deputies moving between housing units exposed and not exposed to covid-19 without changing gloves or masks, putting prisoners at risk

I am a prisoner in Santa Rita jail. It has taken over a month, but finally the sheriff deputies now all wear masks and gloves in the housing unit. But, they don’t change their masks and gloves when they come in from outside the pod. It seems that they keep the same masks and same gloves on all day. It seems that if the deputies are in another pod, where someone may be infected with COVID-19, and they walk into our pod with the same mask and same gloves on, it’s just spreading the virus around. The same problem exists when the deputies search prisoners and search our cells. The deputies do not change their masks and gloves, so with that personal contact, the virus gets spread around, on the gloves and on the masks.

It seems that if the deputies are in another pod, where someone may be infected with COVID-19, and they walk into our pod with the same mask and same gloves on, it’s just spreading the virus around. The same problem exists when the deputies search prisoners and search our cells.

Our housing unit, and I believe all the housing units are now on split tier pod time. Each housing unit has 2 tiers of cells, one up and one down. In the past, the entire pod got to get out of our cells together. But now, with split tier, only half of us get out at a time. This has reduced our time out of cell by half. With no programs, this means we spend our day locked up more, with more nothing to do.

Since the jail’s policy is that no new people come into our pod without first being quarantined (I hope for 14 days), then we, in the pod, are like a family unit. No one inside has the corona virus. We would only get sick if a guard or someone outside brought it in. Therefore, it makes no sense to cut our out of cell time in half. There’s no benefit, and it only adds to the punishment of Santa Rita Jail. I have grieved this.

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