Lockdown and bad conditions in California

We are pretty much on lockdown 24-7 here at Calipatria State Prison. When we get full program we only go out to yard 4 hours per week, and that’s if we are lucky because a lot of the time they come out with all kinds of excuses, and we only end up getting two hours weekly.

There are prisoners who have been here 4 years without getting any assignments (a job or school). I had a job before I arrived here at this “institution” (like they wanted this to be called, instead of what it is - a prison cages for animals, not fit for human beings.) Anyway, I had a job with a paid number which was about $20 a month, and that’s if I work a full month. Most of the time I don’t work the full month. Anyway, I asked my counselor what’s going on with a job. I said I’ve been here 3 months already and he says, why are you asking that, there are a lot of people here who have been here five years without any assignment. That surprised me because I’ve been in prison for over 12 years and I have seen other prisoners waiting for assignments 3 years at the most, never 5 years.

The situation here is really sad. A lot of us have to wait over a month to get called to see the doctor, and that’s in an emergency. So imagine those that are not emergencies. They only have one doctor for everything and one dentist and we are over 1000 prisoners. The showers look like 1940s showers, they have rat holes in them. My cellie almost broke his foot on one of them last time.

You know what’s the worse part of it? When we complain to these Correction Officers, they just say to put in a 602, which is a citizen complaint form, supposedly to fix problems in here on behalf of prisoners. The prisoners hardly win 602s. They either end up losing your 502 or rejecting your 602 because you didn’t follow a proper rule. They will do this or that and at the end nothing gets done.

In this law library you are not even allowed to make copies of legal documents. I recently went to the law library because innocence project is getting my case to see if I can prove innocence in court. They sent me these questionnaires in which they needed copies of my opening brief and reply brief. So I went to the law library to get copies. They stopped me on the spot, telling me I cannot get copies. I asked her how we can prove our innocence when we are getting doors slammed in our faces. She just said “that’s the policy.”