This story was told by a person incarcerated at Elmwood Correctional Facility.
UCI: And what has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: It’s been kind of hard at the beginning. There’s like a two-week – I was hold a little – held for in the quarantine dorm for a little more than two weeks. You’re held in the cell, you know, with another person.
COVID’s going in and out. And it keeps us held inside the quarantine dorm even longer than normal. The phones, you know, we’re not able to use them quite often.
I was, in the 18 days I was in here, in the quarantine dorm, I was allowed to use the phone two, three times because there’s 30 minutes, if that, and I got about intervals of four of those. Some of them were cut short. Enough time to take a shower, you know, talk to somebody, or grab some soap, some toilet paper for the cell. And then use the phone.
It’s not really feasible to do in that amount of time. And then eventually, I was moved over to an open dorm. And the open dorm is – it was completely empty.
The – the hotpot we call it, in order to cook our food from commissary, we did not have that. It was taken out before we came in here. There was more and more waves coming in.
Right now, we’re about half full. There was no chairs for us to use. So, everyone was standing watching TV. There was, you know, I mean the good thing is, we have a little half court to play basketball.
There’s a couple of things we could do. But, you know, other than that, when I was in the quarantine dorm, we were, me and a couple other people went to court. And we were, we had to call a number to get into a program.
And it was – it was mandated. And now while the judge said “Hey, I’ll have somebody allow you, you know, a CO or somebody allow you to use the phone when you’re back,” that didn’t quite happen. It took a week after my court date.
Luckily, I don’t have court until the next two days to be able to, and I was able to call that number for the program. Yeah, a week and a half, a week and a half afterwards, after my court date. It could’ve been done the very next day or that same night.
Because the sooner it’s called, the sooner we get out with the program that’s being looked for us. Now in my case, there was, I had to call again just to, you know, clarify things that I overthink, you know. And I called again, it was a different person over the phone.
And he said I was not even written down to that I had called that number. So, if I were to go to court in two days, they would’ve said hey, you never called the number. You’re staying in. You have to keep calling this number until they have proof in the courtroom.
So, luckily I called that number and he said, he’ll check where the ball dropped, and he’ll figure it out. There’s a lot of, a lot of, you know, a lot of BS, you know. A lot of stress. Me personally, I’ve never been to prison.
I don’t plan to. I don’t plan to come back here. And I plan on doing what I need to do when I’m out in the program.
And, you know, this – this I’ll take as a learning – a time to learn, you know? Because it was easier the first couple times I went here. And, you know, I thought, okay, I’ll come back in. It’s easy.
I mean in the time I’m there, it’s never like that. But when I get out I’m like oh, you know, it wasn’t that bad in there. You know I don’t think, but I feel like now I got to get it done. Get my – get my charges dropped, you know. Or finish what I need to do.
And we’ll see how that goes. But yeah, that’s pretty much how it’s been in here.
UCI: Thank you for sharing. I have a couple of follow up questions. How has the vaccination situation been like at your facility?
Caller: The vaccination situation. We had tablets in the – to keep us busy inside of the quarantine dorm. Now the tablets have never been charged, or we’d have to buy headphones or somehow get headphones that were bought on commissary. So, it wasn’t very easy.
But once we were on the tablets, there was an update given stating how the COVID would – how that the COVID vaccinations would go such as booster shots. They would do like intervals of coming in every other day.
Not even that. Maybe like every other – every so often. And doing cotton swabs on certain individuals.
And I got three of them, you know, they asked do you want to? Yes or no? And I had three, you know, three of them. Better be safe than sorry.
I’d had my Johnson & Johnson vaccination when I was out there. So, they state on the – on the update the Johnson & Johnson vaccination – they – they state that you should get one within two months after your vaccination, a booster shot. And you can get vaccinated with the Moderna or the – the other one.
The P-F-I-Z-E-R. And Pfizer or whatever. And you can get two vaccinations.
Now they’re doing pretty good with the vaccinations. They give like – me, I haven’t got one. I’m not gonna to be here long enough for that. But they – they say you get like commissary, or you get a goodie bag with some commissary in it.
