04.17.2021
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Orange County
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Full Story
This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Orange County Theo Lacy Jail.
This guy a few cells down from me received a letter, you guys were asking how OCSD is treating us during the pandemic. I'm 26-years-old from Lake Forest, CA currently incarcerated for a domestic dispute. I have not been in jail for over six years, I changed my life for myself and for my kids. Being back in jail has been a horrible experience.
Jail is not what it used to be 6 years ago. It was never this bad. For one these is no social distancing no matter what they say. The swab tests they do are completely optional, so whoever is sick denies the tests, because they are housed somewhere or with someone they are already comfortable with, and they don't want to be moved to a quarantine mod.
They give out these high-powered meds now to keep everyone sedated pretty much, I guess you can say. For example, literally if you ask a nurse to be put on suboxone or Subutex they will just give it to you two times a day during normal pill call times. If you say you have anxiety, they give you Xanax, stuff like that. It's like if they want us all tired and out of it that way we're not needy.
I don't know but yeah. Never in my life I would have thought jail would be like this. They pretty much are letting inmates get high with pharmacy meds. People cheek their pills, sell them off to other people for items like toilet paper, soap, soups, milk, etc. I myself do not use drugs so all this is a horrible experience. It's like a mental institute in here with a bunch of college kid deputies who antagonize people who aren't mentally there in the head.
Moving on to a different subject, I was arrested in March. Two days later in jail I was eating a sandwich when my heart began racing out of nowhere. I pressed my medical emergency button in my cell and told them I couldn't breathe. The nurse luckily responded fast and long story short, my heart rate was 223 and still climbing. The equipment could no longer read my heart rate and the nurses panicked, called the outside fire department and paramedics.
I was in and out of consciousness, all I remember was crying telling the nurse if she could tell my mom and daughter I love them. The fire department told me I was not going to die on their watch. They began an IV on me and I forgot the name of what they injected me with, but they said it restarts your heart. They transported me to the UCI Medical Center where I stayed for four hours getting better. When I got back to the jail, later that night my heart rate went out of control again.
I pressed my medical button, and the deputy came on my speaker being a smartass for no reason saying, "911 emergency, how can I assist you!" My response was, "Yes sir, I'm having chest pains again." He laughed and told me to stop having anxiety and talk to him on his next walk. I couldn't believe it. I did a few things the nurse told me to do and luckily it worked.
After an hour he stopped at my cell at like two am and said, "Why are you crying for, pressing my damn button." I told him it was no joke; I need to see a nurse. He looked at me and said, "I can't wait to fuck you up for being drama," and handed me a medical slip, said tell someone who cares. There is so much more to tell you it's just too much to write.
There's not hot food, they give us three bologna sandwiches for our food, breakfast, lunch, dinner. The lunch meat is slimy, tastes so nasty, people are in here crying because they are so hungry. We literally get three sandwiches total for the day with a fruit and a side of carrots.
The mats we sleep on are like sleeping on a tortilla. The mattress I currently have is torn and really messed up. I've been asking for a new one for three days and am still waiting. I'm not going to try and sound tough like I look, but I cry myself to sleep asking for my mom because of the way we're treated.
I have had a change of heart, I'm not the person I used to be. I had a big heart, I care for rother people to be treated the way they do just hurts. So far, I have only been in jail for 20 days and I have spent $500 on commissary food, feeding people around me who don't have anything coming. I do it out of heart, but I promised myself if I get out on this case I'm in jail for, I want to help people on the "inside" have a voice that will be heard.
The deputies pretty much control the nurses. On one of my appointments to see the nurse, she prescribed me an inhaler because of my breathing but had to go to another office to get it. She asked the deputy to wait two minutes with me while she can go grab it and his response was, "I got a ton of other things to do," and she looked at him upset and said, "But this is an emergency, this is someone's life," and instead he had me go back to my cell where she later brought it to me.
There is so much to even say. I'm going o start wrapping this up, I do not care if you make this what I'm telling you anonymous or not. You don't have to if you don't want to. I don't mind if you put my name out there. I think its cool how you reached out, at least someone cares.
Your letter was never directed to me, but you did say to have someone write you who is experiencing anything. I went ahead and wrote you a few. There's just too much to write. Thank you, guys, for reaching out, I'm not sure if you did want to visit me, I would be willing. You just have to call and schedule. If not, no worries. Thank you for your time.
Not sure if its too much to ask, but I'm facing 48 years, I was wondering if you can print me pictures of me and my daughter from my Facebook. I have like four accounts I forgot the password to but if you can click on the most recent account and send me pictures of me and my daughter. My profile picture is me wearing a "Modelo" tank top, with a lot of tattoos.
If you can, send me all the pictures from my account. They allow up to 10 items in one envelope here.
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