This story was told by a person incarcerated at Stockton.
UCI: Great. Go ahead. Did you want to start with your questions or go to your story first?
Caller: Yeah, well okay, I could go – I could go to the questions because what I’m trying to find out is what kind of story or, like, COVID in here, right? I’ve been in here, so I can just tell you a little bit, alright? And then you can maybe take that. COVID, right?
But I have been in here, like, 27 years for a non-violent crime, right, and it was kind of terrible. You know, I got real sick, but now I’m on the rebound, but my lungs are still damaged.
You know, I’ve been in here for a real petty theft crime since ’94. You know, and all my family done passed away and everything, you know? It’s kind of been a terrible experience for me.
UCI: Absolutely. And so, when you’ve been sick, what has that been like at the facility?
Caller: Well, there is kind of nothing they can do because just right now, we are on the halfway lockdown because they don’t have no medicine or nothing. They just kind of put them in a cell, right?
Finally, when my breathing really act up, they put me on a ventilator for a little while, right? But otherwise, no kind of, you know, no kind of support. I believe it was pretty terrible.
You know, like, just kind of put in you a cell by yourself and, like you know, I hope you make it, you know? So, I thought it was a little barbaric, you know.
But now that I exercise and I run. I notice that when I lay back, I get, like, this whistling in my lungs like [unintelligible]. It kind of stung me. But when I exercise, I have long wind, but when I kind of relax, it acts up a little bit. I caught it in CMC prison.
UCI: So, you’re having lingering symptoms then?
Caller: Right, yes. Right. I can hear it in my – I can hear it in my lungs. You know? I think that’s where it’s acting up with me.
UCI: And when you said that they don’t have any-
Caller: [unintelligible].
UCI: That’s okay. And when you said that they don’t have any medicine, what do you mean by that?
Caller: I mean, they didn’t ever give me nothing. Because, the only thing they did when I was struggling on the breathing, they put me on a ventilator for a little while, right, but like I was telling them “My chest is hurting, you know, I’m in pain, my back.”
And what happened was, when I coughed, my hips hurt at the time when I had COVID. They didn’t give me no pain — they offered me some aspirins, and I don’t take those because they mess your blood up and stuff.
So, yeah. You kind of like I said, you know, they think people abuse medication or whatever, but they tell me “We don’t give out pain medication.” For some people, they did.
Some people who have family members calling, they said they gave me medicine, but me, you know, I’m 58-years-old, so I’m the second to the family, and all my parents and stuff have passed away, you know.
My wife, they left a long time ago. So, I didn’t have nobody, you know. My kids, I’m not in touch with them because I’ve been in here so long, you know, almost 30 years. So, I’m kind of on my own. But the people who had their family call, they got help, but I didn’t because I didn’t have nobody.
UCI: So, if somebody wanted to take Tylenol, let’s say, to help with their symptoms, the facility wouldn’t have given them something?
Caller: Yes, that’s all they offered me, like, some regular over-the-counter, right, and I was telling them that’s not good for my liver and kidneys, you know, because based on other medical documents I got, they tell me don’t take those. So, I told them “You have to give me like codeine medicine or, you know, a shot or something or something stronger,” and they refused to.
But those other people, similar like me, and their family called, so they was getting medication. So, it’s like a priority system, you know?
UCI: Or if somebody was kind of pushing them to do it essentially?
Caller: Right. One other question I’ve got for you, what town are you in?
UCI: We are out of the University of California, Irvine.
Caller: Yeah, I’ve never heard of Irvine before. Where’s it located?
UCI: That’s a great question, actually. We are right in between Santa Ana and, you know, Mission Viejo area. We’re kind of on the way to San Diego.
Caller: Got you. Now I know. You’re far away from me then, yes.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: I was wondering, right, because listen to this. Now, I’m glad you said that. So, it’s like a college? Like a, what – tell me a little bit more about it?
UCI: About UCI?
Caller: Right. Yes.
UCI: It’s a university. So, it’s a four-year university. So, that means that students have the ability to go all the way up and get their bachelor’s. It’s, I mean, you know, it’s a wonderful institution. I really have loved it.
But they have one of the top criminal, it’s called a criminology, law, and society programs in the country. So, it’s really well-known for that.
