Recently, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is in a legal fight on installing air conditioning in their prisons. The reason most of their prisons have no air conditioning is because they were built before they were commonly implemented. The Texas prison system would then have to waste a large amount of money to install them, which is a reason they refuse to. The prison system already has a history of heat-related deaths, with 23 inmates dying of heat stroke from 1998 to 2011, 10 happening in the statewide heat wave in 2011 (McCullough). The system has been sued multiple times by families of inmates who died because of the hot conditions. Texas prisons should install air conditioning regardless of high expenses because it is inhumane treatment, and violates heat safety policies and human rights.
Many people are saying that allowing the punishment of high heat conditions in Texas prisons is considered inhumane treatment. The inhumane experience at Hutchins State Jail of inmate Larry McCollum would eventually lead to his death. McCollum arrived July 15 2011, the prison had been as hot as 109 to 112 degrees fahrenheit that week (Flynn). Unfortunately for him, he arrived at the Hutchins unit during the statewide heat wave where prisons became ovens for anyone inside. In these conditions, the prison should provide ice cold water daily to its prisoners, but, according to Judge Keith Ellison’s 83-page order, inmates were given 75 to 80 degree water (Flynn). This water given is only a little over room temperature, and unfortunately for McCollum again, new prisoners did not own water cups and were not allowed into the commissionary to get one for more than a month after their arrival. In the dormitory of 58 men where McCollum was housed at, there was only three fans and no electrical outlets for extra ones, the showers were said to have been lowered slightly from 107 to 95 degrees, and the windows were sealed, which prevented air ventilation (Flynn). Even though the Hutchins unit had no air conditioning, they still did not provide proper conditions to cool off inmates, which is violating the amendment of no cruel or unusual punishment. All these factors led to Larry McCollum convulsing in his bed, being found an hour later with hyperthermia, a body temperature of 109 degrees, and dying six days later on July 28, lasting only 13 days in Hutchins State Jail (Flynn). He was not even sent to the unit for a death sentence, he was supposed to serve a couple of years for forgery, yet he died under the inhumane treatment of the prison. Though the prison did not help at all to cool off the prison and its prisoners from the searing conditions, which lead to McCollum’s death, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice being sued by his family for this inhumane treatment, the prison it still running without air conditioning years later. The prison’s little help in keeping temperatures down lets the place increase in temperature under the heat wave, these high temperatures are very dangerous and violate heat safety for prisoners. Prisons having very high temperatures is very dangerous because they violate heat safety policies. To measure how hot the environment feels, the Heat Index is used, which is a chart made by the National Weather Service that shows the temperature that is really felt when combining the effects of air temperature and humidity (NOAA). The same with temperature, obviously, the higher the heat index, the more chance of a heat disorder happening to a human being, measured as caution, extreme caution, danger, and extreme danger. According to the National Weather Service Heat Index chart, all with a relative humidity of 40%, a heat index of 105 to 124 is considered dangerous, and 130 and above is extremely dangerous (NOAA). When it is predicted that the heat index will reach the dangerous area of the chart. The National Weather Service will start an alert procedure for a couple of days, advising people to immediately stay away from hot environments and find a way to keep cool. On July 19, 2011, in the same Hutchins State Jail, during the same statewide heat wave, the heat index was 150 degrees fahrenheit, for four hours straight, which was way past the National Weather Service Heat Index chart. The prison kept the prisoners under this scorching environment for hours, and knowing that they are without air conditioning and are not cooling off their prisoners, they are ignoring heat safety protocols that they must follow. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice took their time to revise heat safety protocols and new command systems so that their policies are followed, yet they spent over $7 million on a lawsuit to over putting air conditioning on one prison. It is unwise of the department to spend so much money every time fighting over something that will cost less. Refusing to follow heat protocols will cause for more lawsuits, and is also said by many that it violates basic human rights.
It is a human right to be allowed under comfortable weather conditions, in this case air
conditioning. In the prison population, there are some that come in with medical conditions and must be treated carefully, “especially for people with certain common medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, or asthma, or who take certain medications, including most mental health prescriptions” (Edwards). It is not fair for these types of prisoners to endure more than the people around them because of their natural illnesses. It is also not just the inmates, who say that their cell blocks are like ovens, who are suffering, but the staff too, who also say the same things about their prison. Free citizens do not know the hardship of working or being housed in a prison since they can easily lower the temperatures in their own homes with a thermostat. But, “imprisoning people in buildings where there is no thermostat to keep the temperature below 90 isn’t just uncomfortable, nor is it just dangerous—it’s a violation of a human right” (Edwards). Although prisoners have done bad things, it is no doubt that all humans deserve to be in comfortable environments, where they are not roasting to death but instead are under the paradise of air conditioning. No humans, especially prisoners, should be restricted from air conditioning, because it is an inalienable human right.
Texas prisons are mistreating their population by treating them inhumanely, and violating
heat safety and human rights by not installing air conditioning. There are Texas prisons, like the Hutchins State jail, that while they have no air conditioning, they are still not trying to cool off their prisoners, which is treating them inhumanely. The Heat Index in the prisons is way too high that prisoners are in extreme danger of getting a heat disorder, in these conditions prisons should follow heat protocols, but most are not. There are some inmates that have a medical condition and need to be treated more carefully, it is unfair for them, as well as the staff, to have a basic human right violated and should be allowed access to air conditioning. In the future, Texas prisons should slowly start to install air conditioning in their prisons because although prisoners deserve punishment, it is better to focus on their rehabilitation rather than killing them.