Inside A Coronavirus Quarantine Unit At Rikers
For almost a week, Kelvin Heredia has had trouble breathing. Last Sunday, he was transferred to a building on Rikers Island that is now being used to test incarcerated men for the coronavirus. The 24-year-old has asthma, and he’s suffering from chest pains and panic attacks that block off his airways. He doesn’t have an inhaler.
His COVID-19 test came back positive. But instead of getting the medical help he needs, he is being ignored.
Heredia says no doctor or nurse has come by to check on him. On Wednesday, he waited until 3 a.m. to be treated by someone at the jail’s infirmary, and was repeatedly told by staff that the clinic was too overcrowded to see him.
“I’m worried I might have a heart attack, and what if I can’t breath?” he said, adding that he’s being held in Rikers for a parole violation. “I don’t know if I’m going to wake up.”
One of the most concentrated coronavirus outbreaks in the world is happening in New York City’s biggest jail complex, which holds roughly 5,000 detainees in its eight facilities. As of Friday, 273 staff members and 239 incarcerated people had tested positive for COVID-19 in New York City’s jails ― the Department of Correction wouldn’t specify how many of those cases were specifically at Rikers. But the infection rate at the jail is eight times that of the city, itself the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, according to an analysis from The Legal Aid Society, which is suing for the release of certain high-risk inmates.
The jail’s top doctor called the situation a “public health disaster unfolding before our eyes,” and detainees say they are crammed together in dorms without the necessary gloves, soap and cleaning supplies to protect themselves from getting sick.
They are treating us as if we are not humans. A lot of us are going to be going home in body bags. Chris Hatcher
One of the eight buildings on Rikers Island, the Eric M. Taylor Center, is now being used as a quarantine unit for...
