Even if you’re the most mannered person, they’ll still treat you like you’re a piece of shit. For example, I told them I was throwing up and fainting and not feeling good, and they were like, “Do you want to go to the nurse? Well, you’re going to stay here.”
We were not tested for COVID on intake or release. I was not provided food based on my dietary restrictions and the entire time I ate 1 orange and a few pieces of celery. As soon as I left I threw up. Guards repeatedly ignored my request for a nurse because I felt sick and needed medication the whole time.
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.
After the incident, I was afraid to eat the food, particularly since the guards and the sergeant didn’t seem to care. It is not just about getting a new lunch, because any meal, or every meal could have feces in it. It just happened that I caught it that one time, so getting a new lunch does not change the fact that the kitchen has mice.
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.
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.”
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.
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”.
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...
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...
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.
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.
Every human life here is based on a dollar. It doesn't matter if you're spending money on this GTL network or buying these overpriced canteen items. People are being denied the full medical treatment they need. Please share this information with the news and anyone you can. The jail is providing false information to the media. The more people whose eyes are opened to conditions like this the...
During inspections, they make the “podworkers” slave day in day out to cover up all the seen dirt-filled areas, waxing floors and door knobs.....Sergeants come in housing units angry, demanding all sorts of cleaning done to the entire housing unit overnight, and the deputies put their slave pod workers to work fast! Cleaning inside and even outside in 100-degree weather heat. Cleaning to injury...
I was booked into the jail about a month ago. I was never tested or quarantined before being placed into the general population. The jail staff aren't concerned about exposing us to COVID-19.... I saw Oscar Rocha, the deputy that died from COVID-19, walking around the jail without any protective gear.
Everyone in the hole had COVID-19. We know we did, even though we were all denied tests. They brought someone to the hole one day, and then took him back to his pod later that same day. But having come to that area where everyone else was infected, he was obviously exposed. Two days later, he was returned to the hole, showing symptoms of COVID-19. Who knows who else he may have spread it to.
They act like we are animals. We are all losing our minds crammed in our tiny cells for 23 hours a day, as if they are cages. We have only one hour a day that we can leave. The rest of the time we are stuck. It is torture. Now with COVID-19 on top of everything, we are being given death sentences. All this, without even being proven guilty.
We just want help with COVID so we don't die. They're carelessly and recklessly exposing us to COVID .... It's life-threatening and it's not okay. It's like attempted murder. It's not okay. It's such a fraud to increase their budget when CA is so in debt right now.
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?
The public should know that inmates inside are suffering from our lack of medical help, dental care, food, yard time—we get yard two times a week to see daylight, only 4 hours at best. They should know that there are unsanitary conditions and a lot of police misconduct.