US heat wave turns Texas prisons into ‘ovens’
On the afternoon of July 4, as Americans were celebrating the country’s independence with elaborate fireworks amid a recent sweltering heat that has gripped much of the southern United States, a prisoner named Joseph Martier died in his cell in Texas.
In concrete, brick and metal prisons, industrial fans emit hot vapors without cooling the air. And with no air conditioning in most prisons, when the outside temperature exceeds 40ºC (104 Fahrenheit), it can feel even hotter inside the cells. Some prisoners sabotage the toilets in their cells so that the water overflows and wets the floor on which they sleep.
Others wet their clothes to try to stay cool, according to convicts, ex-convicts and family members who spoke to AFP. In recent weeks, Martire, 35, has had four heat-related health problems at Estelle Prison in Huntsville, where he has served 16 years. “I just fainted, the medical (staff) refused to see me and I don’t know what to do,” he told his family by phone.
He called the jail administration to seek help. When other inmates learn that someone has died in a nearby cell, they scream to get the guards’ attention, but lack of staff often leads to delays, Martier said. The aggrieved prisoner is then taken to an administrative center, an area of the prison that has air conditioning for so-called “respite”. US heat wave turns Texas prisons into ‘ovens’
The prisoners try to hold out as long as possible. “I’ve already had a lot of problems with my health before the summer,” Martier said. When asked how the cells get hot, Amite Dominick of the NGO Advocates for Texas Community Prisons replied: “The quickest way I can explain it is, sit in your car on a three-digit day. Bring a blow-dryer with you.
Break your window a little.” The Texas Tribune news site reported that at least nine people died in state prisons in June from heart attacks or other possibly heat-related causes. But Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), which is in charge of prisons, said the last death from the heat was in 2012.
In June, the department treated seven cases of those affected “beyond primary treatment”, but there were no deaths, he said. The department, which oversees 126,000 inmates, said 32 people died of various causes in June. Dominick raised the issue of that breakdown. “The coroner will usually report something like ‘cardiac arrest’ because heat stroke is closely related to cardiac arrest,” he said. “We’re looking at that report.
We’re looking at the medical evidence for what happens to the body.” “You know, during these kinds of temperatures, these are heat-related deaths,” Dominic said. Sean Adams, 36, served time at a prison called the Clemens Unit in the Texas town of Brazoria, but which inmates “burns like hell.” Adams said, “This is one of the older units, which, you know, was built with red bricks.” “And so red bricks are basically what ovens are made from.” The prison agency said that Inmates have access to ice and water, and can go to air-conditioned rest areas when needed.
Samantha, whose daughter is a 25-year-old inmate at Len Murray Prison, said three inmates died of heat-related causes in June. “The way they’re treated is so inhumane,” she said. “In the summer months, when you’re inside, you see that,” said Marcy Marie Simmons, a 44-year-old ex-convict and activist.
There are multiple seizures every day because of the heat.” He said that in late June, a 36-year-old inmate died at Estelle Prison hours after speaking to him. Mom is complaining about the heat. “If we leave a child or a human or an animal in a vehicle, we’re going to jail.
But the state of Texas wants to cook our Texans,” said Michelle Lively, whose partner, Sean McMahon, 49, is in the Wayne prison. . “And some of them are dying, and they have petty, silly drug charges and they get sentenced to death because they can’t stand the heat,” he said. In leaks to the media, prison workers have also complained about their working conditions, including the heat.
Legislative efforts to do something about the heat have faltered, Dominique said, with a bill demanding air conditioning in prisons in the conservative-majority Texas Senate. