This story was told by a person incarcerated at Fresno County Jail.
UCI: Absolutely. And you mentioned earlier on relating to the vaccine that they promised money? Tell me about that situation.
Caller: Yeah, so they put up a little sign on the TV as an announcement to where if you were to take the first shot, you get like a $25. If you were to take two shots, you get like an $83 packet, which comes with coffee, honey buns, chocolates, whatever.
A lot of times, people personally don’t want to take it because of their belief about it, or they’re not able to go on a computer and see what it contains inside. But then you’ve got a lot of people who are homeless, a lot of people who don’t get no money, and they’re getting this packet, and they’re taking the shot, getting this packet, but yet they’re still getting sick, or they’re still getting moved because they’re COVID positive.
But I hear sometimes that you can be asymptomatic, and you could still be a carrier. You might not show any symptoms, you might still seem to be healthy, but you could still pass it on to the next man over, you know? That’s what we were actually talking about earlier today.
But yeah, you’re absolutely right. They offer us money. The majority of us took it, but yet they’re still pulling us out, and those who actually took it are still getting sick.
UCI: That’s super interesting. And for all that they’re doing to promote you all to get vaccinated, do you see that big of a push with the staff?
Caller: So, staff members, to be honest, we all know it’s mandatory. Especially if you have a government job, you need to be fully vaccinated. If you’re not going to be fully vaccinated, you can’t work.
But a lot of times, us inmates, I’m not including myself, because you know, it doesn’t really bug me, but yeah, I would love to see my mom here and there. But I know for a fact that officers come off the streets, they come into work, and they’re starting to pass it around. You know, and they know that.
Some of the COs actually are COVID positive to where they have to self-quarantine. They come back to work believing everything’s okay, but yet they don’t know if they still have that as a carrier. They don’t know if they’re still carrying the COVID in them to where they’re still spreading it.
I know from what I hear from one of the corporals here, he stated that they’re going to try to get us into court online, but he doesn’t know if that’s even going to be anytime soon. He said that might be months from now. That might be till next year, to where everything’s going to be online.
They’ll keep us in a room, they have the jurors, and they have the clerks, they have our attorneys, the DAs, and the judge from home because they’re starting to get COVID positive too.
