This story was told by a person incarcerated at Avenal.
Caller: I saw firsthand here one person caught it, and it was almost overnight it took off and almost the entire building caught it. I was really surprised at how fast it spread.
UCI: Wow.
Caller: One day no one had it, the next day everyone had it. And I look back at that time and I just – the best way I can describe it, have you ever seen the show “Walking Dead”?
UCI: Yes, I know that show.
Caller: That’s what I felt like. I felt like we were in a series of “Walking Dead” in the building.
UCI: Wow, that sounds horrible.
Caller: Yes, I felt like everyone was just walking around like a zombie. Everyone’s head was kind of foggy and cloudy, and you know, it was just a very weird time. People were sick, some people more than others. It was a very weird time.
UCI: Was it scary for you to see it spread like wildfire like that?
Caller: Yeah, it was. You know, because it was so new, there wasn’t a lot known about it. You know, and you see on the news where they’re, you know, digging mass graves, rolling in these big refrigerators, 600 people die at Kaiser in one day. It’s like you see that and now everyone has COVID, and you’re like, what’s going to happen to us.
No one really knows, you know. So, that was kind of scary. But, I was fortunate, you know, that it didn’t affect me as much as it did others. But, like I said, there was, for sure, two people died in my building.
One person I knew very well. And I want to say that there was probably another two people that died, but they were people that they had brought from other yards that left out the medical but they just never came back, so we don’t know what happened to them.
But, two people, for sure, in my building died. And that’s not counting, you know, that’s just one building of four on this yard. There’s six yards at this prison, and most of the yards have five buildings on it.
UCI: How did your facility react to people passing away from COVID-19? Did they try harder to keep it from spreading?
Caller: Well, I mean, I would say that they did their best, you know. But, again, I mean, you see how fast it spreads out there with you guys, imagine, you guys have the capability of staying home, you know, and ordering groceries online and having them delivered. And, you know, being safer on the streets is much easier than it is to do in here just simply due to the segregation.
We don’t have that. I live in a dorm, an open dorm at that, you know. So, not only am I in a bedroom with 10 people, but there’s no doors. The whole front of that dorm is open, and that opens up into the day room, which again has more people in it.
So, there’s just no escaping. You know, I mean, I felt like they could only do so much, you know. They brought in some hand sanitizer, they put the dividers between the phones, they put signs everywhere to social distance, they gave us face masks.
They, like I said, we weren’t able to go to yard with any of the other buildings, so we really only stayed amongst our building. So, I would say that they did the best they could, you know. And it was new to them, too, you know, so.
