My name is James Johnson and I am currently at Rikers Island. I want people to know that we are very sick and that the conditions here are terrible.

It all started when we had five inmates who went down to medical and came back. A few days later they were sick.

One guy was just done for, he was so ill. They took him downstairs and we never saw him again. Another gentleman in that group was still upstairs with us, like it was all normal. He was just coughing on everything in here. If you were playing cards with him or if he was on the phone, or even if he was just by you, he was coughing. Then it was like a domino effect. Right now we have at least 13 guys with the same or similar symptoms, including myself.

It started about a week and a half ago. When I sat up I got dizzy, and I was like, What the hell? So I finally got up and my legs gave out under me. I sat down and I got one of the guys to go tell an officer that I’m not feeling well.

When the guard came around, he told me, “Oh, call 311” – meaning the official complaint line for the department of corrections. What do you mean “Call 311”? This is the response that you get from sergeants and certain officers that are on your floor.

I’m sick even now. I have a fever – I get hot and cold flashes. I have no taste and I can’t smell. And I have excruciating headaches.

The jail authorities have done basically nothing for me. They gave me some Motrin IBs for my headaches, which don’t work. It’s really bad here.

The accessibility that the department of corrections claim they’re doing for us, it’s not happening. You can’t go down to medical here. The corrections officers tell you, “Oh, somebody’s down there, so you can’t go downstairs.” I have chronic asthma on top of all this, and they say that there are no nebulizing machines available – none of the medical supplies that we should have here.

Everyone at Rikers is sick, and we can’t get any treatment. They aren’t taking us down to medical, so we are just in our regular dorm. Our beds are about 16 inches apart. We don’t have adequate space for social distancing. It’s impossible.

They just quarantined our housing unit, and bring us juice or water every so often. As far as the food being brought upstairs, it’s being brought up in plastic bags. So it’s no good.

Furthermore, the guys who are bringing the food to you are exposed. They’re coming from quarantined dorms to serve our food. Those trays are being transported between inmates who are sick. They don’t have the proper gear, either. The masks that they did give out are the same ones that we’ve been walking around with for over three weeks. And that’s the person that’s carrying your food. Would you eat that? No. This is what we’re subjected to.

Emotionally, I’m a wreck. I have chronic asthma and I fear for my health. I fear for my safety. I’m just tremendously down. Any given moment I could be in real danger. It’s pretty dirty in here so that could really trigger my asthma. And there’s really no circulation in here so we’re completely closed in.

I have a wife and eight kids. I just had a brand new daughter; her name is Chris. They’re holding up the best they can. It’s what we all have to deal with for right now.