Thank you to everyone who is showing up to this march and advocating for us. This means so much to the inmates – fathers, mothers, aunts, brothers, cousins, sisters – who need their voices to be heard and need. With everything that’s going on with police and sheriff’s departments, we need to ask what’s really going on inside Santa Rita Jail. We are fighting for our lives.
I am a pod worker in HU7E. We serve their food and hand out cleaning supplies multiple times a day. We need real Clorox bleach – period. We’re sanitizing and we’re cleaning to the best of our ability, but it’s just not enough.
The COVID epidemic became prevalent in May. My housing unit was one of the units to be most impacted. It’s been really rough since May. I’m sure pretty most people in my pod have had COVID-19 at this point. This was before they were doing temperature checks, regular testing and segregating housing. As they start to take more preventative measures, it still feels like it’s not enough. This is the worst possible time to be in jail – you’re stuck, you’re at the whim of someone else, you don’t know if you are going to wake up with COVID or not. They’re doing temperature checks, but only if your pod is under quarantine. The temperature checks used to be mandatory, but now it is only if someone in the unit is showing symptoms. It feels like they are just waiting for the cases to happen, and then they address the problem.
It’s been really rough since May. I’m sure pretty most people in my pod have had COVID-19 at this point. This was before they were doing temperature checks, regular testing and segregating housing. As they start to take more preventative measures, it still feels like it’s not enough….It feels like they are just waiting for the cases to happen, and then they address the problem.
“Do I want to go to breakfast and risk being around that new person?” These are the questions people are asking themselves. I wash my hands all the time, every day, but mentally it is so hard. People in here are really resilient, but they don’t have any other choice.
People in Santa Rita are people that you might meet on the street or on BART. They’re making the most of a bad situation. Outside, I work in San Francisco in catering. I have a 5-year-old kid. Outside of jail, you’re a regular person – but inside jail, they treat you totally different, without respect. Officers come here and they take out their frustration on inmates. And, with deputies, you’re dealing with average people here – people who are dealing with COVID at home – and they’re just winging it. They need oversight. Questions like “how often has this mop bucket been used?” There is no oversight for this. There is no oversight for testing of staff. If I was on the street, I could just drive through and get a test. I don’t see why testing for staff isn’t mandatory. Having someone do only a temperature check before being cleared for work just doesn’t make any sense.
Deputies are here for the money. This is the bread and butter for the Dublin-Pleasanton Area. They’re here for their paycheck, to get as many hours as possible, and go home to their families. They are here to open and close doors and interact with people, but when they interact, they treat them like pets or like dogs. The Sheriff’s Office received a lot of money to combat this COVID situation. They handed out some soap, they handed out some Purell wipes, and they gave out these cloth masks. This stuff is all donations – but they received almost $300 million. Where is that money going?
They are here to open and close doors and interact with people, but when they interact, they treat them like pets or like dogs. The Sheriff’s Office received a lot of money to combat this COVID situation. They handed out some soap, they handed out some Purell wipes, and they gave out these cloth masks. This stuff is all donations – but they received almost $300 million. Where is that money going?
They’re utilizing more units to try to increase the social distancing, but there’s only so much social distancing you can do. Here in the jail, you’re coming into contact with a lot of people. Each housing unit is between 80 and 100 inmates, not including people who work in commissary, who deal with the phones and the tablets, the janitorial staff. There should be some outside oversight – there needs to be checks and balances. Is the food adequate? Is the sanitation adequate? Is the transportation adequate?
Why isn’t there a committee or a board that is overseeing what is being given to the inmates? People’s health should be at the forefront.
A lot of people outside also don’t know that our right to due process is being violated. Three weeks ago, the county went to phase two and they started opening movies and nail salons. Yet the courts are still closed. People who originally would have waited 10 days for an arraignment now have to wait 30 days. People who would would have to wait 60 days for a preliminary hearing now have to wait between 5 and 9 months. Remember, someone’s case could still be dismissed during this time. Everyone who is going to court is being told to come back at a later date. People are fighting for lives – what if this goes on until 2021, 2022?
The courts want me to put up $20,000 and my house to bail out. There’s someone in one of the pods who wants to take a deal. If he takes a deal, he will be transferred to an ICE facility, where he will have to sit for another year in detention while he waits to be deported. He doesn’t even want to stay in America anymore. These are just some of the situations people are going through.
Who has the time to be on a jury for free, for days if not weeks, during COVID? Are we going to see a lot of affluent white people on juries? Will they always prosecute the harshest possible sentence? The courts, DA, and public defenders are swamped with cases. What are they going to do? Are they going to start offering people deals and sending them to the penitentiary? We need answers.
People need to go to court. If they halt the process of getting out, at some point the jail is going to fill back up. Prisons are not accepting new people: no bus will take them and no prison will accept them.
Who has the time to be on a jury for free, for days if not weeks, during COVID? Are we going to see a lot of affluent white people on juries? Will they always prosecute the harshest possible sentence? The courts, DA, and public defenders are swamped with cases. What are they going to do? Are they going to start offering people deals and sending them to the penitentiary? We need answers.
Meanwhile, taxpayer money is being spent to house us. Some people’s family have died while they’re in here, just waiting to get to their next court date. I’m watching the vigil for San Quentin on the news right now. These people who died could’ve been put in a halfway house, they could’ve been put on an ankle monitor so that they can get out, be with their families, to socially distance, and to take advantage of services. That would be a better solution than having people in these small confined spaces where everything is being touched by who knows who. What crime can people return to? Things are closed, people don’t have any money.
Recently, people came into the jail trying to get inmates to vote. You want us to vote, when we can’t even get to court? The state can and should utilize more resources. They could make programs where people can do community work to help reduce their sentences. You could release people and pay them to work at the polls. A tons of people are just trying to make ends meet. People are wondering, what is the school year going to look like? How am I going to pay my rent?
Inmates are people too, and we are innocent until proven guilty. Are inmates not citizens and taxpayers too? Do seven people have to die before you decide to do something about it? Do people have to loot stores before you decide to do your job? Do they want the same thing that happened in San Quentin to happen here? Will they wait for the numbers to get higher before taking action?
Inmates are people too, and we are innocent until proven guilty. Are inmates not citizens and taxpayers too? Do seven people have to die before you decide to do something about it? Do people have to loot stores before you decide to do your job? Do they want the same thing that happened in San Quentin to happen here? Will they wait for the numbers to get higher before taking action?