This story was told by a person incarcerated at Soledad.
UCI: So how do you think I mean, do you do you have, you know, family and stuff on the outs?
Caller: Yeah, I have parents and I have friends. I have a friend that sends me packages. And I have both my parents are able to send me money. But there’s guys in here that don’t have that.
UCI: Right. How’s that affected you? I mean, how’s it affected your loved ones?
Caller: Well, I’m able to call ‘em, you know, I can’t tell you how it’s affecting them because they can’t visit me, but you know, they just keep telling me, let me know when visiting is available, you know what I’m saying? So, I know it’s not going to happen this year, ’cause you can tell by the program, the way they’re managing it.
It’s rough in here. I mean it’s, you know, we had one suicide this year in this building. Other than that, that was about it.
You know, guys are just coping with it as much as they can. I mean, because they see what everybody else is dealing with on the street.
UCI: And so do you guys, you said you have N95 masks now?
Caller: Yeah.
UCI: OK, so everybody’s got at least one?
Caller: Yeah, well, what they did was, they made us these cloth masks. They made- they gave us each five. Well, when they actually got COVID in, they started giving them out to people that were like working in the laundry and all that.
And then finally they filtered them out to the building. Now you can just walk up- they got, they got a locker that they store em in and you walk up “Hey, Officer, can I get one of them masks? I serve food out here.” So anybody that serves food, they get a couple of them.
They still do our laundry. So our laundry is being done every week they wash your, your whites, your blues, they wash your sheets, they wash your blankets once a month. This is one of the better weather climates in prisons, it doesn’t really get too hot, and it doesn’t really get too cold here.
UCI: That’s good. Is there anything that you can think of that would make this- I mean- anything better right now?
Caller: Like I say if a group of people, of do-gooders want to give these guys care packages, because they’re going to be away from their family. And when I say care package, I’m talking like toothpaste, deodorant, soap.
You know, they have limitations on what we can get in here, but there’s a there’s a mechanism for people to do. We used to have churches donate that stuff.
UCI: OK. That’s great. Is there anything else you want- for anybody to know about your experience at all?
Caller: I mean, don’t believe what you see on TV because it’s totally different in here than that. It’s not like it was in the 80s. It is not as violent as it was, but there are yards like that. It’s nothing like that.
