Mask Mandates Turn Orwellian
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Imagine a situation in which you could lose life, liberty, or property for failure to wear a mask and not be afforded Due Process. Sound extreme? Well, on college campuses across the country students, faculty, and journalists are reporting how normal social relations are being upended by COVID restrictions.
Which can seem extreme until we look at some of the Orwellian consequences taking place in at least one facility in the New Mexico Department of Corrections – sanctions to include an extra year of prison time for failure to wear a mask. Which leaves us asking just how far will COVID measures take us.
When COVID-19 struck in 2019 it was quickly apparent to those of us incarcerated that we were in for some trying times. Social distancing and isolation within a correctional facility is just not possible with the amount of space available.
Trying to stop the spread of a contagion like *COVID in prison is alot like trying to stop the dissemination of ideas on social media. Prison is a shared, poorly ventilated, and extremely confined space – basically a incubator for viruses like COVID.
Like most of the public we struggled to adapt to ever changing CDC guidelines. Mask wearing was a challenge.
In the particular facility I was housed in at the time (North Eastern New Mexico Correctional Facility) the mask challenge was, and, from what I understand, continues to be a predicament of obnoxious double-talk combined with unchecked authority and outlandish consequences.
Initially we were issued masks made from denim. A lot like trying to breathe through a plastic bag. We struggled to breathe and started to make our own masks out of t-shirts, boxers, or skull caps.
These were being confiscated as contraband so we requested from the administration permission to purchase KN95 masks at our own expense, but were denied because they would be a "threat to security."
It's important to understand that in the alternate reality of corrections the standard response to requests – from something as insignificant as the color of ink in a pen to being allowed to read a hardcover book – is a denial reinforced by the three most common words a prisoner hears: "threat to security."
There were other mask challenges, such as being given a directive to always be masked outside of our cells. Keep in mind that our meals, the tables, exercise areas, telephones, televisions, and showers are all outside of the cells. Which meant that compliance wasn't just challenging it was impossible.
On top of this was the fact that we were issued only one mask, and that the administration had previously determined that hand washing our clothes was likewise a "threat to security."
They stopped selling us laundry detergent and started issuing misconduct reports for clotheslines. Which meant that for a mask to be properly disinfected with bleach the mask had to be sent to laundry. Something that can't be done with the mask tightly affixed to the face.
Which along with masks getting lost and worn out we frequently needed replacements. Something the administration resisted and instead wanted to sell us replacements. Some inmates complied but for the most part we refused to pay for a substandard product being forced upon us.
The administrative response was to order security staff to issue misconduct reports for "failure to follow a lawful order." And this was where things really started to turn Orwellian.
Inmates were being issued misconduct reports when eating, drinking, exercising, or simply because their masks were dirty, lost, or not properly placed above the nose. In prison, misconduct reports carry sanctions such as loss of privileges like visitation, phone calls, commissary, and good time.
"Failure to follow a lawful order" is a minor infraction that usually comes with a 30 day loss of one or more privileges. But once three minor infractions occur they become major infractions.
Which means that sanctions can include a year loss of good time for each infraction. For failure to wear a mask we can be forced to stay in prison for another year, at an expense to the taxpayer of approximately $46,000.
Undoubtedly some will be of the opinion that if we aren't following the rules that we deserve what we get. The problem with this sentiment, outside of the obvious excessiveness, is a little constitutional guarantee called Due Process. Of course, whenever there's terrorism or pandemics *apparently the rule of law takes a back seat. The Taliban make take *your hand for thievery, your life for adultery, but here in the land of the free we'll take a year of your life for failing to properly wear a mask.
What your everyday fascist seems to forget is that even though we can be subjected to slave labor we're still protected by the 5th and 14th Amendments which provide us with Due Process of law.
Which means before life, liberty, or property can be taken we have a right to review the evidence against us, question witnesses, call witnesses, and be adjudicated through a fair and impartial hearing. But in two separate instances of misconduct reports that I reviewed the inmates were denied the opportunity to see the evidence against them.
When they requested that the camera images be presented at their hearings they were told that they couldn't be shown camera images because that would be a "threat to security." The hearing officer reportedly said, "the officer's word is good enough.”
Looking at this logically it's clear that the only way the virus gets introduced into the facility is through infected staff members. Reluctantly the governor ordered the staff as state employees to get vaccinated.
But because of religious exceptions many were exempted from doing so. As for the inmates we were 100 percent vaccinated since the non-vaxers were moved to separate pods. So, why Orwellian tactics?
Whether because of terrorism or COVID the authoritative response in this country always seems to overstep legal boundaries and constitutional protections.
We need to remind ourselves that perceived emergencies aren't invitations to create Orwellian dystopias. In moments of emergency is when we most need the rule of law to protect us from the tyrannies of man. Because historically speaking it's in these moments that our most unspeakable travesties have occurred.
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