This story was told by a person incarcerated at Avenal.
Caller: So, you know, the pandemic affected us. Like, you guys were out there having toilet paper issues, and food was out of stock, and prices went up, and we dealt with the same stuff here. You know, we go to the, it’s called the canteen here, the store where we go and we get our top ramen, our beans, our rice, our tortillas, ice cream sodas, whatever you like.
Everything there has gone up. In fact, just this month alone the beans that they sell us here were $1.60 last month, well this month on the new price sheet they went up to $2.20. Mayonnaise was $2.95, now it’s $4.35. So, the cost of our canteen has everything. Creamer for your coffee went from $1.50 to $1.90. So, even that’s going up.
All of our prices here. And what sucks is we’re on a, we can only spend so much money a month at the store. You can only spend $220 a month at the store here. So, you’re getting much less for your dollar now. Which is kind of similar out there. I heard that everything’s going up out there, too.
UCI: Yeah, you’re right.
Caller: So, we’re dealing with the same stuff. It’s been long, it’s been hard, it’s been stressful, it’s been challenging, you know. It’s just trying to survive, you know, and get through it and, you know, hopefully come out on the other end.
And I’m pretty sure I could speak for everyone here, you know. Everyone here has one goal and that’s just to stay healthy and go home. Everyone in here wants to go home.
Everyone in here wants to get out to their families. You know, a lot of these guys, I saw a lot of guys that were just heartbroken. They were walking around for days on end because, you know, they called home and their mom, their dad, their grandma died because of COVID, you know.
So, you know, that’s been really hard. Thank god I haven’t lost anybody close to me, but you know, losing family and loved ones while you’re in prison, you know, adds an element of, you know, a whole other beast in its own. You know, people are, you know, working with feelings at that point, you know.
And, you know something can set them off, or they’re sad, or mad, or angry, you know, because they’re punishing themselves because they weren’t out there to be with them, you know. So, you know, I saw a lot of that. You know, that was really sad, you know, so.
