This story was told by a person incarcerated at Elmwood Correctional Facility.
UCI: And how has the COVID situation been like there?
Caller: Oh, man, it’s been – it’s pretty rough. So, we got – I went from the beginning of the pandemic when it first started and it’s been very different throughout the whole time. So, like, in the beginning of the pandemic, when we first came in the incarceration.
Like, there’s – that we have what’s called commissary to where we’re able to go to the store, like once a week to buy necessities, like hygiene products, or sometimes extra food or whatever that we eat per week, we’re able to go every week. And like, at first due to the COVID like there’s no incoming shipments and nothing like that. So, the like, beginning was very hard.
So, all we’re able to eat was like the first the three meals that they would provide us every day with very, like small servings, you know. So, it’s very difficult, wasn’t to where we could actually buy a personal hygiene items like we usually do, or buy more food like we usually do to make it throughout the week. And now it’s I’d say like within the past month, we’ve been having like a big surge of breakouts.
So, I’m on the minimum level camp, which is called the farm and it’s usually holds anywhere from like 1,300 to a couple 100 people at least at the very least at one time. And during the surge, when the surge hit, they went as low as moving people around from the farm facility to lockdown, to lockdown pods.
And when I came back from lockdown pods from them shifting everyone around together, there was only about 30 of us on the farm, which is a very big difference because there’s over 150 positive cases of COVID within like a week’s time.
UCI: And how has the vaccination been like there?
Caller: What was that?
UCI: How have they been dealing with vaccinations?
Caller: Yes, so they do offer vaccinations for three different vaccinations, you could either take the Johnson Johnson, which is a one-time shot, or they offer the Pfizer shot, which is two different shots. I believe six weeks apart from each other, and then they offer the Moderna, the Moderna vaccine shot. And then just as of recently, they started offering the booster shot.
UCI: And have you gotten vaccinated?
Caller: Yes, I just recently took my second shot of the Pfizer shot. And I could say from my experience, the first shot and second shot, I took six weeks apart from each other. For me, it went well. I didn’t get sick from it.
Others here that I’ve been in here with say they have got sick from it. So far, I haven’t. It worked pretty well for me. But as far as like the booster shot goes, I guess everybody that I know in here that’s been getting the booster shots been getting sick after the booster shot.
UCI: And have they been giving you sanitation supplies or fresh masks? How is that working?
Caller: Well, well see that’s the funny thing about it is. So, I read in the newspaper saying that they give us new masks like three times a week, or whenever asked and stuff like that and which isn’t like, fully true. We’d have to like very much demand or like go through like rigorous like arguments with them, or like requests in order to just to get a mask from them sometimes.
And we don’t always get it like every week as they say, we usually get about one mask that we always have to rewash ourselves or sometimes we get disposable ones but we kind of just got to request those and just kind of wait until whenever they feel like handing them out to us.
UCI: When was the last time you got a new mask?
Caller: Last time I got a new mask was probably about a month ago.
UCI: How have you been coping with this crisis?
Caller: What was that?
UCI: How have you been coping with this crisis?
Caller: Oh, man, it’s kind of, it’s kind of up and down and kind of like an up and down. Like failing, because there’s so many people in here that I know that’s got it, they’ve got sick, and they’re positive. And it’s crazy. Because we’re like we share, we share like a same bunks, know what I mean.
We’re like damn near, I mean, excuse my language, we’re like, two feet apart from each other, maybe three, four feet apart from each other, and the beds next to us. And then we have barracks that are like maybe 40, 50 people in a barracks with each bunk only, like four feet away from each other. So close.
So then when one person test is positive, and we’re sharing the same bathrooms, the same sinks, the same showers, and even when one person tests positive, it’s not like they literally sterilize the pods itself or the showers in that thing. So, you know, could still be airborne itself. So, it’s kind of like a very hard time.
UCI: I’m sorry to hear that. So, what I’m hearing is that they don’t sanitize the sinks or the showers at all, even when someone’s tested positive.
Caller: Yeah, that’s correct.
UCI: And how has the trials situation been going? Have people been released or have they things have been delayed?
Caller: Yeah, a lot of movements and other things have delayed. Like visitation sometimes we don’t get visitations, or sometimes they don’t allow us to go to our court dates because the COVID surge. Yeah, that’s the things get put on pause sometimes. Sometimes they don’t allow any movements at all.
Or like if we test positive and they move us to lockdown facility, sometimes they don’t let out – let us out our cells for like four or five days at a time. No showers, no phones, no contact with the outside. So yeah, gets very bad sometimes.
UCI: What else do you want people to know about your experience?
Caller: It’s very hard because we got family members out there that, that do test positive sometimes, and there’s not really much we could do about it, you know? So we got to deal with our loved ones outside of the walls, risking their life or having to worry about their life being took from this virus that we can’t control. And yet, we’re stuck in here having to deal with the same thing. And it almost feels like you’re a lab rat or something like, you’re trapped in the cage, and you can’t really do much.
But see some people suffer. Or, you know, there’s not much we could do, we’re just stuck here. And you would think that would be safe, because we’re like, away from everybody else. And we’re away from the public.
But that really isn’t the case being so people in here get test positive, and then it’s kind of – you feel like you’re stuck in with the virus itself. And you can’t really do much to escape it, but you know, just kind of hope for the best.
UCI: Yeah, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope things get better.
Caller: Yes, no problem. Thank you, I appreciate that.
UCI: Is there anything else that you would like to talk about or want to share?
Caller: No, just pretty much that’s just how it is in here, you know? You can only do as much as you try or try to stay as positive as we can. But the deadly virus in the end, it is real. Some people may not take this serious, but it’s more serious than others may believe or may not believe.
UCI: Yeah, thank you so much for calling and participating and telling your story.
Caller: No problem. Thank you for your time. I appreciate your willingness to listen and for our stories to be heard.
UCI: Yeah, of course.
Caller: Usually all that’s heard –
UCI: Have a great day.
Caller: You too, have a great day.
