‘A living hell’: Inside US prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic

Prisoners and their families describe the emotional, physical and financial toll of the pandemic.

In the days before Christmas, 44-year-old April Harris sat in her prison cell at the California Institution for Women for more than 23 hours a day. In the 20 minutes she was allowed to leave it, she and the other prisoners would flood into the common areas – choosing either to take a shower or to make a short phone call. Restrictions have fluctuated during the various lockdowns implemented throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but in the 11 months since the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) first banned visitations across state prisons, Harris says she has seen the mental health of those around her steadily deteriorate. “A friend of mine sliced her arms yesterday because she said that she couldn’t handle it anymore,” Harris wrote at the end of 2020 in a message sent via JPay, an electronic messaging system used in prisons.