And a 30-minute phone call time. And proof of the vaccination once you’re out within – so, you get like a vaccination one, and then number two, you get two weeks later, a week and a half later, and then it takes around two weeks. And then the vaccination proof would be inside your property.
That’s how that’s going. That’s from what I’ve heard. But I’ve also heard that the 30-minute phone call wasn’t given.
The commissary was never given. Stuff like that. So, I mean who knows? Some people just need to have patience. And some people, you know, they exaggerate.
But, you know, I’m pretty sure things don’t always come like they say in here. Like commissary. When I ordered my commissary, it took a couple days for the commissary to come into our dorm after it moved.
Times are pretty stressful, you know. But yeah, that’s pretty much how that’s working.
UCI: Oh, I see. That’s actually a common thing we’ve heard around in a couple of the calls that there’s promises of commissary and then they don’t get them. But hopefully, it’s like you say, just patience.
Caller: Yeah.
UCI: What has it been like for you to have reduced visitation and programming?
Caller: The visitations – oh, that would probably be the most horrible. My mom actually tried to have – I mean one was on her part, you know, she said – she thought it was at 10 a.m. I should’ve figured and said visits weren’t in the morning, but I didn’t know. I haven’t been here very often like – like I’ve stated.
But she – I guess we’re supposed to come at 10:30 that night. So, she came at 10:30 at night and they said, you know, that it’s too transparent, her shirt. I mean my mom isn’t gonna, you know, flirt with her son, you know, and stuff like that.
She’s – it was like the same color, you know, it was just the trim. I mean she doesn’t dress all nonchalant, you know. All showy and stuff.
She’s not like that. They told her to go away and make another one. So, she made another one.
We finally got a visitation. And my mom’s pretty old, so she’s – now she had to drive in the night. She’s, you know, she doesn’t like driving in the night.
It’s so far. She lives all the way in the south. And, you know, this is kind of a far drive to be driving at night.
And she’s not really familiar with all the, you know, the jail system and stuff. Neither am I. But, so we got the visit that night.
The next following week. And we – there’s four different rooms, so we get in the room, and the phone doesn’t even work. I tried it multiple times.
And then you have to hold the phone wire at a couple angles. And it cuts out. So, we were yelling through the glass at each other.
Like hey, yeah, you know, conversating like that. And then at the – at the end, you know, we were tired. We were like oh my gosh, this is irritating.
And then our 30 minutes was up. And I went back to my – my unit. So, that’s how that goes.
Other people say, you know, their visit, it was called off, you know. Mail, you know, the sheet was too big. There’s too much blank spot in the paper. I mean I understand how that works.
There could be, you know, paraphernalia brought in through like that. But, I mean, people are happy for one thing and then something completely, you know, brings that down because of something that’s so little when they should be focusing on something a lot bigger.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: So, yeah that’s – that’s pretty much all that.
UCI: You also mentioned earlier on that you guys had gotten tablets. By any chance, have they introduced any kind of video calls or anything like that where you can reach out to your family like that?
Caller: The video calls – the video calls, no, there’s no video calls. But there is Global Tel-link that helps out with the – the phone calls.
Now you can only make it when you have headphones. Now when I got the headphones, I bought ’em on commissary, and finally I wasn’t able to – nobody knew I was incarcerated for two weeks. I wasn’t able to make a phone call.
Yeah, about two weeks. Because I mean if court came a week and a half after that, I was finally, yeah. So, I finally got the headphones. And I tried making [unintelligible] it is like down a tunnel.
I can make out no words of what the other person on the other line was saying. It was so down-a-tunnel type of situation. So, I made it out of like “Hey mom, are you able to hear me?” and she said I can make out the word “Yes”.
So, I say okay, I’m going to tell you where I am, you know, this is what’s going on. As long as you’re able to hear me, you know, I – and, you know, just clarification that she’s able to hear me at least. And that’s how that went. The connection is so bad.
We don’t have tablets in this unit since we just moved here. But I might – hopefully, I won’t be here long enough to be able to get a tablet, unless they’re here tomorrow or say, because Wednesday my next court date’s gonna be coming. And hopefully, I’ll be released. But I might have another week or two before a program is ready for me.
