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Editor’s note: Tracy White is incarcerated at Wyoming Correctional Facility, where a COVID-19 outbreak has infected over 260 incarcerated people. This is his account, as told to a Daily Orange reporter, of what quarantine has been like at the medium-security prison east of Buffalo. All quotes are in his words, edited lightly for clarity.

In a statement, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said there are fewer than 25 people in each quarantine dorm. DOCCS has also removed top bunks to limit double-bunking and promote social distancing.

Feb. 1: Day 2 of quarantine

It’s not actually a room. You know cookie cutters? Like cubes? It’s probably the same picture if you Google “homeless shelter.” It’ll be like these cookie cutters. Some of them have double bunks. But there’s no double bunks. There’s walls for space but they only come up to about your chest, and everything else is open. So people are coughing and sneezing. There’s really no way to social distance unless you put the spaces in between people. Which here, in this dorm, even though they’re getting really damn near close, we’re at 24 people. Anything more than 25, they’re violating social distancing.

I made it through the whole pandemic in one location. I was in honor block, and I didn’t move. And then yesterday, one of my neighbors came in positive. I was moved to this quarantine cube. Currently I’m with 23 other men. And none of us know our results because none of us have been tested yet. 

It’s like they’re just compounding this situation. My thoughts are all over the place because it’s all so ridiculous. I don’t feel like this is about a solution. I feel like this whole thing is just about money. It’s all about how much money they can generate to try to recoup from the losses. And things are changing. You’ve got to be creative and look at things different. Maybe release people, I don’t know. Instead of having them die in custody. Because currently — the current stats now — 30 men in prison in New York State died that weren’t sentenced to life. That’s not good numbers. And my fear is, because I have asthma, I don’t want to be 31. I just turned 31. 

I don’t want to be the 31st person to die. 

This morning, I woke up, called my wife and just tried to start the day. No matter where I’m at, cleaning is one of my top priorities. It’s not like staff cares — some don’t wear masks until a sergeant comes — but I care because I want us as inmates to have a clean environment. That’s going to affect everybody. I got up, I swept, then had a little breakfast. 

If I don’t have COVID-19, I’ll be shocked, because there’s so much negligence. It doesn’t matter how many times I wipe the phone down. Everybody’s using this phone. Everybody’s using the bathroom. Everybody’s using the microwave. Everybody’s getting on the kiosk. And it’s not like I can go into an actual room. I’m in a cube where if somebody coughs and I happen to walk behind them, I’ll just get the particles right in my mouth. 

If they were really looking for solutions, it wouldn’t be all these stagnant, sporadic decisions. They should just quarantine every dorm, test everybody in every dorm. You have a front end and a back end of the facility. What they could do is move everybody that’s negative to the front. Everybody that’s positive to the back. And then as you become negative, you move to the front.

Tracy White in late 2018.
Photo courtesy of White’s family

But now, in my situation, I’ll stay here for 14 days. Then where do I go? Back to honor block, where that whole dorm had it? I don’t even feel comfortable going back there. And people are in this situation, talking about “Damn, I don’t want to die in prison.” 

You have kids in here that are 19 talking about how they don’t want to die. 

You have people who are 60 saying, “I don’t want to die.”

There’s five people in my round that are leaving next month. Why are they here?

There’s got to be a better way to show reformation. Like they say “rehabilitation.” But at what point? I have all my programs done. There’s people who have all their programs done. So at what point am I rehabilitated? When you can prove that they’re not going to do a crime? No. Even that’s all about money. This whole system is all about money. And that’s the problem with America. That’s the problem with the American system. Some other countries don’t believe that. But this COVID-19, I really feel, is really forcing people to change and come up with different ideas, instead of living off of an extension of slavery. We have to get past the slavery mentality. You have slave owners. You have slaves. You have to get past this. It’s 2021. Come on. 

Anybody within six months of getting out and that’s nonviolent should be gone. And I’m not even saying that because it’s me, because I’m here on violent charges. But I feel like if I can help advocate, that’s off of my conscience.

