This story was told by a person incarcerated at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility.
Caller: And, you know, I think that’s great that you were thinking of us in the jail and that we were kind of, like, you know, having a really hard time during the pandemic.
They didn’t know exactly what was going on and everybody wearing masks, and they were separating people that were infected or testing positive.
Like I said, very little – I’ve had no contact with my family since the pandemic. I’m waiting, I have to go to [unintelligible] first for some stupid stuff. I had a bank teller red flag one of my savings accounts. So, I’m hoping for Firecamp, but I’m awaiting transfer to another facility and I hopefully, being vaccinated, I’ll be more, you know, qualified for a parole.
But, I could say at the height of the pandemic it was pretty ridiculous. They had us [crosstalk] like dogs.
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: I mean, they had us – you know, they were not letting us move around at all.
UCI: Wow.
Caller: So, now what they have is the social distancing in the jail. They’re letting people out more now. They’re having the cell program, they’re letting people out probably about four to five to six at a time once or twice a day. And then they have dorm program for the people that are less of a security risk.
They have a dorm program where there’s supposed be, like, I’d say there’s supposed to be 15 per dorm but they’re only allowed, like, for 11 per dorm because it’s to keep the social distancing [crosstalk] –
UCI: Yeah.
Caller: – that applied. I mean, they’re trying. But, at first they didn’t know what it was. They didn’t know exactly what was going on with people getting sick and stuff like that.