This story was told by a person incarcerated at Todd Road Jail.
UCI: And how has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: Well, I mean, we’re overpacked. There’s no six-feet distancing. No social distancing. They don’t provide us with masks. So, yeah that’s pretty much – it’s the same thing here different day.
UCI: Okay, you said they don’t provide you with masks, so they – they’re not asking you guys to wear them at all?
Caller: No, they gave us one mask upon arrival, which is a disposable mask. It’s only supposed to be used once and then after that – and they – they are really not reliable. They rip. The strings fall off of it.
It’s the ones you can buy at like a $0.99 Cents store, and they expect us to – to keep those, and usually, they don’t hand them out. They’re very – they’re short on them. Sometimes they consider them contraband for the strings. So, they try not to hand them out as much as possible.
UCI: Okay and how has the vaccination situation been like at your facility?
Caller: We can get vaccinated. I current – I already was vaccinated about a week ago. I got the Johnson & Johnson. They only have one option, which is the Johnson & Johnson.
We – what we do is fill out a kite, and we submit it. And the doctor will get to see it, and then once they see it, they put you on a line – a list. And then once it’s your turn, they call you out, and they – they vaccinate. They hold – after vaccination, they hold you for 15 minutes.
And – not physically, but just hold you in the – in the room for 15 minutes to make sure that you’re not, what’s it called? You don’t have an allergic reaction or if something doesn’t go wrong. So after those 15 minutes, if everything is okay, they send you back to your section, and that’s pretty much it with the vaccination.
UCI: Okay, and you said you had to get added to a list. How long did you wait from when you were added until you were vaccinated?
Caller: From when I put – I don’t know when I was added to the list, but when I put in a kite, it took like about a week after that.
UCI: Okay.
Caller: I put in a kite, then a week went by, and then, yeah.
UCI: Okay –
Caller: Sometimes it’s longer.
UCI: Okay, I have more questions. How – what has it been like for you to have reduced visitation and programming?
Caller: I mean, I know some people go through it tough because they have families that do reach out and do support them, but me personally, it’s not much of a difference because, you know, I don’t really have a support system outside of these walls. But I do have certain people that I call. Visitations, it sucks when – when they do come to visit you, you only get 30 minutes a week, and you know it’s – you don’t really – you don’t really get to – you see them through a glass, basically.
You know, sometimes you are late to the visit, but it’s not really your fault if you are late. Sometimes the deputies take too long, you know, to get everybody together for their visit, and then they sometimes have to cut it short, you know?
But to us in here, it’s like at least we got 20 minutes or 10 minutes, whatever it is, you know? It’s just – it’s just normal.
UCI: And how have you been coping with the crisis?
Caller: I just – I just keep to myself, keep positive. I work out on a daily basis. I set up a routine, you know?
They gave us tablets, so we have – we have tablets now, and you can buy movies and songs. They’re overpriced, but it’s better than nothing, so sometimes I’ll just get a movie, watch a movie, you know, for two hours, and I’ll work out for two hours, and then the program will be four hours.
We come out of our cell for four hours, and then after those four hours, you come back in, and by the time you come back in, the day is kind of over already. That’s how I’m coping with everything right now.
UCI: Awesome. You mentioned that visit – I mean, not visitation – you mentioned programming was four hours. Has that been reduced at all during COVID?
Caller: It used to be – it used to be eight hours, but, yes, certain sections will only program for an hour a day, so it’s 23-hour lockdown. Some – some sections will only program for an hour, which gives them a chance to make a couple phone calls and get in the shower, and then quarantine, the quarantine sections, they only get out for – for showers which is a 15-minute shower.
UCI: Okay, and then what do you think would have made the situation better at your facility?
Caller: What have I done to try to make it better?
UCI: I mean, what could – well, yeah, you can answer that too. The question I had was, what would have made the situation better? Like what could the facility do? But that’s actually a great question, the one that you heard.
Caller: Well, there’s not really much that we can do as inmates because we don’t really have a say so in here. Like people think – I don’t know how people are thinking out there, that haven’t been in a situation like this, how they might feel like they have rights. In here, we don’t have rights, you know?
