This story was told by a family member of someone incarcerated at Corcoran.
UCI: And how have you been coping with this, like, do you know how maybe you’ve been coping with it, how your brother’s been coping with it? How have you guys been pushing through?
Caller: I mean, we still haven’t been able to find anybody that’s willing to help us or to investigate what’s going on, to investigate the negligence that’s going on at the institution. We have contacted a number of lawyers, everybody seems to be overwhelmed with COVID cases, with inmates that are in the institution system that they’re just overwhelmed, nobody wants to pick up the case. We still can’t find any type of legal help, yeah, I mean, it’s hard, it’s stressful. He’s still going through a lot, like I said, he’s still in segregation now and this happened back in December.
Yeah, I mean it’s been stressful for me as well, like I said, I’m trying to cope with, you know, with my family and make sure that my family’s taken care of and I got to deal with his situation as well. And it seems like I can’t get any help, I can’t get any resources and I kind of feel like giving up in a way and just telling him to deal with it when he gets out but I don’t think that’s a reality. You know, it’s my family member and his health is at risk, and so I got to continue to help him as much as I can.
UCI: Yeah, do you have any idea if he has been offered the vaccine or will be offered the vaccine?
Caller: Yeah, what the doctor told me was that they have a list of inmates that are getting the vaccine. This was back in January, and that he would be the last on list to get it, just because he already contracted it.
UCI: Oh, that might have been hard to hear.
Caller: Yeah, I think it was but, I mean, I don’t think it’s as, you know, as much as bad news as it is finding out that he had it and how he got it.
UCI: Yeah, I mean this question, I mean, might be obvious but what do you think they could’ve done better like how could’ve this been managed better, in your opinion?
Caller: I think they shouldn’t leave it up to correctional officers to decide whether an inmate has symptoms or, you know, they should be isolated with inmates that do have it. I think that that’s something that should be in the hands of medical staff. Like, I don’t think officers should be, they’re not in the medical field, and so I don’t think they should be left with that type of authority where they can diagnose inmates and rehouse them and you know, determine whether they have COVID or not.
Caller: Because, like I said, from what I understand is that they’re abusing that authority that they’re given. If they have an issue with an inmate on the yard that’s giving them problems, you know, they’ll automatically remove them in that form, in that way, is by saying “Okay, this guy” you know, “We believe has COVID, has symptoms,” and they’ll move him out of the building, out of the yard, into segregation, just as a form of retaliation, as a form of discipline.
So yeah, I don’t think, I think they could’ve avoided it, just by leaving that decision up to medical staff only to diagnose an inmate that might have COVID.
