This story was told by a person incarcerated at Pleasant Valley.
UCI: What would make the situation at your facility better?
Caller: What would make the situation- oh man. Just more nurses, you know, being present on the yard, you know would help us out more, and checking up on us more often would be better.
UCI: I see.
Caller: Yeah.
UCI: And what else do you want people to know about your experience?
Caller: Aw man. That it’s sad being in here knowing that, you know, you can’t really, you know keep in contact with your family like we used to. I feel like we’re caged up again, you know what I mean?
And I feel like- I just feel like really closed off, you know what I mean? Like, there’s really not much we can do, just to use the phone and stuff like that. And yeah, it kinda sucks.
UCI: What kind of activities do you do?
Caller: Well I just, well I kinda watch TV a lot. I just kick it and watch TV and hang out. I try to watch some different channels, and then, I just watch TV. I read a lot of magazines and stuff like that.
And then I just wait until the morning comes. They feed us breakfast in the morning. And in the morning, I’m a porter, a porter is like someone that cleans and stuff like that.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: So like I clean the facility. I help sanitize the facility for a little bit. For like, about an hour and like 10, 15 minutes. And then we wipe down all the railings and all that stuff. And then, usually we’re done by like 9:30 or something.
And then after that they let us take a shower. And then we hang out in the cell for a little bit, I usually take a nap for a little bit. And after that, I’m done taking a nap, I probably get up like around, like 10, and drink some more coffee and hang out. Do a little bit more writing.
UCI: Mhmm.
Caller: Read a little bit, I like reading cosmo magazine. So that kinda like keeps me entertained with the world, at least a little bit. And after that I do some working out. And then I kinda just repeat that every day, you know, just to stay focused you know?
UCI: I’m just curious, when at the height of the pandemic, we’re prisoners allowed to, just have the same routine as now or was it restricted?
Caller: Well it was restricted because we used to be able to go out to yard every day. And you know, everyone, when you go to yard you usually have your daily routine, you know what I mean? You get to go outside, you get to work out, do certain stuff.
Or, go to school, because I used to go to school from 10 to 12 and now we don’t go to school no more. So its kinda like, we don’t have in person classes right now.
UCI: What school did you go to? Or under what program?
Caller: It’s just a GED program, that they have right here.
UCI: Oh, OK.
Caller: I’m trying to get my high school diploma. Or my GED, either one. Yeah.
UCI: How do you like that program, or, back when it was running?
Caller: It was cool. It was good because if I graduated from that class I get six months knocked off my case. So, that would be a big help, you know?