Ashley Lopez tries to talk with her husband, Randy Lopez, every day.
“Every day is just — it’s scary. Because I don’t know if I’m gonna get that phone call of him telling me, you know, I got it, or someone relaying a message saying he has it. It’s very scary,” she said.
Randy is in the medium security facility at Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institutions, which last month saw a spike of 102 new cases of COVID-19 among inmates. In hurried phone calls he’s told Ashley that he’s worried the prison isn’t doing enough to prevent the spread of the virus.
“He’s like, I’m not touching these phones,” Lopez said, explaining why she had trouble hearing him on a recent call. “He wears two masks. And then he takes a paper towel, he cleans everything down, and takes another paper towel and wraps [it around] the phone.”
Ashley said that’s because the phones aren’t being cleaned between users. And Randy told her the rooms aren’t being properly cleaned either.
What Ashley hears from Randy doesn’t align with the steps the Department of Corrections said it is taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In a Facebook post on Monday, DOC Director Patricia Coyne-Fague laid out the department’s safety protocols, including weekly surveillance testing, isolating those who test positive, and quarantining new admissions.
Dozens of people commented on the post, accusing the Department of lying about conditions inside its prisons.
“None of that is true,” Lopez said, of the post. “At least what my husband’s telling me. You know, he sees it with his own eyes. He’s saying the correctional officers do not wear their masks, you know, they’ll have them on and then they’ll put them down.”
Brianna Lopes’ brother is also in medium security. She said he was moved into a room where the previous occupant had recently tested positive for the coronavirus, and that the cell wasn’t cleaned before he was moved in.
“The [DOC is] saying that the staff professionals clean the room,” Lopes said. “They do not. They have a unit cleaner, a regular inmate that’s just a unit cleaner. And they have him clean the room.”
The Public’s Radio spoke to seven women this week who have loved ones in the ACI, and read Facebook messages from many more. They described hearing stories of correctional officers not wearing masks, of inmates being given diluted cleaning products, and of spotty cleaning procedures.
In a statement, J.R. Ventura, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said all staff are required to wear a mask, and follow social distancing and disinfecting procedures. He said the department constantly monitors that these protocols are followed, and staff who do not adhere to them are subject to disciplinary action. He also said that the DOC has enough cleaning products, and that all facilities are kept clean and ventilated.
The DOC said it is also restricting prisoners’ movement, to prevent the virus from circulating. That’s causing family members a different concern.
Evelina Cordero’s fiancé, Miguel Mendez, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2018, and she’s worried he would be especially vulnerable to having a severe case of COVID-19. But she said the restrictions are also taking a psychological toll.
“He’s having anxiety. I mean, he barely could sleep,” Cordero said. “And all he does is walk from the door to — you know, just pacing back and forth in the room. And he feels he feels like closed in.”
Ventura emphasized that the facilities are not on lockdown, and that inmates are being allowed to make phone calls, shower, and have court and medical appointments. He explained that only small groups are allowed out of their cells at once, which limits their recreational time.
According to family members, prisoners are getting as little as 30 minutes out of their cells each day.
“They get a half-hour to be on the phone, take a shower, do what they’ve got to do,” Cordero said. “But they have to go back in the cell. They eat in there. So you know, they’re suffering from anxiety, depression, not keeping in contact with their family out here.”
“Having a loved one incarcerated is not easy,” Lopez added. “This is it. This is my life. And that’s just what it is. But with COVID hitting, it’s been like 100% worse.”
Some of the women plan to join activists to protest outside the ACI this weekend, demanding prisoners be among the first to get a coronavirus vaccine, and urging the state to release more inmates.
