“They Don’t Care:” Families Of The Incarcerated Fear The Worst As Coronavirus Spreads

Most Fridays, Yezenia Guzman knows where her incarcerated mother-in-law is: at a hospital near the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, receiving treatment for the melanoma in both her legs.

But now, as the coronavirus spreads in the state, Guzman is worried. She hasn’t heard from her mother-in-law in over a week. Prison visits are suspended to reduce exposure to the virus, but she hasn’t received any word if visits to the hospital are cancelled too. She fears that her mother-in-law, who is 65 with a weakened immune system from the cancer treatments, is at a higher risk contracting coronavirus and infecting other women in the prison.

“We are panicking,” Guzman said in a phone interview.

With the threat of coronavirus looming large over the nation’s prisons, The Marshall Project emailed our list of people with family and friends behind bars to understand how they are weathering the crisis. Nearly 450 people in 32 states responded.