This story was told by a person incarcerated at New Folsom.
UCI: Yeah, and so in regards to this whole situation, how would you have made this situation better, in regards to, like, how your facility handled things for COVID? How would you have made it better?
Caller: Well, I don’t know how to make it better, ’cause nothing’s better, and I, all I can say is the only thing that can make it better, but for me, I would think about my mom, you know? That’s the only reason why I’ve been living all these years, 25 years, than having to commit suicide or nothing, you know? I’ve been thinking about my mom, you know? She’s been my main goal, the reason why I live, the reason why I struggle everyday to stay alive, and – and hope that getting the release day, on you know, getting out of prison, you know, and that’s, and now my day is coming up, you know and it’s May this, of this month, you know?
But for the board, I had the chance of getting out, finally getting this, you know, to set this above me, you know and get this, get me to get my freedom back, you know? I’d better be living on the streets and free, walk, go where I want to go, I ain’t got to have nobody tell me when I can go here, I can go there, or when I’m locked down, I ain’t got to have nobody control me. I could be a free man again, you know?
UCI: Of course. And so, I just wanted to rephrase the question. That, that, you answered the, the question that I said good. I just, I was just referring to, like, you know how with, with COVID, certain facilities haven’t handled protocols correctly, so they don’t give out masks or anything like that so I was, I was wondering, like –
Caller: Oh, okay.
UCI: If you, yeah.
Caller: Oh yeah, they give out masks, yeah they give out masks here. They do give us masks, that’s one thing they do give us. They give us masks, that’s cool, you know.
You know they keep the – the disease from spreading around, it must because I, you know, I got to mask myself, you know, they give them to you so they protect, so we protect each other now, you know, so they, they been, and that’s been a good thing about the prison. They started giving out masks, masks, I mean masks and that’s a good thing to keep the, that COVID-19 virus from spreading. You know, and that’s a good thing, you know?
UCI: Yeah, and they don’t give you guys like any cleaning supplies, like any towels to wipe things down, anything to, to remain sanitary?
Caller: No. No, you got to go and, you got to go and ask for the cleaning supplies, like disinfectant and stuff like that, and the cleaning, if you don’t, if you don’t have that, if you don’t have that, they, you know, that, that’s a, that’s a risk that you, you around a lot of germs, you could catch, you could catch COVID-19, you know? You get to be around those, you got to ask for disinfectant.
They, they do hand it out every now and then, but they very strict on it though, they very strict on disinfectant, giving disinfectant out. You know and, you got to, you got to stay on them, you know, you got to stay on them, and let them know that hey man, I need to clean my house, I need to clean up my area, clean around, I need to have disinfectant to clean the walls and stuff and, like, that, you know soap to wash my hands, you know?
