This story was told by a person incarcerated at California City.
UCI: Great, so, tell me about your experience with COVID-19.
Caller: Well, the COVID-19 hit at this facility. It wasn’t too bad over here on C-1, but on B side, it was pretty bad for a minute. But now everybody up here, everybody up here have their shots.
We got our shots and everything up here now. And it’s going pretty fair. You know, we’re still wearing our masks and everything until whenever Governor Newsom open up this facility here where we can take our masks off and then open up our program back for us.
UCI: Oh. So-
Caller: And-
UCI: Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Caller: I mean, you know, but besides that, you know, it’s been, you know, even like the only thing is with this facility here, you know, it’s all right, but you know, you know, they get all this money for these programs, you know? We can’t get into – we have – we have people still backlogged for two and three years trying to get into the A&A, AA, Veterans class, all these programs, you know? And we’re figuring out this is a prison here with these programs offered us for what we can go to, but we can’t get into them.
And like what, just a few weeks ago – not a few weeks – I’m saying maybe even last week, you know, we keep on and we’re trying to figure out, us here, okay, we’re in this pain. This is different than California prisons. ‘Cause I’ve been in other prisons in California, and when it comes down to, like, when they escort you to medical, you know?
I never seen them, even being in a California prison, you take a officer from our, from the post in the building where we at, shut our whole program down to bring them out there when you’ve got S&Es for that.
And right now, to me, I’m trying to leave and get back to a regular facility in California, anywhere back up north, because here, you know, you’ve got guys come here to this facility here who don’t have P codes. They throwing P codes on you, trying to keep you here in this facility.
This facility here, it feels – it’s safe for the youth offenders. Okay. If this facility here is for youth offenders, YOPs, why have you got adults around these guys here, even though you know, even gangbangers that’s up here and everything?
You know, you have older people that can influence the young guys doing things. Why do you have, you know, in the same prison with us? These are the things that I’m not understanding about this place right here.
Even though, like last year before the pandemic, before the pandemic, they do potlucks. And I want to figure out where was the potlucks. Potlucks, you know, they all bring food from the streets, and they go to the kitchen or somewhere and eat.
And shut our program down for an hour and two. They don’t do this in regular prisons in California. You know, it’s a lot going on in a California facility that Sacramento don’t know about it, and nobody know about it because nobody speaks up on it, nobody talks about it.
UCI: You’re saying that the correctional staff shut down programs to do their potluck, right?
Caller: Yes. Yes. They do that. Since before the COVID, yes, ma’am, that’s what they’ve been doing. Shut our program down just to go eat for a hour or two, you know, talking to their buddies and everything, you know what? And what prisons do that?
And I talked to a sergeant one day. And I just, I forgot his name. And I asked him, I said, “Man, why every time I look around, like yesterday, they shut our program down?”
Last night, they shut our program down because they took our officer and brought him down to C-2 because they took their officer and sent him out to a medical run because somebody supposedly fell out yesterday on the yard in the heat. What that have to do with us?
You shutting our program down, but you bring our officer down there to open their program up. I mean, I don’t know. It’s just – it’s just so much up here, you know, in California City that a lot of people just need to know about.
UCI: So, how was it, then, during COVID when everything was really shut down? I mean how did that affect programming and all of that?
Caller: Okay. When it was shut down you know, first, first they tell us, “You only can come out to 15 minutes to shower, two cells at a time.” And as time went on, then they – what they’re doing, four cells.
Then they ended up starting to open it up eight cells, you know, four at the bottom and four at the top. Now, right now we’re doing 11 cells. Eleven cells come out.
You know we come out, like, if you come out in the morning at 8:30, 8:30 to 10:30, that’s two hours. Then it go from 1:12 to 1:20, from 10:30 to 12:30. And then from 12:30 to 2:30, they start at 2:01 to 2:10. And at 2:30, they – we start at 2:11 through 2:20.
It’s trying, it’s trying to get a little better. Like I said, you know, I met guys just came in the building where they came from Ironwood. Some people came from Calipat, you know.
