This story was told by a person incarcerated at John Latorraca Correctional Center.
UCI: Okay. And tell me a little bit about how the COVID situation has been like at your facility.
Caller: Well, basically, everything is, like, locked down here. We have no type of – well, they say we don’t have no contact with other people, but we still walk the same yard, talk to the same COs and stuff like that. So, I really don’t know how that’s quarantine or not, but that’s what they’re doing here.
UCI: Mmhmm.
Caller: And the reason I’m calling is because, the main thing is, like, the visits and the court system.
UCI: Mmhmm.
Caller: The facility, I guess, it’s all right. It’s doing what it has to do, I guess, to maintain, I guess, how do you say it? The quarantine or their job as safely as they can. I mean, I know our safety and their safety is the most important thing, right? Safety first.
UCI: Mmhmm.
Caller: But when it comes to our visits, and then with everything, like, upcoming, like you know, everything is like running right now. And I don’t understand why we can’t get visits even though we’re facilitated to have behind the glass. I mean, we have a phone. Even before this started, we had visits and the glass, no contact.
And I’m like, why can’t we have our visits? There’s some of us that are gonna go to prison, and then the prison is not letting us have visits. And that’s like six years of saying we can’t see nobody. That’s kind of like, you know, we’re not animals. We do have loved ones.
We do have families that, you know, we’re not cold cut killers. Well, I mean, there might be some here, but I’m, most of us aren’t. I mean, that’s bothering me because there’s incidents in prison already, that it’s been shutting down that, I mean, people have killed themselves in prison already because of this. From not being able to visit their family.
UCI: Mmhmm.
I mean, it’s crazy in here because we don’t know nobody to begin with when we come in here. I mean, everybody is a stranger. I mean how – I’m not going to open up to nobody and talk to them. They’re not going to give me the same comfort my family is.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: And they’re denying us that. And it’s bothering me, and I’m trying to, I’m doing it the legal – like, the right way. I’m not doing anything crazy. I’m, you know, I’m pushing in the paperwork and I’m doing it by their rules, and I still can’t get no, I can’t get nothing done.
UCI: Mmhmm.
They just keep on bypassing me and bypassing me and I’m like, I mean “Who do I need to talk to?” And everybody gives the same answer. “We don’t know. We’ll get back at you later.”
It’s been going on for a month now and I still don’t get no – I mean, I even asked for paperwork on, like, what is their procedure on this? And all I got was a printout saying that you can’t turn in no grievances and you have to wait until later.
I was like what kind of, that’s not no – That’s nothing to do with, I mean, they’re just telling me not to put no grievance in. They’re not telling me why and how and what study or who said that we can’t have visits.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: And what grounds? I mean, are you guys keeping us from the street? And then the court system, it’s even more horrible because they’re trying to make us talk to our lawyers over these phones that record.
I mean, and taking our confidentiality –
UCI: Mmhmm.
Caller: – between us and the lawyers away. I mean, how are we supposed to talk to our lawyers when we know the DA, the cops are all listening to us?
Because it says it is on the beginning of the phone call. And they listen to it because of safety reasons, but at the same time, I mean, where’s our rights at?
UCI: Mmhmm.
Caller: So, like, that’s why I was calling, it’s kind of crazy that it’s making it okay for them to do this right now.
Just because a couple things are sick, I mean, this facility to have contact visits – not contact, I mean behind the glass visits. And to have video cameras like that Zoom or whatever it’s called. Whatever it’s called. To get visits, because they do the court system like that.
UCI: Mmhmm.
