This story was told by a person incarcerated at Chino.
UCI: What has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: It’s been like a living hell.
UCI: Gotcha. Okay, can you tell me a little bit more?
Caller: They have us quarantined up. They quarantined us a lot and they always want to move us around, man. Like, during, during a quarantine, after they quarantined us, why would they move us around to more people that are already sick?
UCI: Mm-hmm.
Caller: So I don’t understand why they move us to another dorm where other people are already sick there.
UCI: Gotcha. So would you say they’re, they’re not handling it too well, huh?
Caller: No, they’re not.
UCI: Gotcha. And what about the vaccination situation. What has that been like at your facility?
Caller: I’m, I’m vaccinated, I’m vaccinated.
UCI: Oh, nice. What about everyone else? Are they also vaccinated, too?
Caller: Nah. Some people are, some people ain’t.
UCI: Oh, okay. Gotcha. And, are they giving you guys, like, good information about the vaccine? Like, what’s in it and what are the side effects and stuff?
Caller: No, they didn’t give – nah, nah.
UCI: Nothing like that?
Caller: Nah.
UCI: Gotcha. Okay, and how has the COVID situation at your facility affected your loved ones?
Caller: It affected them a lot ‘cause they, they ended up taking some of my time away that they wasn’t supposed to have taken away from me.
UCI: Gotcha. And so-
Caller: They write us for bullshit-
UCI: Oh. Mm-hmm.
Caller: They write us up for bullshit write ups and taking our time without us going to committee, without it being heard in front of the committee.
UCI: Mm-hmm. Yeah. gotcha. And, so, have they reduced visitation at your facility?
Caller: Right now we’re all in quarantine, so we can’t get no visits.
UCI: Okay, damn. And so, they, they haven’t let you guys have any visits or anything like that for how long?
Caller: For, like, months already.
UCI: Really? Wow! So I’m guessing you haven’t been able to see your loved ones for quite a while then, right?
Caller: Yes.
UCI: Gotcha. And what has it been like for you to have reduced visitation and programming?
Caller: It’s just hard. Real hard, man.
UCI: Gotcha. And how have you been coping, like, with the crisis? Like what have you been doing to kind of keep your mind busy?
Caller: Watching a little bit of TV. Watching a little bit of TV and reading books.
UCI: Gotcha. Okay, cool, cool. And what would you — what would have made the situation at your facility better? Like, what would you do to make it better?
Caller: What would make it better is that they have – they would explain to us what’s really going on, and explain to us what’s — explain to us what’s really going on and kind of better the situation if they handled it differently than what they handled it, handled it like.
