This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Chino.
When staff first began clearing the housing unit known as Colusa Hall as a COVID-19 unit, staff and guards used this as an opportunity to ship some prisoners to another herd to get even with other guards they had issues with.
I was one of those prisoners moved to another yard. A week later my boss brought me back. One week later the same vindictive guard had me moved to another yard a second time, resulting in me receiving a disciplinary write up. The following day, when my boss brought me back this officer who moved me spoke to the sergeant in charge and suggested I be written up for manipulation of staff.
This issue is still under appeal at the director’s level of review and far beyond the time limits allowed. When I was finally allowed, moved a third time to the temporary gym dorm, I returned to Colusa Hall daily to work.
Working in the COVID-19 unit was solely on a voluntary basis. By the end of May I had been working double shifts for two months with no days off. I volunteered my service because guards did not want anything to do with prisoners in isolation due to COVID-19.
Their attitudes at the time were that those inmates could fend for themselves. By my volunteering to be a frontline worker I was able to show these men some humanity and kindness, helping when I could and, in some cases, notifying their loved ones by phones that they were isolated in the COVID-19 unit with the virus.
