This story was told by a person incarcerated at Solano.
Caller: To begin, I think it’s important for a lot of people out there to understand that a lot of times when you see public policies being announced by the California Department of Corrections, that policy is something that the higher ups have put in effect. But by the time it makes it to the local levels within the institution it’s left at the discretion of local bodies as, as to how it is being implemented— if it gets implemented at all.
UCI: Hm.
Caller: So, what we have to look at here, with this whole situation with COVID is, over the course of the last six to seven months, there’s been a number of protocols the CDCR has, uh, proclaimed to have implemented and, made public in various meetings and so forth that, that, you know, these steps were being taken to protect the inmate population, etc., etc.
Now, be mindful. Again, these mandates and so forth, may very well be with good intentions when they come out of the headquarters in Sacramento. But by the time they hit the local level is again left at the whim or discretion of the particular officers transporting prisoners, the wardens, the captains.
UCI: Hm.
Caller: So, what we’re seeing here at Solano, for example, is, uh, we’re seeing prisoners, as of recently, the transfers have begun again.
UCI: Okay.
Caller: And so, I believe the CMC, they had this big outbreak down there, 300-400 prisoners. And so, CDC puts in this protocol that says, okay, there’s a 15-day isolation period, we can get you tested, isolated, then put on a bus, isolated again, cleared, and allowed into general population.
Well, this testing isn’t happening for every person that’s getting on that bus and getting transferred. And they say, “Well, if you previously had COVID in the 14-day, 15-day window, we don’t have to test you.” Well, that’s not the case here with these prisoners that are getting transferred.
