This story was told by a person incarcerated at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail.
UCI: And how has the COVID situation been like there?
Caller: LA county. It has been – I want to say it has been good to an extent, but it has been managed poorly to another extent. So kind of, like, it is good because you do have the testing in place and they are taking the precautionary steps of quarantining a tier or a whole module if need be, so they do kind of, like, try to isolate it. And if a person is feeling sick, they are taking the necessary steps to put them in isolation. But you know, the backend of that-
UCI: And how does –
Caller: What you was going to say?
UCI: Oh, I was just going to ask you how has the vaccination been like there?
Caller: Oh, so you take what they give you. That goes for the county jail and prison, like, the – they – you’re going to take what they give you. You have no right to pick and choose which one of the vaccines you want, and I feel that that’s something that I feel that as wrong because if you – if I’m willing to take something and it’s saying to protect myself and protect the public, then why can’t I be treated with the common decency to at least have the opportunity to take the shot that I feel comfortable with?
Because if something happened to me for taking a – a shot, adverse effect, I can’t sue anybody, my family can’t do anything because I wanted to take this vaccine. So it’s, like, can I get the one where I’m comfortable with? So if something does happen to me, I can say, well, at least, okay, I wanted that vaccine, and I took it, so I can live with whatever happen after that. But just telling me I’m – you’re going to take this on that, we got to offer it. If you don’t want this, then you don’t get no shot.
I feel that’s wrong. By me being incarcerated, we don’t have no rights like that, and as far as the prison and in this county jail you don’t have those rights.
