This story was told by a person incarcerated at CMC (California Men’s Colony).
UCI: What facility are you currently housed at?
Caller: CMC West.
UCI: CMC West?
Caller: Yeah. California Men’s Colony.
UCI: Okay. Thank you. Has the conditions changed since the beginning of the pandemic to now? Like have the people in there been changing the way that they handle COVID since the beginning of the pandemic to now?
Caller: Uh, you know that’s they- I know they’ve done things where they’ve like, inside the dorm, they set up like quote unquote pods. You know, cuz in there, like the pods are like, indoor pods are six feet apart, you know, but, but basically, within a pod area, it’s- you have four bunk beds, and you got two guys for each bunk.
And so now they want us to practice six feet social distancing. But, but yeah, the bunks are basically within three feet of each other. So it’s kind of hard to practice six feet of social distancing.
And I know at one point, they had reduced the amount of men inside each dorm, but now they’re starting to fill them back up again. So I’m not sure what- how they’re transitioning guys in and out. So it’s so- I guess they’re doing some stuff.
And you know, at this point in time, we have dorms that are only going one, one dorm at a time to use the yard, use the phone so that way we’re not crossing any other dorms. So they’ve done stuff like that, trying to reduce it.
And, and you know, it can be frustrating, because some guys are gonna want to be outside and basically getting one hour, pretty much an hour a day going out, you know, but-
And they’re starting to get jobs up again so guys are starting to go back to work. And so that’s- so guys are feeling good about that, and I think that’s more than anything else is that- I think sometimes we feel confined if not we’re able to go out and have the quote unquote freedom to go out and do things like before the pandemic hit and stuff like that.
UCI: Right, I understand. And is there anything that you could think of that would make the situation better at your facility?
Caller: Uh, you know I think communication, to kind of get an understanding of what’s going on. See you know, it’s uh- we’re trying to- you know, ask officers, you know, say “hey what’s going on?” They’re like, you know, “we’re not quite sure what’s going on,” compared to communication against when the higher ups down from the medical to officer that gets- so we’re getting lost in translation, so to speak.
And so like, there are times we’re- we’ll ask the officer, “Do you know what with this?” Like, you know what, I don’t know, cuz I’m not really getting a full answer. So I can’t answer your questions.
And the one that above me he can’t answer my questions cuz no one’s really kind of getting the, I guess, either an explanation or and I think it’s so new, the pandemic, that I think everybody’s still trying to figure out, what, you know, how do we go through this? How do we approach it? In- and there’s nothing- there’s also a big reason why I think something been done the way it was being done.
You know, cuz I’m thinking well everybody’s been hit with this first time, no one really knew, or knows, even still, like, how do we handle this, you know maybe we’re still learning to try to figure things out.
You know, we still have guys who are still- have not returned back to the home dorm and stuff like that. There’s still some guys in the medical facility. And so, some got hit harder than others. And, I don’t know, you try to do the best you can I guess.
