The Inside Scoop

So we recently had an outbreak of Covid-19. By the way, nobody went to the hospital or even had more than a sore throat and a runny nose. It used to be if someone tested positive, he and his celly went into quarantine regardless of his test status, but they changed that for awhile, which was a good thing. Eventually a lot of people caught it and they moved all the positive cases out of the building. Some of them were even sent to the hole (administrative segregation), which has no TV, or phones, and they only let them bring food. Everyone who tested negative got put on quarantine due to potential contact despite our negative results. Then more positives showed up, and Sacramento told the prison to pack the whole building up (over a 100 people and their belongings) and take us to the dining hall so they could sanitize the whole building. They soon realized that was not going to work, so they had us put our stuff outside our cells and wait until about until about 7pm… a lot of people’s m...

This week I’m sharing an “assignment” we were given not long ago regarding our feelings/opinion etc. about covid: When I first heard of covid I was in Calipatria State Prison, which is a level 4, so there isn’t a lot of freedom. I was lucky enough to drop points (your points determine what level you go to by how good or bad you are) and be one of the last buses to transport prisoners before covid restrictions came into effect. I found my self on a pretty decent level 3 that was fairly close to where I used to live (and where my family still lives). I was also very lucky that the prison yard I was on barely had a handful of cases throughout the pandemic, so not only did I not get covid, but we never went into full quarantine lockdown like a lot of other prisons did. I was recently able to get vaccinated, so I’m glad for that. It makes me feel much safer. One thing I will always remember is watching covid seep into television—at first it was all over the news, then slowly but surely ...

Contact with friends and loved ones is very important to inmates. The impact of being locked in a cell all day, or being around convicts all day, can really have an effect on your emotions and attitude. The ability to make phone calls is great, and it makes a huge difference in our day-to-day lives, but they usually only last 15 minutes, which isn’t really enough time to hold a meaningful conversation. Since the pandemic, CDCR has implemented video visits that allow us an hour to talk with an approved visitor face-to-face. These video visits allow for lots of people, who wouldn’t normally be able to get a visit, to see the people they care about. If our loved ones are ill or live very far away, it could be very difficult to make the journey. There are laws that state they can’t provide video visits instead of contact ones unless there is a pandemic or some other reason, so we usually don’t have that option available to us. Some people are working to keep them going in a limited capac...

  Since I’ve been down, I’ve been to a few prisons. I did time at Tracy Reception Center (DVI) and that place is really run down. It’s a good thing they’re shutting it down. I’ve done a layover in Wasco, and that place was very dirty, plus the food was terrible.  So far, most of my time was done in Calipatria (CAL). It wasn’t dirty and the food was halfway decent, but there were no options for jobs or self-help programs, and there wasn’t a lot of dayroom or yard… but it’s a level 4.  The place I’m in now is Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) in Jamestown, CA. When I showed up it was Disneyland. All day programs, lots of job options and self-help programs. But, ever since covid hit, all that pretty much cut in half, which is better than most other places.  I have heard that Mule Creek, Stockton, and Donovan are pretty nice, but everyone has their own opinion of nice. It’s all still prison. If anyone feels like they would like to write to me personally, that’s fine wit...

Ever since this pandemic started, all the prisons in the world went to some sort of modified program… among those is my prison (Sierra Conservation Center). A modified program consists of below normal amounts of yard, dayroom, and/or jobs, and self-help groups. We understand that it’s because of Covid-19 and we’ve gotten kinda used to it, but for the past couple months my prison has been going through some sort of bureaucratic bull-crap that doesn’t have anything to do with inmates—but affects inmates. Randomly, throughout the week, multiple correctional officers won’t show up to work and we won’t get yard, or any program at all, and sometimes this happens multiple days in a row. Now, I’m not exactly sure why this is, but I’ve heard a couple of rumors. One is that the union cut a deal so they can take away vacation days whenever they want, just because they feel sick. The other is that nobody wants to work with the new sergeant that took over second-watch. Regardless of all of this,...