Call from Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, June 10, 2021, #4718

This story was told by a person incarcerated at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility.

UCI: And what facility are you currently housed at?

Caller: I'm at the Banning Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility.

UCI: Alright, and what has the COVID situation been like at your facility?

Caller: Well, I've been here almost 20 months now. I was here right at the height of the COVID. They had us on a 23 hour lockdown where we're only allowed out of our cells for about 35 minutes a day to shower and make phone calls and drop letters. They tried to separate people that were getting sick as best as possible.

There were actually a few that did pass in the jail. They never released it. And as of now they never told us how many. But, they tried to separate people that were infected.

It was - It's kind of rough in the jail. Conditions were just, you know, were horrible. They were just horrible because we just weren't allowed out of our cells for very much. I did get sick once but I never actually tested positive for COVID. I have been vaccinated. Finally I was vaccinated.

UCI: Good.

Caller: I got both shots. I hadn't had much contact with my family members. Are you still there, miss?

UCI: Yeah, I'm still here. I'm listening.

Caller: Okay, I hadn't had much contact with my family members for canteen or just their regular visits. They had the jail on a lockdown where you weren't allowed to have visits. I was also going to ask are you guys allowed to put money on our books, canteen funds, like to give funding for writing in letters?

UCI: Yeah, so, unfortunately the school policy does not allow us to distribute any kinds of money or any type of funds. And so –

Caller: Okay, ma'am.

UCI: Yeah, we do appreciate you calling and participating in the PrisonPandemic project, but unfortunately because of school policy they don't allow us to distribute any funds.

Caller: Okay, that's okay. That's okay.

UCI: I do apologize. But, we are here to listen to you and your story. And [crosstalk] –

Caller: No, no, I thought it was great that you guys put in the effort and that you're thinking about us here in the jail. I, myself, went to school at College of the Desert for two years and then finally back to work, so I understand what that's like to, you know, be in school. And, you know, I think that's great that you were thinking of us in the jail and that we were kind of, like, you know, having a really hard time during the pandemic.

They didn't know exactly what was going on and everybody wearing masks, and they were separating people that were infected or testing positive.

Like I said, very little – I've had no contact with my family since the pandemic. I'm waiting, I have to go to [unintelligible] first for some stupid stuff. I had a bank teller red flag one of my savings accounts. So, I’m hoping for Firecamp, but I'm awaiting transfer to another facility and I hopefully, being vaccinated, I'll be more, you know, qualified for a parole.

But, I could say at the height of the pandemic it was pretty ridiculous. They had us [crosstalk] like dogs.

UCI: Yeah.

Caller: I mean, they had us – you know, they were not letting us move around at all.

UCI: Wow.

Caller: So, now what they have is the social distancing in the jail. They're letting people out more now. They're having the cell program, they're letting people out probably about four to five to six at a time once or twice a day. And then they have dorm program for the people that are less of a security risk.

They have a dorm program where there's supposed be, like, I'd say there's supposed to be 15 per dorm but they're only allowed, like, for 11 per dorm because it's to keep the social distancing [crosstalk] –

UCI: Yeah.

Caller: - that applied. I mean, they're trying. But, at first they didn't know what it was. They didn't know exactly what was going on with people getting sick and stuff like that. They just –

UCI: Yeah, that's why it's really important that – that's why we appreciate that you take the time to let us know, you know, the crisis that's going on especially at your facility. We just want to bring greater transparency regarding the crisis. And in order for us to do that we're creating a digital archive. And, you know, it serves as a purpose for us as a resource for understanding the pandemic's unequal toll.

And by you providing your story you're creating an opportunity to not only to share your story but also raise awareness to the vulnerabilities experienced by this vulnerable population, you know.

Caller: Yeah, you know, with the population a lot of guys don't even have a high school diploma. A lot of guys don't get past the eight, or ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade. I, myself, did go to junior college so I'm a little bit educated. We have our own service and I even had a hard time even asking for help with the guards there.

And they just weren't really communicating very well with us. They were kind of downplaying the situation. They did admit that, you know, us being on a lockdown was BS. But, they just, really - we got very little medical care.

I mean, the medical care that we got was just guys getting sick and, you know, it's a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little office infirmary. It's not really a medical center or even like an urgent care area where they could treat the guys who were positive.

But, now that there is a vaccination I guess we're moving – they do have moving around a little bit more now that most of us are vaccinated. But, I can say during the height of the pandemic it was – didn't really have a hold on everybody getting sick. They had to, you know – they were checking people's temperatures with the hand held head temperature gauge.

So, but, I mean, through my 20 months stay here at the correctional facility I've seen probably over 40 people come and go that were positive or getting vaccinated that needed to get vaccinated because they were testing positive.

You know, they have, like, mask rules up on the windows and social distancing rules up on the windows and stuff like that. And, you know, some dorms are more restrictive than others, I guess. But, you know, they are mixing us up with people that were previously positive for COVID but vaccinated now. So, I guess they're mixing us up more where they had us separated.

And just like I said before, there's not much contact with the family members. They had us on a lockdown for about eight months where there was no visiting, there was no rec, there were no regular phone calls made. There was not much communication allowed to the outside world or outside the facility.

UCI: Wow.

Caller: That's really it, that's really it.

UCI: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you, you know, how has it been like, you know, to have reduced visitations and programming?

Caller: Well, on programming, was - we didn't have very much program at all. Now we have a little bit more program. They have a lot of us in dorm program. We're allowed to watch TV. And we're - a lot of guys are back and forth from visiting center, from the visiting area. It's a glass window visiting center.

And some people have – visiting center is that open. It's just for I would say over almost just a little bit less than a year it was closed. Had us, you know, on a lockdown where we were – there wasn't very much communication just, you know, with our family members at all.

So, but, now that's back. They do have – the visiting center is open. So, like I said, it was very nice you got to think of us here in the facility while you're, you know, going to school. Hopefully in the future you won't have to go through this, you'll be a little bit more educated and you'll have, you know – but that's great that you have insight of what's going on.

There's a lot going on with reform the last couple of years. Reform in the jails and the prisons and, you know, with the police and just different laws. There's so many damn laws out there.

But, I thank you very much, I do, for sending me the letter. And I just wanted to share with you what was really going on here in the jail systems. And that's really it.

UCI: Good. And we appreciate you giving us a phone call. And we're happy to know that you received our letter, and we're also super happy to know that you're contacting us through our hotline. And you know you can also contact us by mailing us your letters, any artwork that you might want to contribute.

There's a PO Box number that you can send it, any letter or artwork. And so, we just want to thank you very much. And, I mean, like I said, this is really important. And the only way we can create transparency regarding the situation in this crisis is by having first hand stories, and that's exactly what y'all are helping with.

And so, we really appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you.

Caller: Yeah, usually in situations when our comments are posted or passed to the paper or the news, you know, the steps towards reform move a little faster. So thank you very much.

UCI: Yeah, thank you. And also thank you very much for participating in PrisonPandemic. Please consider telling your friends about us and seeing if they would like to call in.

Caller: Okay, I will, will do that.

UCI: Alrighty, well, thank you very much and I hope you have yourself a great night.

Caller: Okay, thank you very much, have a great night.

UCI: Thank you, bye-bye.

Caller: Bye-bye.

Call from Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, June 10, 2021, #4718

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