UCI: Yeah. Hopefully everything works out and you’re able to get out soon.
Caller: Yeah.
UCI: How have you been coping with the crisis?
Caller: Here?
UCI: Yeah. Being incarcerated during COVID.
Caller: This’ll be, I haven’t been incarcerated for about a year and a half. And I missed court, which led me here on November this month. And it’s, I mean it’s, it’s been stressful.
I feel like I’ve been here a lot longer than when I did like, you know, six months per se. And, you know, I feel like I’ve been here a lot longer than that. But – yeah.
UCI: Do you think anything – or do you think the facility could have done anything to make the situation better for you?
Caller: I mean definitely they’ve – they’ve tried. They’ve, you know, they’ve done – I mean there’s only so much people are paid to be able to – I mean, there’s definitely steps they could’ve taken. Like the tablets, I know it wasn’t – probably wasn’t the facility.
I mean the facility’s big – big stress factor where they thought “Oh, that’d be cool. That’d be cool for the inmates.” They – but I mean I don’t know.
I really don’t know. I mean there’s definitely a lot of stress, but there’s only so much that they can do. I mean the – the – the jail is pretty full as far as I’ve heard. And I mean there’s only so many places you can throw certain – certain people in.
And yeah, so I really – I really don’t know how to answer that question. But other than yes, I feel like there probably is.
UCI: Okay. Yeah. It is definitely a tough question. Is there anything else you want people to know about your experience?
Caller: No, other than that. I mean, I put myself here and, you know, I mean this could be a – I’m gonna look at this as a learning experience, you know. I mean we’re not supposed to, you know, have fun and, you know, video games, and all that. But I mean they definitely took a big step and learning education to earn points.
And watch movies. And play video games. Little apps on the tablet. But yeah, I’m definitely gonna go forward in my career.
I wouldn’t say career, but, you know, I’m very good with technology. And I – I like to, you know, unlock phones, unlock tablets, laptops. Bypass things, you know, get the lock screens.
Build computers and stuff like that. And hopefully, get back to my work making 29 to 32 dollars an hour. And I was doing good out there.
And I should’ve, you know, looked at the bigger picture and, you know, I had it all then and I shouldn’t have missed the couple court dates I had. And I could’ve still had my Mercedes. I could’ve still had – I could’ve had a couple of things, you know.
I just turned 22 last month and, you know, maybe the 21st, you know, the end of my 21st is put on a lesson, and I don’t know. I mean, I believe it somehow, in a positive way.
UCI: Yeah. Definitely. We always got to look at the positive side. That was all the questions I have for you.
Was there anything else you wanted to add to your testimony or any questions you have about our program? Or anything like that?
Caller: Is the website I could visit regarding this interview. Do you think I could – is it on the letter I received?
UCI: It should be on the letter. But if not, I can also give it to you. It’s really easy. It’s just PrisonPandemic.
Caller: PrisonPandemic. Okay.
UCI: Dot E-D-U.
Caller: Okay.
UCI: Give me one second. I think I forgot the end of it or – I’m sorry. It’s prisonpandemic.uci and then dot E-D-U.
Caller: Okay. Okay. Okay. I got it.
UCI: Awesome. Yeah. I’m – don’t know how long it’ll take for your story to be posted. ‘Cause right now, they’re doing like a website revamp.
But hopefully, you’ll be able to see your story soon. And if not, I mean soon. But also, in the meantime, you can also checkout other peoples’ stories.
A lot of them share similar things as you do. And then different experiences as well.
Caller: All right. And just a – just a reminder. I mean I work with technology. I can make websites, you know, just kidding.
You know I can do that. But I mean you guys probably hopefully be able to get that website up and running before then. But, you know.
UCI: Oh yeah. Thank you. I think they’re already working on it now.
Caller: Yeah, yeah.
UCI: I’m not too sure when they’re supposed to post it. But – but yeah. Thank you so much.
Caller: All right. Thank you. You have a good night.
UCI: Thank you. You too. Bye-bye.
Caller: Bye.
