Soap Opera
By: Joe Mejia Rosas
Recently I found out that Captain Garza here at Yuba County Jail has refused to accept donations of soap for the detainees. Someone from the East coast offered to donate soap to help us during this pandemic. His response was “No thank you, we have an abundance of soap.” I don’t know if any of you have seen the soap they give us here, it’s the size of a domino. It’s nowhere near enough to shower with, half-way into the shower it breaks into pieces. They don’t even pass it out daily, we have to ask officers for soap and some will say “ya, later” but never do, so we end up having to beg them all day.
I’m sure everyone here would appreciate a regular sized bar of soap. When I was at Mesa Verde Detention in Bakersfield they gave us regular sized bars of soap. It wasn’t a brand name or a fancy smelling soap but it was big enough to shower with a few times. I’m not sure why Captain Garza would refuse donated soap. At the very least he should have asked some of the detainees if we were happy with these ridiculously small soaps. I would like to see Captain Garza spend all day begging for soap and tell us how it feels. I would like him to shower with one of these tiny soaps then tell us how clean he feels. Captain Garza is so disconnected from human kindness that he finds this behaviour to be acceptable. He must think this is how you care for others. The blame for this treatment is also shared by ICE/DHS, which have the task to set requirements and standards.
This is the size of the soap we are given here, I traced it out so everyone can see how generous Captain Garza is with us*. I was not kidding when I said it’s the size of a domino. They also sell soap on commissary for a very hefty price. An 80 cent bar of Dial soap is $1.90. Most of the guys here don’t have money to buy a regular bar of soap, so they get by with whatever they get here from Captain Garza. Lately we’ve gotten some help from kind compassionate people out there and were able to buy some hygiene products. We would like to thank everyone for all the help and support.
*Editor’s note: We have replaced Joe Mejia Rosas’ sketch with a photo from his interview with Democracy Now! to better demonstrate the size of the soap provided. Although this story was written and submitted from within Yuba County Jail, Joe Mejia Rosas (previously published as JMR to protect himself from retaliation) has since been released and will continue speaking out about the conditions at Yuba under his full name
