This story was told by a person incarcerated at Merced County Jail.
Caller: Well, first of all, they don’t treat us right in here because they don’t let us do nothing. We ain’t even got no chapel or none of that. We’re supposed to have a chapel or somebody to come talk to us, like a counselor or something.
And they don’t have none of that stuff in here since the pandemic, I guess. And, like, we don’t go outside. We only go outside once a week and that’s boring. Like, we should be able to go outside more than just once a week.
And then, they don’t treat us right in here. They give us, like, made up food that they made, some stuff. Ever since the pandemic, it’s just weird. And we don’t have nothing, like, they don’t act right.
We don’t get to go, like, nowhere. We ain’t even got no library in here just to read books and stuff and we’re supposed to have a new [unintelligible].
But I don’t know, they just don’t, they don’t help us like that. They don’t. They act like we’re just animals in a cage. And, like, we don’t get no visiting or none of that. We ain’t got visiting online or nothing. Other counties got it online.
We can’t even get those online. And we’ve been trying to tell them to get visiting online, but they don’t let us. Hello?
UCI: Hi, yes. I’m listening. I’m here.
Caller: Yeah, they just like, they treat us like animals. They don’t let us do nothing.
UCI: That’s horrible to hear. Thank you for sharing that. Do you – what do you think the facility could have done to make the situation better? I know you mentioned there was reduced visitation. What has that been like?
Caller: Huh?
UCI: What do you think – oh, hello?
Caller: Yeah, what happened? I can’t hear you. It’s loud.
UCI: What do you think your facility could have done to make the situation better?
Caller: They could at least give us visiting. We can’t even see our family members or nothing. Like, it’s just whatever. They don’t – like, other counties, they got visitings, like, on tablets and stuff. And we don’t got none of that.
UCI: Who has access to the tablets?
Caller: I don’t know, other counties like Stanislaus County and stuff and all that. Like, other counties. Fresno County. Like, we’re the only county that don’t got no visitors or nothing.
UCI: Oh, I see.
Caller: Yeah. So, they don’t give us none of that.
UCI: So, those tablets would have really helped, you think?
Caller: Yeah, if they gave them to us. But they say they don’t give them, they don’t want to give them to us.
UCI: How have you been coping with all of this?
Caller: Huh?
UCI: How have you been coping with all of this?
Caller: Just, I don’t know, I just deal with it because there’s nothing we can do. Because we’re in here, so they look at us like just animals.
