This story was told by a person incarcerated at Todd Road Jail.
Caller: I do know that right here, they hardly don’t do like the testing for COVID, due to the fact that all they did was one test on me. And that’s it, and not to the other inmates, and before they even bring them to the population. And when people are – test positive for COVID, I mean, they just remove them.
But yet they put them with other cellmates that could contact that – that virus. I mean, there is really no – no quarantine for – for like the rest of the inmates. There’s no way of knowing – there’s no way of knowing who has it or who doesn’t, and they keep us in the dark.
UCI: You mentioned that they – whenever somebody contacts it, they just get moved with other inmates. So you guys don’t have any kind of, like, quarantine section or anything like that?
Caller: No, like when you first get processed at the main jail in Ventura, they do a little screening, they do just like – they get just a like q-tip, you know what I mean? They rub it on their nose, and then that’s it. They put you in – in a holding tank like for suicide watch. You know what I mean? You just stay there three days, but normally you’re supposed to be there for quarantine.
Well, you’re – they move you, and they bring to Todd Road within the three days, and they segregate you, everybody that comes with you, and plus the people that are already there, and we’re supposed to be in quarantine for two weeks there, until pending our second test. Well, they only did one test on me, and I was only there like three, four days, and they brought me back with the rest of the population, so how – what’s to say that I don’t have it, and they don’t even know because they didn’t do the – the test.
Everybody else that still stays there, you know what I mean, they’re all just being contaminated with – with the virus if they have it.
UCI: Yeah, definitely. What about the vaccination situation? How has that been like at your facility?
Caller: In our facility, they’re not – they’re not doing that unless if you submit a kite. Like I think it’ll be better like, when they first get arrested and they’re – when you’re out of the cop car, they screen you before you’re inside the facility. I – I think that it’s better if they try to offer for – offer us the vaccine right then and there before entering the facility.
That way, we’re at least have one shot ready, you know what I mean, but they’re not even doing that. They tell you if you guys want the vaccine, submit a kite. You know what I’m saying?
But since they’re backed up, since we’re – our population is high right here at the county jail, I mean, sometimes it takes a little over a week to even get it. By that – by that time, people already probably got it, you know what I mean, because they are not being properly screened at the – at the next facility where we’re supposed – we’re supposed to be quarantined.
UCI: I see. And then, for the people who do want to get vaccinated, are they giving you guys any kind of like resources or information on like what exactly vaccination means?
Caller: No, they’re – technically, they’re supposed to put a memo in our section allowing us to read regarding the vaccine. I just found out that I think there’s what – like three types of vaccine that we could get.
I’m not sure of the names of it, but we could get — there’s three types of vaccines that we could get for the COVID-19, and they said to talk to our doctor if we have one or to the medical staff right here to see which is appropriate for us to get, which they don’t even give us nothing to read.
They don’t put nothing in regards of COVID-19, how to like better prepare ourselves or – or nothing. They just said keep – keep six-feet, you know what I mean, stay a distance between six-feet so you won’t get it, but we all live together. It’s so packed that there is day rooms, and – and there is bunks in the dayroom.
So anybody could get in, and the symptoms are the same thing. Like if you get the flu, like if you’re sick, it’s the same symptoms, you know what I mean, that people get when they have COVID-19. And when people report that they are sick, they don’t do nothing.
