This story was told by a person incarcerated at an ICE/Private-Contractor facility.
UCI: Yeah. How has the COVID situation at your facility affected your loved ones?
Caller: Well, you know, we were not able to see our family for almost a year. Before, you know, when the pandemic first started, they stopped all visits.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: And so we weren’t able to see them, you know, physically up until, like, I don’t know. Sometime after the beginning of this year is when we started getting, you know, the visits.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: It’s very hard, you know, for our family members. And then here, there is no contact visits, you know. Some detainees, there’s detainees who have been here for, like, four years.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: You know, it’s a very harsh situation here, you know, to be this facility. It was designed, it’s a very small county jail, and it was designed only for, you know, having local people.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: So not to hold people for long term or facilitate, you know, detainees with, you know, making the lawyer calls or, you know, even just, you know, for basic medical needs. You know, they’re not, you know, they’re not designed for, you know, for to take care of, you know, prisoners, like, you know, detainees like ourselves, you know?
UCI: Mhmm. And what do you think would have made the situation at your facility better?
Caller: Well, to be honest with you, if they would have – the way that this was designed here, if we weren’t here at all, you know, period, you know.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: Because we were locked down, you know, with the – we were locked down 19 hours a day. You know, we would come up for, you know, the rest of the hours.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: And you would come out at night, you know, in the morning, and you had, you know, contact with the local, you know, prisoners that were, you know, that come in and out of here, you know, out of this county jail for this county.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: So, you know, you were always, you know, kind of fearing for your life, you know, because, you know, you never know if you’re going get it, you know. A lot of us did get it, you know?
