T pauses, then adds, "You'll hear this from a lot of people in prison: Dogs live better than we do."
Life in prison reminds T of a war movie he saw many years ago about a "POW camp overseas in the Korean War " This is sort of like living in one," he says.
Toward the end of the early May interview, T says he believes it is wrong that 45 to 65-year-old prisoners are expected to sleep on top bunks in Ventress.
Older prisoners "got no business climbing up and down the top rack, and then there's 30-year-olds on the bottom rack. I think that's backwards," says T.
But prisoners are ignored or ridiculed, he explains, if they "say something to [staff] about, 'Well, I can't climb up and down. I'm tired of jumping off, hurting my knees and my legs. And I've seen youngsters walking around with broken bones, and it seems like every one of them got a top rack."
T says he knows a 19 year old in perfect health who sleeps on a bottom rack, "and I'm an elder, and on a top rack. That's disrespect. So, they don't care nothing for my well-being. They don't care about wrong and right."
In a mid-June article on unpaid labor and food quality in Ventress and elsewhere, more prisoners discuss living conditions.
A prisoner identified as "J," who does unpaid work in Ventress's kitchen, reports rat and bug problems throughout Ventress's kitchen and cafeteria, or "chow hall." A prisoner identified as "B" says there are "rats in the lights." The ADOC assures HTR and Red Crow News in an email response that, while "some level" of rodent and bug problems "should be expected" in the prison, the problem is "highly exaggerated."
B also reports that prisoners have to clean up the blood and other remains in the aftermath of violent altercations in the prison, such as assaults by officers of prisoners, fights between prisoners with one another, stabbings, and more. The ADOC confirms in their June email that prisoners are indeed assigned and carry out such cleaning work.
In the first days of June, a prisoner identified as "B" tells HTR that multiple prisoners have just been transferred into Ventress. To his knowledge, they are primarily transfers from other prisons. He finds this dangerous in the context of the pandemic, especially given that more people are not being released.
"It's like they're trying to kill us," he says.
Almost exactly one month later, B tells HTR that a handful of prisoners who tested positive for coronavirus were transferred from Easterling Prison into Ventress in early July, to be held in Ventress's gymnasium. "We saw them come in bro, wearing full protection gear, and [an] official said it," he explains.
In an early July email regarding prison to prison transfers, ADOC Communications Director Linda Mays tells HTR, "Movement between our facilities has been limited with few exceptions as a result of COVID-19; however, security and healthcare exemptions are granted as needed, including at Ventress Correctional Facility," but will not comment on "when, where, or how many transfers occur between our facilities," for "security" reasons.
In the first week of July, "Z" and "G" both interview again with HTR about living conditions and overcrowding, and the consequences of these problems during the pandemic.
The overcrowding of the prison is a main cause of "fighting," says Z. "I know that's one thing. People get tired of being around a lot of people like that, packed in like sardines."
Overcrowding in Ventress also causes "bathroom issues," he says, "as far as using the restroom " As far as the showers, and stuff like that, you got to wait for a while, and you got to wait for a while to sit on the toilet, take a leak, brush your teeth, got to stand in long lines to eat."
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