Caller: ‘Cause listen, I’ve got some other questions. You might be able to save my life. While I say that, right, are you familiar with the stimulus thing we had going on, right? I’m having problem getting my stimulus based on my social security number, right?
When I write the Social Security office, they tell me, “Hey, man. We need for you to come in here with a passport and a California.” So, another inmate was telling me, he said, “Man, sometimes Stanford University,” because they used to help me some years ago on my case, right, and he said, “People like that will help you.” Do you guys ever assist people in any kind of matters like that or—
UCI: You know, yeah, we get that question a lot. We don’t have the resources – our project doesn’t. That’s not what we’re set up for, sadly. However, you’re at, I just want to verify, you are at a state prison, right?
Caller: Right. Yes. I got some other things I want to share with you, but I’ll let you talk first because I can go on and on. [unintelligible] long time.
UCI: Yes. Yes, so, because you are at a state prison, we are affiliated with UCLA Law, it’s UCLA’s law program. They don’t help anybody with legal aid, but they do have a pen pal program that I could give you information on, and you could write to someone, and maybe that pen pal might be able to help you or just to have some kind of contact, I think would be really great.
Caller: That’s what I’m looking for. That’s what I’m looking for because guess what, I was going to ask you about this. I have a case pending, that they said they are going to resentence me out of Fresno County, [unintelligible] court, right? They don’t – I’ve got an 800 number here. They don’t let us call the 800 number.
Now, we get a free phone call, but it don’t dial through 800 numbers, right? I’m trying to help somebody because it’s all public information. So, it’s nothing that would get nobody in trouble or nothing, you know. What I’m trying to do is find out can somebody look on there and tell me when my court date is scheduled.
UCI: Oh, interesting.
Caller: Yes, and now I got a good chance of getting out. I was here for a real petty case I did almost three decades for it under the third strike. Then that law changed in 2013, and I was supposed to go home, but earlier in my incarceration, I used to make homemade wine, have illegal tobacco, and stuff like that, right?
So, they said, “We don’t think you got rehabilitated.” They denied me. But it was based on my race, and I can prove that. So I argued that all these years later. Now, I’m just winning.
So, I will be getting out of here. I should be by Christmas or so, maybe. I got to start from nothing.
UCI: I definitely hope that’s the case. Do you have a pen or paper handy, and I can give you the pen pal program information?
Caller: No, but just what you could do, you could send it to me. Do you think you could in the mail? Because my reading and writing is terrible, and I’m under this dark light right now.
UCI: We typically, yeah, we typically don’t, but let me see if I can make a one-time exception.
Okay, so, what I can do is because we’re not, you know, we can’t offer any legal aid or anything, but if you wanted to just maybe get a pen pal to communicate, you know, we can definitely send you this flyer, and the UCLA pen pal information, and I can try and send, we can try and send that to you. If—
Caller: Okay. Are you in contact with those people? I mean, there’s no way you can send it to the person for me? I know you’re going to write me and give the address, but I’m saying are you the person who would probably be my pen pal? Are you—
UCI: No, I’m not. So, the way that they are working is that we don’t — we are just sister schools essentially, but we’re passing on this information, and they only work with state prisons. So they don’t do jails.
And they just try and help get people connected to pen pals. And so that is kind of the basis of their project. I do know for a fact we’ve given out their information quite a bit.
I always say give them, like, a month or so to respond just because I don’t know, you know, we don’t know how quick they can be, but that’s kind of something I always advise. But I’m, I wouldn’t be a pen pal, and nobody on our project would be a pen pal. It’s a completely separate program.
Caller: Yes, so listen, now when I’m trying to find out this toward concerning you when I call this number, are you the one answering all the time?
UCI: No, we have a lot of team members, but anyone will be able to help you with any questions or stories you have, and I’m letting my supervisors know about this flyer that we can try and send to you right now, so everyone should be aware of it. So, we’ll try and get that out to you.
Caller: Okay, [unintelligible] but the phone is going off, so [unintelligible]. What’s your name again, you said?
UCI: [redacted].
Caller: Okay. But if I call again, I can speak to you if I ask for you?
UCI: No, not if you – not if you ask for me, but if I’m on the phone, I’m happy to talk to you, but it is just a case-by-case.
Caller: I’m familiar with you a little bit. That’s why I feel comfortable, you know?
UCI: Yeah, anyone will be able to help you, and I’m telling.
