I am incarcerated in the Santa Rita Jail in Housing Unit 24A. I was booked on September 23, 2020. I was quarantined for 2 weeks before being placed in 24A. I am a pretrial detainee. I am currently working in the kitchen. There is only one kitchen in Santa Rita Jail. The kitchen makes food for every prisoner in the jail. Everyone eats the same food. When we’re making the food, no one knows to what housing unit that food will be sent. There are inmates who work dispatch, who load the carts with the trays, and then the trays are sent to the different housing units. I and the other women were working a shift that began around 3:30pm. and ended around 9:30 p.m.; 5 days a week. This shift prepared breakfast and sometimes lunch for the coming days. Then one of the Aramark employees caught COVID, so last Tuesday, our work shift changed to be from around 8:30 p.m. to midnight.
On Tuesday, October 13, I was working at the chiller. I was taking packaged food out, stacking it, and putting it in the freezer. I saw rat poop underneath the chillers and cockroaches running around. While I was moving the bags of food, I saw a cockroach inside a bag of sloppy joe sauce. It was still moving. I also saw a dark spot inside a plastic bag of oatmeal. I pinched the bag between my fingers and saw that it had wings. It was another cockroach. I told Joe, one of the Aramark workers, about this. He told me to throw the bag away, but I am concerned that there may be more cockroaches in other bags.
While I was moving the bags of food, I saw a cockroach inside a bag of sloppy joe sauce. It was still moving. I also saw a dark spot inside a plastic bag of oatmeal. I pinched the bag between my fingers and saw that it had wings. It was another cockroach. I told Joe, one of the Aramark workers, about this. He told me to throw the bag away, but I am concerned that there may be more cockroaches in other bags.
The chiller has a black box on the front with wires going into it. When I work in the chiller, I see cockroaches coming in and out of this box. I have seen many rats in the kitchen, but I have never seen a rat trap.
On Thursday, October 15, I was moving a pot of chili beans when a rat jumped out. Also on Thursday, October 15, I was eating a snack at the end of my shift in the break room. There are extra boxes of condiments stored in the breakroom. I noticed that one of the boxes was open, and there was a rat inside the box. I sometimes also work in the scullery. In the sculleries, there are vents in the ceiling. I have seen roaches coming in and out of the vents. They sometimes also fall from the ceiling.
As part of our work in the kitchen, we are given snacks. Before we can have our snack, we have to clean up the break room because the kitchen and the break room are very dirty after the men on shift before us finish with production. There are plastic flaps that separate the kitchen from the outside. There are no doors. The plastic flaps don’t go all the way to the floor, and I have seen birds walk underneath them, coming in from the outside into the kitchen.
There are plastic flaps that separate the kitchen from the outside. There are no doors. The plastic flaps don’t go all the way to the floor, and I have seen birds walk underneath them, coming in from the outside into the kitchen.
On Thursday, October 22, I was cleaning the break room and moving boxes of condiments. When I moved a box aside, I found a baby mouse that had been smashed between the box and a bench. It was hurt but still moving. The deputy, Ms. B, put the mouse in a plastic bag filled with water to drown it, and put it in the trash.
I am concerned that food is not sealed properly. I have seen many breakfast trays that are not properly sealed. I see at least 3-4 trays every day that are not sealed. I have also experienced this myself. When I was quarantined at the end of September, the pod workers would throw my meal into the sink next to the door of the cell so that there was no physical contact between us. One time, the oatmeal in my tray was totally unwrapped and started leaking into the sink. I had to ask for a new tray.
To make sandwiches, we use bags of bread, and we open many bags at a time in order to make sandwiches for lunch. The bags are opened 12 at a time and sometimes there are leftovers. The bag opens and reseals from the middle, but sometimes it doesn’t seal properly, so cockroaches can get inside. Another woman in Housing Unit 24A found a cockroach inside her sandwich, which was sealed inside a plastic bag for lunch.
I was stirring my rice when I saw a cockroach in the rice. Its body was partially translucent and I could see its skeleton, it had cooked into the rice, but I could see the legs and the wings. Finding the cockroach in my rice made me feel sick. I threw up from eating that cockroach.
On Monday, October 26, I went to work around 3:30pm. I was eating a snack before my shift. It was rice, a burrito, and peach cobbler. I was stirring my rice when I saw a cockroach in the rice. Its body was partially translucent and I could see its skeleton, it had cooked into the rice, but I could see the legs and the wings. Finding the cockroach in my rice made me feel sick. I threw up from eating that cockroach. I reported the roach to Ms. B, the sheriff’s deputy who works in the kitchen, who agreed that it looked like a cockroach. Ms. B’s body worn camera was turned on. I also reported the cockroach to two Aramark workers, but Kenny but told me it was an onion. When I told the Aramark worker, Ms. Margarita, she told it that eating a roach “it’s ‘ok”. After I ate that roach, I started getting sick and needed to throw up. Ms. B sent me back to the pod because I felt very sick and had to go throw up.
Inside the kitchen, when you come in, behind the mirrors is bird poop. The mirrors are right above the sink where we wash our hands, so we can see the accumulation of bird poop. Last night, two pigeons were flying around the kitchen. Birds also land on the lights high on the wall. And there’s bird poop on the lights. Since eating that cockroach, and getting sick to my stomach, I am now concerned about the food in the jail.