My neighbor that was sick, when he was puking in a bucket, I helped him. So I very well could have it. But I’m not going to sit there and watch this man puke all over himself at the same time. I put gloves on and everything, I had my mask on, but I didn’t want to see this dude die. So he threw up in a bucket. I gave him some water. I didn’t want to see that. I want people to be alright.

Now every day is like a new adventure. I don’t even want to use the word “adventure.” Every day is like, “What’s going to happen today?”

Because when I was in honor block, I was like, “Am I going to move to quarantine today? Is today the day?”

Now, it’s kind of like, “Is today the day I’m going to get tested and be positive for COVID?”

Emails to his wife (Excerpts)

Feb. 3:

Next Thursday the 11th is my anticipated release from Quarantine: I got a letter from the Health Department/hospital. I’ll send you the letter. (Temp. today 97.2)

Feb. 4 grievance complaint, emailed to his wife:

My health and safety is at risk. Reasons being due to the way the facility is managing COVID-19 procedures. Sadly, the current way Quarantining operations are done is re-affecting the population. Basically with dorms having over 25 inmates, social distancing is impossible. I have Asthma which has been proven to affect survival after being affected with COVID-19.

Feb. 9:

I do feel a bit better, I slept until 10:30 a.m…

..I miss you (sic), how is your day going? How was your Zoom lunch? Once I woke up, I had a cup of coffee, then swept and mopped the cubes that have nobody in them. There is 18 people in this dorm with me included.

Tracy White smiles alongside a child.
Photo courtesy of White’s family

Feb. 9, later in the day:

I’m going to write the Clemency bureau again and ask for reconsideration of my application due to being COVID-19 positive.

Feb. 15: 16th day of quarantine

Eight days after testing positive

I got done watching the Super Bowl, then fast forward, it’s 12:30 a.m. I’m in my shorts. I’m relaxed. I was actually meditating, about to go to sleep. So I’m sitting up in my bed, and then I hear the correctional officers laughing, and they go to one guy. They’re like “yeah, you’re COVID-positive, man.”

Then they come to me second, and they do the same thing, so I just go with the flow because I already knew that was going to happen.

So now we pull up to the COVID-positive dorm, and now you got incarcerated individuals looking through the window because it’s 1:15 a.m. They’re looking at us like, “What the hell?” But the majority of the people in the dorm I knew and other people know, so then we all just laughed. Everybody laughed because we all knew what it was. 

Since I’ve been here, it’s really been me and another guy that have been picking up the slack. Some people have been for themselves. Some people just don’t care that I have it. It’s like, “Why do I care now?” 

Some people in here still think they don’t have it, because of these people lying and covering stuff up. I mean, you got people at the highest level deceiving people about the number of deaths in the nursing homes. So they could lie about people here. Because we don’t even matter to society. If 8,000 of us died, who would really care? But I’m here to say we’re people, too. 

It’s a lot. And that’s why my wife is really doing a lot of advocacy work for me and trying to find me a lawyer so I can get home. Unlike a few people, I’m blessed to come home to an established home, to my wife and son and a whole family that’s supportive.

When I left in ’14, my son was 2 years old. He’s 9 now. And that’s what lets me know how long I’ve really been gone, when I see how much he’s grown. And I’m like, “Man, I have to get out there.” And then, you know, with my wife’s support and her staying faithful, I’m trying to get home soon. 

I think about it mainly at nighttime, once I’m laying down and all the lights turn off. I see pictures of my wife and son. There’s all these different ones, even. I even got ones where he’s getting ready for school or just playing his video game, and I’m like, “Man, I should be teaching him how to do his homework or how to play basketball.”

They do that last count, and I’m there in the cube by myself. And then in the morning, I wake up, and I’m like, “Man, I have to get out.”

This account is from phone conversations on Feb. 1 and Feb. 15. Tracy White is serving a 13-year sentence. He is asymptomatic as of Feb. 16.

Published on February 17, 2021 at 9:57 pm