And they say that their prisons are opened up. Even they done got their percentages and everything. You know, we still here waiting on and trying to get the percentages – the new percentages that we’re supposed to get for our time off and stuff.
Since May, we haven’t got new dates. We haven’t got new dates or nothing here yet.
UCI: You mean new dates as in release dates, right?
Caller: Yes, ma’am, because it’s, you know, it’s a new percentage just came out May, because we – everybody that had 85 percent already went to 80, and they took five percent off for us. So, now the 80 percent, we’re supposed to be going down to 66 percent.
They’re supposed to be taking off, I think, 13 or 14 percent off of whatever time we have left. But nobody never got any time yet. And some guys that have been up here about – no, I’m gonna say only two guys so far, they got all their milestones and everything.
One guy was talking the other day, working PIA. He got milestones. He was about ready to go home. He said man, he said they laid around and gave him 60 more days.
I said, “How is that?” He said, “Because they overdid them.” They gave him too much of milestones credit when you’re only allowed to get up to two years.
UCI: And were these the individuals that were supposed to be released when COVID first hit and there was that big push to reduce population?
Caller: No, ma’am. No, ma’am. Ain’t nobody – nobody who was here was released during the COVID. No.
That’s why they put these P codes on you when you don’t have them, to keep you here. They get money off you in California for – in this private facility right here. No, ma’am, ain’t nobody left during, during the pandemic, kicking them out to go home during the COVID. No, ma’am, not here.
UCI: Have you seen an increase in people coming in, though, now that restrictions have been lifted?
Caller: You have people – we just started – they just started the other day. They just – 36 people transpack to go to fire camps and other facilities, but you still have people that’s coming from other facilities here. They’re all on A-1 and A-2 side, you know, because they’ve got to be quarantined for the 14 – for the 14 days before they can come in the population where we at.
UCI: Wow. That’s very interesting. And with this kind of shift in people coming in, has there been a push to get vaccinated at your facility?
Caller: The question is – that’s a good question there because it’s two people that came in here. They said they came straight off the bus to here when they should’ve went to quarantine for 14 days. So, I don’t know if they’re vaccinated or not, but I have been vaccinated already, I took both of the shots. Then, everybody that’s already in my pod been vaccinated already.
UCI: Okay. So, there hasn’t been a lot of hesitancy then to get vaccinated at your facility.
Caller: See what I’m saying? Now, they just tell us again they’re about to shut program down again tonight, because the officer leaving. Here no help.
Why are we in a facility where you don’t have enough officers to run, to come to work and do their job, and you’re moving them to other places? They’re not the same officer. You’re leaving again. She said take our showers, and the program over with.
UCI: So, program, you mean phone time then in this case?
Caller: Phone time, program. You know, like right now other people supposed to come out right now, like one to 101 to 111. But now she told us, I’m a porter here, so, she just tell us right now, “Go ahead on, take your showers, make your phone calls, because at 7:00, the program is shut down.”
So, all the rest of the guys don’t get to come out. Nobody gets to come out. So, it’s over with for tonight ’til tomorrow.
UCI: Wow. Wow. I can’t imagine that. Well, do you – do you have to go?
Caller: No. I have to go in, within – I have about five, 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes because I’m a porter.
UCI: Okay. So, they shut down programs then just solely because a staff member isn’t there? Or they don’t – they simply really don’t have enough staff?
Caller: You know, we were shut down last night because one of our officers had to leave and go down to another building and run their program. What do that have to do with us because their officer went out to bring somebody to a medical? Like I’ve been – like I’ve been telling you, except S&Es in other California prisons, you’ve got a gang of S’s that take you out to the hospitals.
You don’t take a person from your – from their – But in 60 seconds this phone about to hang up. It’s nice talking to you.
UCI: Yeah. Thank you so much for telling your story. We really appreciate it.
Caller: Yes, ma’am. You have a blessed day.
UCI: You too. Bye-bye.
Caller: Bye-bye.
