This story was told by a person incarcerated at Avenal.
UCI: And what has COVID been like for you? What have you experienced?
Caller: COVID’s been, COVID’s been horrible here. When it first launched, when COVID first hit here, we were just locked in our building and pretty much confined to our dorms for roughly about a year. We literally only had access to the bathrooms and the showers, and minimal contact on the phones. Our visitations have been completely pulled.
Just recently, within the last few months, CDCR has tried to implement visitation. So, they do video visits now which is done on the internet, which is pretty cool. That’s actually helpful.
But, you only get an hour. And then, your contact visits are on Sundays and they’re only for two hours, which, you know, is hard for 99 percent of the population here. Just simply that, you know, not all of our families live right down the street. So, like, you know, my family comes from five and a half hours away and they have to drive five and a half hours for a two hour visit, and it’s just, it’s just too much.
So, you know, I haven’t even had a visit. I haven’t seen my family since the very beginning of COVID. We were restricted to yard every day. We did get yard every day, only for two hours, and it was only by ourselves. We couldn’t go out. We usually go to the yard with three other buildings.
We ate chow by ourselves. All programs were cut off. All school, all vocations, all self-help. And then, you know, as, as of about three months ago we started to open up slowly. You know, they did give us our shots. Everyone got their – well, it was optional. Most people got their vaccines.
Two people died in my building with COVID. We have a population of about 150 guys in my building, two people for sure died. It’s been rough. You know, the food was bad. You know, it’s been bad, the whole situation.
You know, the governor gave us, I think he gave us 12 weeks off of our sentence just pretty much for doing time during the COVID pandemic. You know, what was kind of cool too, was even though we were in prison we still got our stimulus check. Were you guys getting stimulus checks out there?
UCI: Yeah, we did get stimulus checks. And that’s actually great to hear. I’m glad you got that. That’s, like, the light in the tunnel.
Caller: For sure, you know, because, you know, it definitely helped out, it lightened the load on our families. I would say a good portion of the population got their stimulus checks. And, you know, we live very basic lives here. I’m sure you know, and I’m sure from what you’ve heard it’s a, you know, there’s not a lot that we look forward to.
You know, visits, you know, going to the store, getting packages, getting mail, making our phone calls, and believe it or not being able to get in the shower. Those are, like, the highlights of our day, you know. And so, when everybody got their stimulus checks it was kind of cool because, you know, everyone’s going to the store, we’re getting packages. People were buying stuff that they didn’t have access buying before they had the stimulus checks.
You know, so, there was a couple of good perks. But, outside of that, you know, the pandemic, the COVID, we were isolated. You know, no visits, limited access to the other inmate population. A lot of us were going stir crazy, you know.
I did see the, our, the prison that I’m at here, it seems like they were behind in prevention. So, once one person got it, it just took off like a wildfire. I think about 90 percent of the building that I’m in tested positive for COVID, including myself. And like I said, we didn’t get our vaccines until, like, six months after.
And just recently they’ve opened up the program again where people are going to work and vocations. It’s still limited, you know. We usually go to vocation five days a week and now we’re only going two days a week. So, it’s been bad. What else do you guys want to know about and I’ll tell you about it?
UCI: Well, first, thank you so much for sharing all of that. I really appreciate it, it means a lot to us.
Caller: Is there anything in particular you guys are looking for?
UCI: Anything, anything about your experience. Like, how did you cope with all of this?
Caller: It was rough, you know. You know what I did do? I signed up for a pen pal service and that was kind of cool. I guess, you know, because everyone was sitting at home doing the same thing we’re doing, I signed up for a pen pal service.
And that was cool. I was able to, you know, get some mail and meet some people. I met a couple of people in the UK, I met a couple of people across the United States, a couple of people right here in California. So, I was able to, you know, stay occupied. I work out every day, so I was able to occupy some of my day working out.
I wrote letters. I do, do correspondence college classes. I’m actually a student at [redacted] college as well as [redacted]. So, I’m working towards my AA right now.
So, I was able to, during the COVID, because we didn’t have anything to do, I was taking, you know, five to six classes a semester and really, like, you know, knocking it out. So, I was working on a lot of college. I called my family.
And then, outside of that, you know, it was just, you know, staying busy. I really consumed my days because, you know, like I said, we have very limited access to yard. We weren’t going out, we weren’t going to school, we weren’t going to vocs, we weren’t going to any of our self-help. We were literally trapped in the building for a year. That’s, that’s what we did.
So, you know, my morning I would wake up, work out, shower, and then, I worked, I consumed myself with college. You know, I went above and beyond on all of my college classes. You know, if the teacher offered extra credit, I did it, whereas of before I may not have did the extra credit because of time restraints. But, due to being trapped like we were, I just consumed myself.
You know, I did see a lot of guys here that were having a little bit more of a difficult time than I was, you know. They weren’t involved in college, they weren’t involved in, you know. So, they struggled, I felt, like a little bit more, you know.
I mean, everybody has a different program that they’re doing, but some of these guys just sat around and they didn’t have anything to do. Like I said, I was pretty fortunate, I was able to still maintain college and occupy a lot of my time doing that.
UCI: That is amazing. You said you took five to six classes?
Caller: Yeah, yeah, I did. In fact, this semester I’m taking five classes this semester. Last semester I took five, no, no, excuse me, last semester was summer, right?
UCI: Yeah, it was summer.
Caller: Okay, so, no, no, last semester I took two. The semester before that I took five. So, pretty much every semester except for summer I’ve been taking five to six classes. I knocked out my language.
For my language I took American Sign Language. I took American Sign Language one and two. That was pretty cool. That consumed a lot of time trying to memorize all the hand gestures and all that stuff. But, yeah, because of the pandemic I’m, I’m like, just probably a few classes away from getting my AA. I’ve actually taken quite a few other classes.
In prison, every college class that you take and you pass with a C or better, they knock three weeks off your sentence. When you get your AA, you get what’s called an educational merit, they knock six months off your sentence. If you get your BA they knock an additional six months off of your prison sentence.
So, not only was I taking college to not only improve myself and also get my AA, but I was also working towards knocking my sentence down, being able to get out sooner and get home to work and my family and all that good stuff.
UCI: That is fantastic to hear. Congratulations, because that’s amazing. I can’t even do five to six classes.
Caller: You’re also out there, though, in the real world. I mean, you guys’ time is a little bit different, you know. You guys probably have to work, you know, you got Starbucks you got to stop by in the morning and all that cool stuff, you know. We don’t have that.
UCI: No, truly, what you said was great, it was beautiful. That was really motivational.
Caller: Yeah, I mean, that was, like, a huge chunk of my day to day, how I, how I passed the time. It’s still hard now. We still have restrictions.
You know, like, even as we’re coming out of it. We’re all vaccinated. I know that, well, not all of us, most of us. They’re talking about we’re getting boosters.
But, even with where we’re at now, we’re not fully back up and going. They’re constantly COVID testing us. If you go to dental they COVID test you. With dental, for some reason, they give a lot of false positives. Where you’ll go in there, say you’re going to dental to get a cavity filled, they give you.
He just came back. Well, what they do is, they go and they roll you and your whole dorm up and they put you in isolation for two weeks. I’m sorry, what was your name again?
UCI: My name is [redacted].
Caller: It’s going to hang up. Do you want me to call you back?
UCI: Of course. If you have more to share you are more than welcome to call back.
Caller: Yeah, I can tell you whatever you want, it’s up to you.
UCI: Of course, I would love to hear more about your experience.
Caller: If I call you right back will I get you?
UCI: Yeah, it will be me if you call right back.
Caller: All right, I’ll call you right back then.
