaged the funds given to them to care for our basic needs such as food, medical care, hygiene items, or clothing. Basic needs are not being met.
I do want to end this on a positive note even though I am currently on lockdown in my unit and know people will be hungry while they do this Nationwide “holiday schedule” Lockdown. Several people in my unit were given back their Full SCA time and their dates were given back to them. For my friend who lost her date and cried for days because it would be another year before she got home to her family it means she will be going home in July this year…..maybe they are seeing they were wrong there and will see the light of day when it comes to reunification and reentry in to society when it comes to helping us go back into society successfully.
