This story was told by a person incarcerated at an ICE/Private-Contractor facility.
UCI: Oh, I was just going to ask how was COVID like on your facility? What’s it been like?
Caller: Right now it’s at its highs. It’s, we’re currently housed in a different location than we usually are. There has been plenty of peers that are around me that have acquired and contracted the COVID-19 virus and had to go back on a 14 day quarantine away from our population and segregation.
And then, and now, they’re making it back into, integrating them back into our segregated areas. And it’s at its highest right now, so it’s pretty crazy. You know, people are under the weather still, they’re still trying to gain their weight back.
You know, they’ve been pretty sick. They’re still trying to gain energy as far as the virus. It’s taken a toll on them pretty heavy, on a few of my fellow peers. It’s crazy.
UCI: Has it been stressful to adapt to it and to rebound back?
Caller: Yeah, it’s been pretty stressful for the most part, you know, considering that I couldn’t even [unintelligible] and what not. And other people around us.
And they’re constantly, every couple of days, they’re taking a swab sample and then coming back within the hour and pulling two people out of our tank it seems like every time they do a swab session every couple of days. So, that’s how it’s been. It’s crazy.
UCI: Has your facility done a good job in dealing with COVID, or do you think they could have done better?
Caller: They could do a lot better. Considering I got not that much time left in this facility until my release date. And they do a 14 day quarantine, but they’re not honoring 14 days out to the house so we can reunite with our loved ones without contracting COVID before we come out of this facility. So, I don’t know, it’s sort of biased.
