Eric says the ventilation is terrible in his unit. The vents are clogged up with dust, making it difficult for folks with asthma and bronchitis. He believes that both the vents and carpet are supposed to be cleaned every 6 months, but that it seems they haven’t been cleaned in a couple years. The day room carpet has food, blood and lots of bacteria in it. He believes the public is getting lots of misinformation about the way SRJ is handling COVID-19. When his family calls, they think everything is being handled well there based on what they hear in the news, but he has to tell them that that’s not the case. He thinks Sgt. Kelly is distributing false information, as least considering the conditions his unit is under right now.
During split tier pod time, staying 6 feet away from everyone is not possible. During pod time, if anyone in his pod has to go to the bathroom, they are forced to urinate in the pod shower, as deputies lock the cell doors, which have the toilets. This has always been the case and creates highly unsanitary showers – someone even defecated in the shower back when he was in HU7.
Many deputies are often not wearing their masks – when inmates tell them they’re supposed to have masks on when distributing food or laundry, deputies just ignore them. Inmates get disposable masks “once in a blue moon” (not even weekly, maybe once a month) so far. There is a general lack of respect from staff – when deputies hand out soap or cleaning supplies, there is always a rude remark, such as “you guys can’t make your own sanitizer?”. Technician White continually refuses to answer inmate questions and exhibits very little professionalism. Although staff is supposed to give out cleaning supplies twice a day, they sometimes skip a whole day. Lately, they’ve been passing out bars of soap every so often (not even every day), but one bar is shared between two cellmates. Eric has never seen hand sanitizer the whole time he’s been at SRJ (15 months). His pod (D pod) is not quarantine but C pod next door is (he thinks yellow tagged). He says not much has changed – they’re still eating with everyone else and a few new inmates have come into his pod too. During split tier pod time, staying 6 feet away from everyone is not possible. During pod time, if anyone in his pod has to go to the bathroom, they are forced to urinate in the pod shower, as deputies lock the cell doors, which have the toilets. This has always been the case and creates highly unsanitary showers – someone even defecated in the shower back when he was in HU 7. Otherwise, if someone has to go the restroom, they just have to hold it.