This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Ironwood.
Hello UCI student,
Well, where to start. I’ve been incarcerated since I was 18. When I first came inside, it was okay and I couldn’t complain. I was at another for about two years and when I first got there I was still acting up and getting write ups, then I spoke to this older dude who’s been down 40 years, and he helped me change my way of thinking. Since that talk, I’ve got my GED.
When this pandemic started, a lot of us were moved in Ironwood, and it was alright for a while, but then I got a write up placed in administrative segregation. We didn’t have any COVID cases here but recently they have started to put them in administrative segregation.
There is fear that our safety isn’t important because when we go to the yard there is no soap or hand sanitizer to try to stay safe. When we go to the yard, we strip naked in front of females and other inmates, when we 602-ed there, they took our thermals, towels, and soap again.
It’s 46 degrees when we go outside, and we only wear one pair of boxers, socks, and a shirt. To help inmates see their family, they started video visits, but us in the hole have no access to visits, and it sucks because I personally haven’t seen my family in over three and a half years, so it does have a mental affect on me.
To cope with this crisis, I try not to think about it much, and listen to music to keep it off my mind. But one good thing I can say is we get one phone call a week so that’s a good thing because we have some type of connection to our family. Hope this story helps you. I thank you for allowing me to share part of my story with you. Stay safe and wear a mask. Mask slows the spread.
