This story was told by a family member of someone incarcerated at John J. Benoit Detention Center.
UCI: Okay, and what has the COVID situation been like for them at that facility?
Caller: Well, I don’t know honestly because he just got transferred there probably about three weeks ago.
UCI: Oh, okay. Do you know about where he was before?
Caller: It was rather loose. There were just masks, hand sanitizer. But, at the time that I visited prior to getting banned, from what I saw the staff did not follow the COVID-19 guidelines as far as, like, when they were in close proximity to each other they were not wearing masks.
They had issues in regards to certain number of people piling up in visitations, but yet in the small room in the beginning of visitation prior to entering the visitation center they would pile up the visitors like sardines in the room. And when I say sardines, the last time I went to go see him there were about a total of three of us went through the metal detector.
So, I was in the metal detector, somebody else’s backside was in the metal detector being pretty much pushed against me, and then there was a person behind me that was nearly being pushed against me. So, the sensor was picking up three people.
When he got transferred there he said that there were a total of 12 inmates within a holding cell. I called, I said that this is an issue, this isn’t complying with, you know, the Governor’s guidelines. They said, ma’am, it’s just like being on the street. And I told the woman, I said, I don’t remember the last time I ever had 12 people in my bedroom.
UCI: Right.
Caller: I’ve never had 12 people in my bedroom. So, it’s just everybody was very close. It was shoved in like sardines. At one time there was about 18 people within the same holding cell. So, the COVID-19 guidelines for our safety and social distancing, they are nonexistent within the facilities.
