This story was told by a person incarcerated at Stockton.
And when you said that they don’t have any medicine, what do you mean by that?
Caller: I mean, they didn’t ever give me nothing. Because, the only thing they did when I was struggling on the breathing, they put me on a ventilator for a little while, right, but like I was telling them “My chest is hurting, you know, I’m in pain, my back.”
And what happened was, when I coughed, my hips hurt at the time when I had COVID. They didn’t give me no pain — they offered me some Aspirins, and I don’t take those because they mess your blood up and stuff.
So, yeah. You kind of like I said, you know, they think people abuse medication or whatever, but they tell me “We don’t give out pain medication.” For some people, they did.
Some people who have family members calling, they said they gave me medicine, but me, you know, I’m 58-years-old, so I’m the second to the family, and all my parents and stuff have passed away, you know.
My wife, they left a long time ago. So, I didn’t have nobody, you know. My kids, I’m not in touch with them because I’ve been in here so long, you know, almost 30 years. So, I’m kind of on my own. But the people who had their family call, they got help, but I didn’t because I didn’t have nobody.
UCI: So, if somebody wanted to take Tylenol, let’s say, to help with their symptoms, the facility wouldn’t have given them something?
Caller: Yes, that’s all they offered me, like, some regular over-the-counter, right, and I was telling them that’s not good for my liver and kidneys, you know, because based on other medical documents I got, they tell me don’t take those. So, I told them “You have to give me like codeine medicine or, you know, a shot or something or something stronger,” and they refused to.
But those other people, similar like me, and their family called, so they was getting medication. So, it’s like a priority system, you know?
