This story was told by a person incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail.
UCI: So, what has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: It was real hectic. It was like over 3,000 people was infected with COVID.
UCI: Oh, can you repeat that again? My bad.
Caller: Yeah, it was over 3,000 people were affected with COVID.
UCI: And how was the situation dealt with?
Caller: The situation wasn’t dealt good. It was – we’re in a dorm, dormitory. So people that were affected with it, instead of taking them out, they tried to isolate them by keeping them in a – in a section that they knew that it would spread throughout, since we’re in a dorm.
When a dorm is probably, like, 12-men dorms but in a section is over 120 people. So, they tried to just isolate, put them all in one section, but they knew interacting with each other, we would still end up having COVID, which most of us did.
UCI: And so how, in regards to that, how has the vaccination situation been like?
Caller: Dealing with the vaccination is, people are still skeptical. You only had a handful of people take it up to now. And still, the situation is, I would still say is not really good because even with them passing out, they’re supposed to pass out materials as far as wipes, far as lotion, cleaning supplies, anything far as shampoo.
They’re still not giving it to you regularly as they should. And since the vaccine, many people don’t wanna take it so it’s really not been effective.
UCI: In regards to that too, how – how are your feelings with guards bringing in COVID and all that? What are your thoughts?
Caller: That’s, that’s the biggest problem because we know that since being in prison that we’re isolated, that it’s coming from the outside. And many of us have done grievances over and over and, the grievances are – they’re redundant and rejected due to the fact that most of the guards don’t wear masks. They bring the mask in or they’ll wait for other, higher staff to come and then put their mask on.
And so that’s – that’s been the biggest problem because it can’t, like even with me, how they say I, how I got COVID was due to a staff, a nursing staff. But they wouldn’t tell me what nurse had it, but they just told me that one of the nurses had it and at that point they had to isolate me.
So that’s, that’s been one of the biggest problems that we’ve been writing grievances about. People from the outside, the staff, the correctional officers, they’re not using their PPE as they should but they will write us up if we don’t. So that’s, that’s been the biggest problem.
UCI: And so, on another topic, how has reduced visitation and programming been like for you and others?
Caller: It’s been real – real bad because even, they said that the video, that finally they got the videos and the video still doesn’t work that good. I guess due to the wifi, it cuts off, it stays off. And not being able to see your family and things of that nature has been really hard.
And even with programming. That they did the programming that most of us worked or was in school and when they quit all of that programming, we just was isolated, just sitting around doing nothing. And we got, from the department, the 90 days for that year that we would’ve been programming and that’s all the good time we received, which we would’ve received more than that throughout the year if they had continued programming.
UCI: And did it recently start up again or has it been up for a few months or so?
Caller: Well, still real slow, you know. They done started back some college courses and things of that nature but as far as work, per se, it’s still not, not going. They have what they call the critical workers like people that feed people or the yard crew that cleans up the garbage, but for most of us, we’re still just sitting around, doing nothing. No programming.
UCI: And on that note with reduced visitation, reduced programming, and many other things, how have you been coping with this crisis?
Caller: Basically, just trying to know more about this. As in society because we haven’t got too much information, just a little bit from our family members or the news. And just trying to program the best that we can for ourselves. Trying to read, trying to get more literature in, books, or things like that and try to just better educate myself on things because that’s all the programming that I’ve been able to do.
UCI: And how have, like, loved ones been dealing with the whole COVID situation? Like, how has the situation for them affected, how has COVID affected your loved ones?
Caller: Well, I had some family members that died due to COVID, so it’s been hard for me in here, as well as them out there. So, I had two members of my family die because of COVID. So, we’re just trying to deal with things from both perspectives, for me in here and those out there, as well as we can.
Because it’s been hard, laid off from work, things build, build things like that. So, it’s been hard for, for both sides.
UCI: And with your experience and your perspective, how would you have managed the whole COVID situation at the facility better?
Caller: Being in the thick of it, in the middle of it, I think, from my perspective, I would’ve had more PPE, more things upfront. When they knew it was potential that it could’ve spread it, they waited until after it spread it. So, I would’ve took an offense approach about having masks and everything before it even got spread, before doing testing regularly.
Testing the guards and the people that come in because we know that people that’s here, we can’t, we can’t spread it unless it comes from the outside. So, I think, doing a better job of protecting those in here with testing people out there before they came in.
Or isolating the people that worked in the facilities to set up tents or things like that or to have trailers. Have them work by the month, to live in trailers and not go home. That would’ve better situated everybody involved.
UCI: Of course. Is there, so that was all my questions, but is there anything you would like to ask or anything, I mean, yeah, anything you would like to ask about the project itself or anything else?
Caller: Yes, yes, can you tell me, I know you told me a little bit about the project, but are there classes, as far as, like, the interviews that they’d be on different social medias or they’d be in collective in the colleges, or where would they be placed?
UCI: Yeah, so, we have an online website, it’s a website repository and it’s an archive. And what we do is that everybody is anonymous, everybody who interviews with us is anonymous. And we share their stories, with their consent of course, on the website repository and anybody who is interested with the situation can access it through social media and the web and yeah.
Caller: Okay, okay, okay. So, one last question. So, is the program going to be ongoing or is just for a minute or how’s it with the COVID process?
UCI: So as far as I know, the project is ongoing and I believe it should be, it should be going as far and as long as COVID, the pandemic, stays around. But it is possible that they could keep going further on with the consequences of COVID, so.
Caller: Okay, okay, yeah. I want to let you know I appreciate a program like this and we’ve been able to reach out and tell our story to y’all so you have an insight on what’s going on in here because a lot of times, things like that doesn’t get out into society, into society until after a lot of tragic things happen inside.
UCI: Of course, yeah, and that’s one of our big purposes is to spread awareness to people who don’t know about the situation. And, you know, this project and these recordings that we are doing, interviews and whatnot, these are also used for other cases where people sue and this is, like, evidence, and so hopefully this helps many people and it works in everybody’s favor.
Caller: Okay. Thank you and I appreciate it.
UCI: Yeah, no, if you have any friends or family members that would like to tell their experience about COVID, the line is always open from Monday through Friday, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Caller: Okay, thank you and once again, I appreciate you and thank you for everything that y’all are doing there.
UCI: Thank you, have a good day.
Caller: Okay, you too.
