Editors note: Absence of Light is a project created in collaboration with incarcerated people at Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York.

The Daily Orange Opinion section published a column Sunday depicting a COVID-19 outbreak at Auburn Correctional Facility through the eyes of Cliff Graham, a Syracuse resident incarcerated at the prison in Auburn, New York. 

Graham’s account, which is part of the Absence of Light project, was written by Enterprise Editor Gabe Stern. We published the column in this format after a COVID-19 outbreak has limited access to people incarcerated in Auburn. 

As of Sunday, more than 200 corrections officers at Auburn had either tested positive or had come into contact with COVID-19, The Auburn Citizen reported. This outbreak caused the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to suspend visitation and certain programs at the prison “until further notice.”

Eight incarcerated people have tested positive inside Auburn, with one recovered and 11 tests pending, as of Friday, according to DOCCS. There have been 1,016 negative tests among incarcerated people, though testing started weeks before the outbreak began among staff.

The following is a breakdown of how The D.O. is communicating with people incarcerated at Auburn during the outbreak. We have included concerns that incarcerated people expressed following the prison’s first outbreak in March and the prison’s statement about its operations during the current outbreak. 

Communication behind the column

Even without an outbreak, it can be difficult to contact individuals incarcerated within the New York state prison system. Stern and I utilize phone and email systems to communicate with incarcerated people. The phone calls are limited to about 15 to 20 minutes for the general population during their recreation time. The calls are monitored and subject to immediate termination. Emails are also subject to review by DOCCS staff and can sometimes be delayed. 

All of this impacts the Absence of Light project greatly. Since visitations are suspended, Stern and I are now unable to pick up handwritten or typed pieces from contributors at Auburn. With the daily 20-minute maximum on phone calls, interviews with contributors on the inside are limited. Corrections officers may also not deliver emails to the receiver due to its content.

Despite these restrictions, we thought it was important to publish Graham’s account. From Wednesday to Friday, Graham spoke with Stern four times over the phone and described his experiences in the middle of the outbreak in Auburn’s A-block. In turn, Stern structured the interview transcripts into a personal essay on Graham’s behalf.

The D.O. has also been in contact with three other incarcerated people at Auburn since the outbreak. All expressed concern over how operations are changing.

Conditions during earlier outbreak

All state prisons across New York shut down visitation and most programming from mid-March to early August. Educational and rehabilitative programs also paused, and recreation time was cut in Auburn from three hours to one to prevent crowds, according to DOCCS.

The D.O. obtained documents through freedom of information requests that shed light on how operations changed during the first outbreak. Minutes and transcripts from Inmate Liaison Committee meetings in June, July and September are attached below. 

The committee is a group of incarcerated people, selected by Auburn’s general population, that meets monthly with the prison’s administration to relay grievances and questions that the prison population has.

Minute notes from Inmate Liaison Committee: June, July, September by The Daily Orange on Scribd

Minutes from a June 19 committee meeting show that people incarcerated at Auburn expressed concern regarding a lack of cleaning supply, limited amounts of toilet paper with little to no refills and excessive amounts of bird poop in the facility. 

The committee also took issue with corrections officers denying kiosk time, which incarcerated people use to email their families, as well as porters (custodians) having insufficient time to clean cell areas.

Documents from the July committee meeting show concerns from members over corrections officers conducting cell searches and pat-frisks without wearing a mask and/or gloves and denying email communications from incarcerated people’s families, among other issues.

Members of the Sept. 2 meeting requested extra cleaning supplies for bathrooms and showers in the facility’s gym and bathhouse. They also expressed concern over the nature of regular cell searches and the difficulties with the nature of visits, which the prison had recently resumed.

The D.O. also received May’s committee meeting minutes, but the agenda of that month’s meeting was redacted.

DOCCS response

When asked how Auburn operations are changing due to COVID-19, a DOCCS spokesperson forwarded a statement from the department’s website that confirmed that most internal programs are suspended, with a few being modified to continue. 

DOCCS did not respond to a question about how many corrections officers contracted COVID-19 or came in contact with a person who tested positive.

“The Department takes seriously its duty to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those that work and live in our correctional facilities,” DOCCS stated in an email. “If Auburn is included in any new micro-clusters in the future, the incarcerated population at the facility would be briefed on any changes mandated by the conditions of that cluster.”

Rapid testing is available for staff at Auburn, and DOCCS has developed an asymptomatic surveillance testing plan for “a number of incarcerated individuals” to be tested during weekdays. Incarcerated people with symptoms get tested at the facility, according to the department.

DOCCS sent two new cloth masks for each incarcerated person in all state facilities, the department stated in the email. Facility staff are screened daily for temperature, symptoms of COVID-19 and contacts with people who tested positive.

“Every facet of the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been guided by facts, scientific data, and the guidance of public health experts at NYS DOH and the CDC, and the work of DOCCS to protect the safety of New York’s corrections staff and incarcerated population is no different,” the statement from DOCCS reads. 

Enterprise Editor Gabe Stern contributed reporting to this piece.

Published on December 13, 2020 at 3:41 pm