A deputy will do his walk, and we’ll ask them for yard to get a little bit of sunshine and the way they respond is kind of nonchalant, like it’s like, kind of like alright whatever. I’ll see if I get to it or not, you know, like it’s not really any of their concern, you know? As an inmate, the only thing that I – that I think of that we could do better is, well these conversations with people that are out there, that have the ability to – to make things happen, that have the resources and – and time to do it, you know?
Like we have a lot of time on our hands, ourselves, but we don’t have those resources, those abilities, and the freedom to be able to speak up for ourselves and go through those – those channels of communication, you know? And unless we have that person, that person – that go-to person that’s out there, then we’re kind of – our hands are tied in here.
UCI: Yeah, definitely. I understand. What do you think the facility could’ve done to make the situation better?
Caller: Well, one, they can – they don’t – they used to sanitize. Now they don’t sanitize. And when they did sanitize, it was not really a sanitize – they wasn’t sanitizing anything, you know?
They used one rag to clean all sections. And they kind of just run through it on like quickly, not really efficiently or – or like correctly, you know? And they don’t do that no more. They used to do COVID cleaning. They don’t do COVID cleaning no more.
There’s no sanitation, and there’s – it doesn’t even feel like COVID exists in here. The only thing – the only reason we hear about COVID is on the news when we watch TV, but other than that, like they’re – they’re not really too focused on the COVID in here. You know, deputies have masks.
They have nice masks, but rarely will you see inmates with masks, rarely. I – I don’t – I don’t know how else to put it, but it doesn’t seem like they really care.
UCI: Yeah, definitely. Is there anything else you want people to know about your experience?
Caller: Don’t come to jail. Don’t get caught.
UCI: That’s a good-
Caller: But, that’s pretty much what I can say, and if you do, be very observant, watch and learn, keep to yourself. That’s pretty much it.
UCI: Awesome. Well, that concludes – that concludes my part of the interview. Was there anything else you wanted to share or any questions you had about the program?
Caller: I actually have a person that I know that’s in prison right now, who wants to help out and create his own non-profit organization to help – kind of like what you guys are doing, to give a voice to the people that are facing life in prison. They’re not – he’s a person that has been in the same room, same cells with these people that are facing 25 to life and don’t have the possibility or chance to parole. He wants to help them with the – by giving them a voice in that type of way.
Sometimes these people don’t have a support system anymore because of the fact that, like a wise man once said in here, like when you do three years, you know, you forget about – the – the people that you were hanging out with forget about you. When you do 10 years – or five years, the people you were with forget about you.
When you do 10 years, the people that you love forget about you. When you’re doing 25 – 25 to life, everybody forgets about you. There is no more – they can hand you a phone and they could tell you call anybody you’d like, you know at like free – free of charge, and sometimes those people don’t have anybody to call anymore.
He wants to give them an outlet, kind of like how you guys are doing with letters, artwork, and – and start a business, and – and try to get these people some kind of income for distributing artwork from within the walls. And I know there’s other groups and organizations that are doing the same thing, but I don’t know how – how so much they’re helping people that are in – in these situations.
Like financially, you know? This can help stop a lot of crimes and, you know, things that are going under – that are happening in the shadows in prison, you know? Sometimes people have to do what they have to do to make money in there, you know?
And sometimes those come with more time, you know? And they don’t want to carry more time. They don’t want to continue to get in trouble, but that’s the only way they know how to survive because they don’t have those people out there no more to help them.
They don’t have those opportunities no more. So, he wanted to open up an outlet for those people in that type of way. I don’t know if there is another way, if there’s other groups for people that you can – that you can forward to us or we can contact, so we can get that stuff going.
UCI: Yeah, definitely. Normally, we are not supposed to give out like – like we’re just supposed to stick to COVID and go on, but I was actually looking, this morning at this website called Prison Art. I can give you their website information because it doesn’t have any contact information on there, but you might be able to fill out the – the Contact Us form.
Caller: Mmhmm.
UCI: It’s called PrisonArt.org.
Caller: Okay, PrisonArt.org. Okay.
UCI: Yeah, maybe they could either work with you guys or give you guys more information. I don’t know so much about them. I was just looking at them this morning.
Caller: There’s no phone number?
UCI: No, they don’t have a phone number on their website.
Caller: Oh, okay. Alright. Thank you.
UCI: You’re welcome. Thank you for sharing your story, have a good night.
Caller: You too.
UCI: Bye-bye.
