This story was told by a person incarcerated at Salinas Valley.
Caller: I think if the staff wouldn’t have, you know, took better care of themselves because this is the people who brought this stuff in, you know? People are forgetting that that, you know? Me being a diabetic, I came in contact with staff four times a day and it was like, for the staff number, it was like 10 staff a day each time.
We’re talking during the first watch, morning and noon, and third watch, 5:00 and 8:00, so not counting the inmate workers there in the hospital where I go get my diabetic treatment.
I think that the staff should have taken better care of themselves as well as follow the protocol that was set in place such as showering, cleaning the showers before and after, not at night but which they did, only once tonight and sometimes they didn’t do that. But I’m saying after each and every individual got in and got out. You see what I’m saying?
UCI: Yeah, that should have been something that they did.
Caller: And they wasn’t doing that, they didn’t clean, they didn’t, never disinfect the trash cans that are inside the buildings. I was allowed to work in the kitchen, I was at the main kitchen at that. I believe they deliberately infected me, that’s my situation because of my lawsuits. We’re in a lot of lawsuits and I think they used it as an opportunity to impact my life.
UCI: Yeah, well I’m glad that you sent a letter and that you called and I got to hear your story. What else do you want people to know about what you experienced, what other people have experienced, and just like overall the situation?
Caller: Overall, well there’s a psychological effect going on. Everybody, you know, here, there’s an attempted murder on the yard here as a result, as a direct result of the pandemic. The guy just went crazy, he was already a mental patient.
You know. He almost took this guy’s head off on the D yard facility for absolutely no reason. But you know, being locked up, they did try, well I can give dayroom, but it was many times when we got no yard, no dayroom, staff just sat around and gave parties, what do you call it, potluck. You know?
There was many times where the yard was just clear, there was no inmates on the yard. During third watch when I would go do my diabetic thing, and staff is just partying, having big parties in the gym. You know, it’s crazy. You know, inmates get tired of that, some of it inmates.
We just got particularly, and I mean, you know, so lot of guys just reacted to the COVID, being locked up, quarantine, not being able to get out, in destructive ways. Lot of guys you know. They didn’t have jobs.
Fortunately, I had a job and I was able to get out and whatnot, but like I said I believe that I was targeted. It’s just my belief.
