This story was told by a person incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail.
UCI: And you had mentioned that they’re not properly sanitizing things, do they provide anything like that for you?
Caller: They haven’t been doing it, and now that I have been really pushing the issue, they’re starting to provide alcohol pads. Our pod has been dirty. They haven’t given us – they don’t give us clothing exchanges. Sometimes for over 30 days here.
This is the punish – this is the new admin – this is the new secret undercover Santa Rita Jail administrative segregation punishment unit. We’re in it. It’s not even about, “What it’s supposed to be,” it’s all about punishment here.
We’ve been – they’ve signed an agreement to let us out for two hours in the morning and two hours at night. They refuse to do it. They do everything but what they’re supposed to do.
UCI: Do you ever get-
Caller: They’re using-
UCI: So sorry. Do you ever get to go out?
Caller: Yeah, we get to go out, but we got to fight with them. You know, on things they’re supposed to do.
They’re using the mental health psychiatric state hospital as a means to force people to take the plea bargain. And they’ll have your public defender say, “You’re incompetent to stand trial,” after you get to the point where they feel like you’re gonna go to trial. And they don’t want to spend the money, so they’ll say – he’ll state the belief that you are incompetent to stand trial.
Then, even without the psychs that are supposed to interview you, never end up interviewing you. They just review paper record and determine your incompetency, off of no evidence that you suffered from a mental illness. And then, they involuntarily authorize that you be medicated without you ever having any evidence that you ever suffered from any mental illness or taken psych meds.
They’ll just get you to the hospital and start injecting you with psych medications against your will. That’s what this jail is doing. It’s all about them making money off your incarceration and I’m going to be honest with you.
A lot of it is a racial discrimination and it’s mainly affecting African Americans and Latinos, but mainly African Americans they’re doing this to. Because our jail is predominantly African American cohabitants.
UCI: How would they label you with a mental disability?
Caller: They don’t even – they don’t even.
