The University of California, Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts opened “Locked Down and Locked Up,” a prison pandemic exhibit that runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 14. The exhibit was founded by a group of UCI students and faculty and tells the stories of those incarcerated during COVID-19.
Joanne DeCaro, a graduate student at UCI and a founding member of “Locked Down and Locked Up,” describes the circumstances many inmates experienced as “horrifying.” She urged members of the UCI community to see the exhibit in person and to further educate themselves about the treatment of incarcerated people.
“We really wanted the option to be able for people to hear and see firsthand these phone calls and letters,” DeCaro said. “It’s something that can kind of move you in a way that reports and numbers and statistics can’t.”
The “Locked Down and Locked Up” exhibit spent over $25,000 on stamps for the exhibit’s founders to send tens of thousands of letters reaching out to inmates to hear their stories. The exhibit contains letters from inmates, drawings they have created, and a hotline set up previously used for UCI students and inmates to communicate, which now holds recordings of these conversations.
There are over 1,500 stories on the exhibit’s website, which include letters written by inmates and phone conversations between them and hotline volunteers.
“There are inmates dropping off like flies,” is just one thing an inmate shared through a phone recording about their experience in prison during COVID. Other stories included inmates expressing fear for their lives, descriptions of unsanitary living conditions, and being denied basic rights such as bathing phone calls and were not allowed to see visitors for up to 20 days.
In the center of the exhibit sits a box full of unopened letters, which is said to be letters to prisoners from friends and family that they did not receive due to the pandemic.
The exhibit also reveals that some inmates were threatened with “write-ups” if they failed to work in places such as the prison cafeteria, which would put them at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19. A write-up could result in additional work for the inmates and restrict them from educational programs and visitation which could additionally impact their chances of getting parole as these reports go on their permanent record.
The exhibit’s website continues to update with new stories which can be seen here.
Laiyla Santillan is a Campus News intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at laiylas@uci.edu.
