In a stunning new development on 4/16/20, a young 23 year old Africa -American man from Muskegon , Michigan, tested positive for Covid -19 at Lakeland Correctional Facility. The prison, I am housed at (I will refer to the man as A.C.
A.C lived in my housing unit in a part of the building that is an open dorm setting with approximately 40 other people. He was a student in the food Technology which teaches incarcerated people skills in the cooking and hospitality industry.
I met him a few months ago when he first moved into the housing unit. We didn't talk frequently but we would have occasional conversation, when he came to me for legal advice about the case overall he is a good young guy trying to get his life together and making his mother proud who is the pastor of the church in their hometown.
A couple weeks ago two food service supervisor and a wave of dining hall workers contracted Covid-19 or were quarantined due to being in close contact with a person who tested positive for this virus. Two Food supervisors tested positive for Covid'19. two of them were quarantined for having close contact with them, one of the supervisors quit his job.
In a moment of crisis A.C.'s Food Technology Supervisor Jimmy Hill stepped up to fill the void. He called upon his Food Technology students and clerks to show up in Food Service to prepare and service food to the 1300 men housed at the prison.
I remember seeing A.C. in the dining hall the first morning he worked. He handed me my breakfast tray and we exchanged a few words. Later that day we talked a bit more when he returned to the housing unit about how he happened to being working in Food Service.
After about a week of volunteering in the dining hall A.C. told several people in the housing unit that he no longer wanted to work there because he noticed that several people who were working around him were ill. Several of them lived in housing units where people had tested positive for Covid-19.
One morning I overheard A.C. tell two people. "man , a bunch of guys are sick over there. I am done going over there. I am not getting sick working in the kitchen "That afternoon A.C. stopped volunteering to work in the dining hall.
In the days that followed A.C. began reporting symptoms of feeling ill to people he associated with
in the housing unit. He also began complaining to staff. He complained of chest pains . labored breathing, dizziness , fatigue and expressed that he was scared he may have contracted Covid-19.
The End Of Part One
