This story was told by a person incarcerated at Donovan.
UCI: I’ll go ahead and I’ll ask you just two questions. And then after that just go ahead and use all your time. What facility are you currently housed at?.
Caller: I’m in RJ Donovan. San Diego, California.
UCI: Okay and then how has the vaccination situation been like at your facility?
Caller: It’s been actually good. It’s been, well at first they were doing all the elderly but right after they got done with all the elderly, if you caught COVID, they were not giving you the vaccine. Like for me, I caught COVID in December, so I didn’t get – eligible for the vaccine until like, March, April. And, but actually, it’s been all right.
As far as vaccinations go, yeah, they’ve been on it. There were actually medical staff going around on the yard, going up to individuals asking them “Do you want the vaccine? Let’s go to the building. Let’s go now. Have you tooken your vaccine?” They actually had two nurses going around on the yard, asking people individually. Because sometimes they know how people are in their cells.
They’re, not everybody is a day programmer. Some people, they like to sleep all day and stay up all night. So when their door opens they’re like “No!” and refuse and whatever. So when, any chance they could get, they actually did go around and ask individuals if they wanted the vaccine.
UCI: Okay, so now you can just go on ahead and you could just tell me anything that you’d like to share for the remainder of the time.
Caller: Okay, when they first started talking about the pandemic, they were taking away our programs, they started taking away our yard. We stopped eating in the chow hall, they started cell feeding us and nobody knew. We seen on the news, like we have televisions in our cell.
And we seen on the news with everything and things going on out on the streets and everything. But when it actually hit Donovan and it was, it spreaded like, it was like one week, four cases of COVID.
Two weeks, I think the doctor said it was 400, and no 200, it was like 200 percent in one week. 200 hundred people had COVID. And then right after that it’s like the whole facility caught COVID. They’ll go around and ask “Do you want to get tested?” COVID testing. And a lot of people refused, even though they knew they were sick or had COVID because they didn’t want to get quarantined and move to another block.
They would feel comfortable remaining in a block or celly or whatever. When I caught COVID, I tested, I tested positive, they moved me to another block. But what – what got me was, why did they keep my celly you, know?
My celly was right there you know, both of us were there in the same cell. I know he got sick. He didn’t want to move so he didn’t want to test. So just because he refused to test, he got to stay in the block.
Which just, and then he, I told him “Man you’re just going to spread it. You’ll do it worse. Just come with me and get this quarantine over with.” But what they should’ve done was, as soon I was tested positive, they knew I was sick.
They should’ve had me, my celly, and quarantined us both but, then the numbers got too high. Where there’s like the whole yard had COVID. Every building, every block, every tier, every cell, somebody [unintelligible]. And then the people that were asymptomatic, “Oh I didn’t get COVID, I didn’t catch COVID.”
And then they test, they come out positive for COVID but they’re like “Well I’m not sick.” I was like “Dude, you don’t understand the medical, your mind can’t comprehend the-” I’m not educated either but I understand that asymptomatic means you caught the virus. You are able to give it to us or somebody.
Just because you’re not feeling sick or have a headache or whatever doesn’t mean you can’t give it or pass it around. And once the first old man that passed away on my block, he was an elderly guy he was, oh I can’t say his name.
When I would push him for – I’ve been in this facility for a couple of years and I used to be an ATA. Meaning I used to push people that were in wheelchairs that cannot wheel themselves to medical or wheel themselves to the chow hall. I used to take this man to the chow hall every morning to sit down and eat breakfast with this man. And when he died, Oh that, that hurt.
But the thing was, when everybody had COVID, they were not giving us nothing. You could have a high temp, you could have problems breathing and they won’t take you nowhere. And basically if you died, you died.
They were not giving us nothing for a fever, they’re not giving us no, nothing for a headache. Two types of medication. There was too many people that caught COVID that they were overwhelmed. They got this facility, I know they [unintelligible], they were not prepared for what happened.
I have no animosity towards the staff. I know that there’s and some cops that they really don’t care about us. They think that we’re the scum of the earth. But there’s also the medical staff that do care, that do give a shit.
There’s officers that do care and yeah it was crazy. But then they sent us to quarantine in a building where six people died. And I was like, one of them was a canteen worker that I knew for years too and it was mainly elderly. You know, if you were old and had health complications, you were likely one to pass away.
There was another old man from San Diego actually too, oh man. Just broke my heart. Just elderly people that were just dying and this frustrated me because I had a high fever, I couldn’t breathe, and there was no fever reducer, no type of medication, nothing.
Nothing. All they did was come, take your temperature, take your, your vitals. Basically your blood pressure, test to see you’re good in oxygen, in your lungs, and just because and I had a fever and I didn’t understand like, I know when you’re cooking up a 104, 106, fever they’d take you to the hospital or something to cool you down but.
But they did not do nothing and it amazes, not amaze me but just like, upsetted me and I was just like, it was real weird how easy our, this pandemic has just toppled society. Even us, being in prison it just like, really knocked us, knocked everybody down it was crazy.
And it was, and I had just caught sickness in Kern Valley State Prison called “Valley Fever”. It’s a fungus in your lungs and I caught pneumonia and this was a couple of years prior to COVID. And my left lung, they needed to put a test tube into my left lung and I had a test tube in my back for two weeks.
So when I caught the COVID, I used to workout, I used to jog, I used to run, and as soon as I caught the COVID, I was totally different now. I’m, my workout routine is not the same and yeah it’s crazy, This sickness really really affected everybody and not only me.
And what else was I going to tell you. And as far as the visitations and stuff, they took all the visiting away and everything and I understand, you know. They don’t want it to spread or nothing but now that everybody is getting vaccinated, and I do believe they know which inmates are vaccinated and if our people can provide proof that they’re vaccinated, they should allow us to have visits.
If not, they could still set up something where they – it’s illegal for us to have cellphones in here, right? But a lot of people buy new stuff like that [unintelligible] one and, but that was a blessing to have that to Facetime my family, my friends, to get on Facebook to tell my, my friends “ Hey I just got sick” you know and all the thoughts and prayers that poured in and just Facetime with my family, letting them know I’m okay, it’s okay.
And they’re hearing on the news all the stuff that’s going on in Donovan and the protestors, the families, and everybody that comes outside the facility to protest on some weekends. They don’t do it all the time but it’s been known to happen.
It’s, yeah it’s been a different experience. I’m 41 years old and it’s just like blew my mind how this pandemic has affected everybody and just to see the people that passed away that were around me. And it’s crazy, and I’m pretty sure it’s happening out in the streets.
I’ve had people, luckily I didn’t have no family members pass away, but know a lot of people that lost people out there in the streets and it can take a toll. If you don’t believe in God or have a higher power, some of these people, they do go crazy.
Caller: Like they go into a dark – well there’s the time right there.
UCI: Yeah. Thank you so much for calling in today. Feel free to write us. You can also always send us a drawing or anything. Or you can call us anytime you’d like and if you know anyone else that wants to call or write in, they can. They can also write in or call in any language and we’ll see if we can find someone to help them out and everything.
Caller: All right. I think I’m going to end up writing and telling you more of the story right here in Donovan.
UCI: Okay and mainly for Spanish if anyone wants to call in Spanish, we usually have someone that can help out with Spanish as well.
Caller: Okay, will do. Thank you. I appreciate you and thank you Professor, and tell Professor [redacted] to that I appreciate her and what she’s doing.
