This story was told by a person incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail.
UCI: And so, on another topic, how has reduced visitation and programming been like for you and others?
Caller: It’s been real – real bad because even, they said that the video, that finally they got the videos and the video still doesn’t work that good. I guess due to the wifi, it cuts off, it stays off. And not being able to see your family and things of that nature has been really hard.
And even with programming. That they did the programming that most of us worked or was in school and when they quit all of that programming, we just was isolated, just sitting around doing nothing. And we got, from the department, the 90 days for that year that we would’ve been programming and that’s all the good time we received, which we would’ve received more than that throughout the year if they had continued programming.
UCI: And did it recently start up again or has it been up for a few months or so?
Caller: Well, still real slow, you know. They done started back some college courses and things of that nature but as far as work, per se, it’s still not, not going. They have what they call the critical workers like people that feed people or the yard crew that cleans up the garbage, but for most of us, we’re still just sitting around, doing nothing. No programming.
UCI: And on that note with reduced visitation, reduced programming, and many other things, how have you been coping with this crisis?
Caller: Basically, just trying to know more about this. As in society because we haven’t got too much information, just a little bit from our family members or the news. And just trying to program the best that we can for ourselves. Trying to read, trying to get more literature in, books, or things like that and try to just better educate myself on things because that’s all the programming that I’ve been able to do.
UCI: And how have, like, loved ones been dealing with the whole COVID situation? Like, how has the situation for them affected, how has COVID affected your loved ones?
Caller: Well, I had some family members that died due to COVID, so it’s been hard for me in here, as well as them out there. So, I had two members of my family die because of COVID. So, we’re just trying to deal with things from both perspectives, for me in here and those out there, as well as we can.
Because it’s been hard, laid off from work, things build, build things like that. So, it’s been hard for, for both sides.
