Texas jails become “ovens” for inmates during heat wave

On Tuesday afternoon, July 4, when USA celebrated his independence anniversary with FireworksJoseph fainted in his cell in Texas, in the midst of the excessive heat that hits the southern United States these days.

In these concrete, brick and metal enclosures, industrial fans spread the warm vapor into the environment. Without air conditioning in most prisons, when the temperatures outside exceed 40ºC, the sensation inside can be higher.

Some prisoners collapse the toilet in their cell to overflow the water, wet the floor and sleep on the concrete floor. Others wet their clothes to stay cool, according to convicts, ex-convicts or family members.

In recent weeks, 35-year-old Joseph Martire has had four heat-related health episodes at Estelle Prison in Hunstville, where he has served for 16 years. “I fainted, but they are not treating me”, he told his family over the phone. They called the prison administration to come to her aid.

When other inmates sense that someone has passed out from the heat, they yell to get an officer’s attention, but a lack of staff delays help, says Martire. He is then taken to an administrative area of ​​the prison that does have air conditioning, which is called “breathe”where he tries to stay as long as he can.

“I already have several health problems because of the heatand I don’t want to have more”details.

The feeling they’re going through, says Amite Dominick, president of the humanitarian organization Advocates for Texas Community Prisons (TPCA), is like “being locked in your car with more than 40ºC, using a hair dryer to give you air and opening the window a little”.

a brick oven

A report from the Texas Tribune portal speaks of at least nine people who died in prison in June from heart attacks or unknown causes that may be related to heat.

But Amanda Hernández, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), in charge of the prisons, points out that the last heat death occurred in 2012. In June they attended to seven cases of people affected “beyond first aid”no fatalities.

The entity has a population of 126,000 prisoners, according to official sources, in its different prisons and ensures that in June 32 people died from different causes.

Dominick disagrees. “The coroner usually reports something like cardiac arrest, because heat stroke is highly correlated with cardiac arrest (…) We see the same reports and we see medical evidence of what happens to the body. With temperatures like that, these are heat-related deaths.” he adds, although they still do not handle figures.

“They don’t have adequate ventilation in the prisons. If they’re not dying, they’re going crazy.”Dominick argues.

Sean Adams served time in a prison called “Burns like hell” Clemens, in Brazoria. “It is built with those red bricks, which are the same bricks for the ovens. And when the temperature is 100ºF (38ºC) outside, inside it is 120ºF (48ºC)”, tells this 36-year-old man.

The TDCJ clarifies that in the cells the prisoners have access to ice and water, they can go to rest areas with air conditioning when necessary, that they continue to implement more refrigerated beds and that they take all care in the face of high temperatures.

cook citizens

Samantha, mother of a 25-year-old inmate whom she does not identify, says that in June three prisoners died from the heat at Lane Murray prison, where her daughter is. “The way they are treated is inhumane”holds.

“With those temperatures, your body and your mind go into survival mode,” explains Marci Marie Simmons, a 44-year-old ex-convict and activist. She denounced that at the end of June a 36-year-old prisoner died in the Estelle prison hours after speaking with her mother and complaining about the heat.

“If you leave a pet in a car locked in the heat, you go to prison. However, the state of Texas wants to cook its citizens [en la cárcel]. Some have stupid drug charges but are sentenced to death because they can’t take the heat.” says Michelle Lively, who has her boyfriend Shawn McMahon, 49, in Wynne jail.

Prison workers have also exposed their claims to the press about the conditions in which they have to work.

Dominick explains that bills to require air conditioning in prisons are crashing in the conservative-majority Texas Senate.

“The TDCJ spent $75,000 on air conditioning” for a pig raising project in recent years“but it doesn’t place it for humans.”

Source: AFP