This story was told by a family member of someone incarcerated at CIW (California Institution for Women).
UCI: And what has your mom’s experience been like with their version of quarantining? Did she explain that a little bit in the process?
Caller: It’s basically like just solitary confinement but you’re alone. Like, like you’re really- I don’t know she didn’t really go into too much detail. She did say though that they are doing things that are kind of like messed up. There’s no place for them to be doing like, they, basically, they turned out they wouldn’t let them, they set this water conservation. So, they’re not letting them shower.†
She hasn’t been able to shower for two days. And that’s the last time I talked to her, which was yesterday. And I don’t know if she showered today. I don’t know if they allowed her to, but she said she used a sink in her cell. And that’s what she’s been using to shower.
UCI: Hmm. So, as family then, when you hear these things that your mom does tell you, have you heard anything from the facility she’s in? Have they given you kind of any you know kind of any indication when your mom does go into quarantine? Is there any communication in that regard to you guys?
Caller: No. They don’t tell us at all that all. They don’t let me know and that’s the part that upsets me cause I don’t know if something happened because there was like kind of an issue going on where she was being harassed by a CO. And I had like, I don’t know if they use quarantine to just take her like and put her in solitary confinement, or if they really wanted to quarantine her as well but they did that, as well, during this time.
And it’s like, they kind of abused their power. And it just really sucks because they didn’t even tell me, and I didn’t hear from her for like a whole week. And I was wondering “what happened? Why is my mom not calling? Why wasn’t she emailing me? Like what’s going on?”
And so, I called them and they’re like, “We’ll look into it.” I was like, “But that’s my mom. I need to know she’s okay.”
UCI: Yeah. Absolutely.
Caller: And it’s just hard. And it’s like if I get upset and I argue with them, or I try to speak up, they go and they take it out on her. And it’s not fair.
