This story was told by a person incarcerated at Donovan.
Caller: A couple days ago, which was January 3rd, they came around with these panels that they manufactured in the program office telling us to sign them knowing that we’re willingly living amongst COVID-19, that other inmates are infected, and if we don’t sign them we’re going to be moved.
And this is outrageous because we’re forced to sign them relinquishing the CDCR from liability ’cause that’s all they ever cared about. And the problem with that is that if we didn’t sign them, then we were subject to be moved to another contaminated building or contaminated cell from an another infected inmate. Nobody wants to move. Everybody’s hunkered down in their cells.
They’re scared to eat the food. They’re scared to do anything. So, I’m asking that the Marshall Project and AMEND, AMEND, a-m-e-n-d.us.org, get involved immediately here, because several people died and we’re still at risk because, and I almost died in my cell.
And I’m a lifer for a nonviolent crime. I’ve been down the third strike for 27 years. And they’ve done nothing to advance my parole hearing to allow me to show that I’m rehabilitated, and get out of here.
You’ve got guys that are 90 days to the house, and they’re not reviewing them. Everybody here should have an equal opportunity to be reviewed for release because there’s nothing they can do to protect us.
Here at R.J. Donovan we have a total utter collapse. The system failed, people died, and the families that died, the inmates that died of the grieving ones, they need to know the truth. They need to know the truth.
The public needs to know the truth. And this is beyond deplorable what I witnessed. It is a humanitarian crisis. And the public needs to know about that. And you can use my name. I don’t care. I already filed a lawsuit.
I’m in the courts right now. I have several declarations from over 50 inmates. And they’ve seen it too. And I’m encouraging everybody to call this line, so that the public understands they are misrepresenting the facts, the truth, and the statistics.
Between December 15th, and the outbreak at its pinnacle, December 30th, they didn’t even come in doing rounds, they weren’t checking on inmates. My building alone reported over 17 medical duress alarms resulting in critical care. So, this is the facts, it’s not fiction. And I hope that you people were able to, to do something about it.
