Being reduced to animal-like treatment is what is jeopardizing public safety, not promoting it. Our issues become exacerbated and once again, the expensive system fails at its job, causing more harm and pain than it does good.
“we need help in santa rita real bad, it’s getting out of control” voice message from inside Santa rita jail
We need help in Santa Rita, real bad, it's getting out of control, and we can't handle it no more. We just need help here. Please, somebody help us here at Santa Rita.
two prisoner letters detail racially biased and unjust legal process during pandemic
People of color and those that come from low poverty is being denied the Humphrey law. It will show, that’s why the inmate population is growing fast at Santa Rita Jail....it seems like nobody is being released. It’s 85% of African Americans that’s housed at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County – the new form of modern day slavery.
pod worker describes completely inedible food of all kinds; rodent and cockroach infestation in kitchen and housing units; grievances marked resolved without fixing the problem
When we filed grievances, the response is “resolved” because they have put sticky traps under the oven and vending machines. But, it doesn’t fix the reason the mice are here. The jail has not repaired the holes in the walls where the mice live.
kitchen worker reports burnt and inedible food, rodents in kitchen, aramark workers do nothing when issues are brought to their attention
Last week, for some reason, I got a stomach illness. I was throwing up, I was constipated, my stomach burned, and I could not eat for two days. I think it was related to something I ate. It’s hard to know if my stomach illness came from eating burnt food, or if it came from eating food that was contaminated.
prisoner on special diet misses 22 meals in one month because trays don’t match dietary needs, portions are inadequate even in correct trays, loses 25 lbs. in 4 months
In June, I missed 22 meals. In July, I missed 14 meals. Despite me submitting that grievance regarding missed meals back in mid-March 2020, the jail still often does not provide me with my meals, and does not provide me with replacement gluten free meals when my meal is missing.
prisoner logs food portion and quality; finds food consistently spoiled, falls short of both portion size and items on menu, disgusting and inedible, food trays filthy, loses 70 lbs. in 8 months as a result
Around January or February of 2020, when Aramark started changing the menu, reducing the food portions more, and leaving out more of the meal elements, and I started losing weight. I have lost almost 70 pounds between January and August 2020 (eight months). In August 2020, I weighed 180 pounds, which I haven’t weighed since I was 16 years old.
prisoner swallows piece of metal found in oatmeal; grievance over incident is rejected; is now too frightened to eat jail food and so has lost 35 lbs.
Later that day, I submitted a grievance about the metal in my oatmeal, but the response came back as “Resolved”, because I was “offered another tray.”
rats, birds, cockroaches all over kitchen and in food; concerns over eating a cockroach in the rice dismissed by aramark workers
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.
prisoner grievances of feces in food denied; food consistently inedible; “unsafe food… forces most folks to go buy commissary, leading to huge profit margins for the jail”
Especially now that we are getting our food on disposable trays, I see many unopened or barely touched trays going straight into the trash can. This speaks to the food’s safety issues and terrible quality because we are so hungry all the time – we wouldn’t just throw anything out without it being truly disgusting or threatening to our health.
prisoner describes food contamination, overcooking to the point of being inedible, other examples of poor food quality
When the trays aren’t cleaned properly, the food remnants that stick to the trays just keep getting cooked into the plastic of the trays more and more. When there are food remnants on the bottom or sides of the trays, this means my food is contaminated, which feels unsanitary and not safe to eat.
kitchen worker describes consistently expired, spoiled, and contaminated food; aramark workers purposefully failing to address these issues
I have seen our Aramark supervisor, Margarita, pull unused trays out of the garbage to be used on the line again. This concerns me because I try to keep things as clean and sanitary as possible. Margarita sometimes sees rat poop sitting on top of the trays. I have seen her dust off rat poop with her bare hands. I have also seen Margarita pull bugs out of the food, with her hands.
prisoner describes terrible food quality: spoiled, burnt, inedible
For example, yesterday the vegetables were old and inedible. They have turned brown and black and become soggy, like when vegetables are forgotten in the fridge and turn into brown mush. Lately, the tuna fish has smelled bad, and I’m afraid to eat it. I don’t want to get food poisoning.
kitchen worker describes food consistently spoiled by lack of refrigeration, food cooked with maggots in it, rats in freezer
The food at Santa Rita Jail is frequently spoiled and inedible. On the week of October 5, 2020, when I was still in HU 22, beans were served with maggots in them. The maggots were cooked with the beans. When we told the deputy, his response is “this is all you get”, “eat it or throw it away”.
kitchen worker describes feces, rats, cockroaches, birds in kitchen; aramark refuses to adequately address poor food quality and unsanitary conditions
I have found rat poop on top of the meal trays that are going out to the housing units. When I brought this issue up with Margarita, she picked off the rat poop with her bare hands and threw it away.... I reported this to a kitchen deputy and asked for the trays to be remade. We have to fight to get Aramark to throw away food that is not fit to serve. Rather than make all new trays, they try to...
prisoner being retaliated against for filing grievances; calls for third-party surprise visits to jail
Sheriff Ahern and his deputies have a blatant disregard for taxpayers money. From sexual harassment to deputies giving each other massages on the taxpayers dime, and lots more in between, including being locked outside in the yard, and past dinner, and then having to beg for food. It's time for this jail to have a more serious audit than the current one. There needs to be an unbiased third-party...
jail lying about amount of testing and not testing correctly leading to inaccurate results; only in compliance during inspections; retaliating against whistle-blowers
The most important thing is for them to know is that the jail is lying to people about how much they are testing. They are not offering the test to everyone. Since March 2020 they have not offered the test to every inmate, so not every inmate has been tested. They are not getting accurate results. They are not doing the procedures the right way.
prisoner describes consistent lack of masks, and is denied release despite high health risk and no violent past convictions
The inmate grievance response is “....Santa Rita can’t just let you out, you must be released through the courts.” So I asked my Public Defender regarding said issue, and she said the courts are not going to give me a 5-month-early release but she did state: Santa Rita Jail could give me an early release without a court order.
prisoner reports persistent lack of testing, proper medical care, and sanitation
Then I was moved to HU7 in late July. I haven't had my temperature checked since June; the jail isn't checking temperatures or testing anyone in 7 at all. We used to get soap every week in HU32, but since I came to 7, I haven't gotten soap in weeks. We don't get proper cleaning supplies here either.
prisoner reports low testing rate and suspects jail lying about results of positive covid-19 tests
They lyin, they haven’t tested that many people. The only way we get tested is if we show symptoms. Testing is slowing down and they aren’t taking it seriously.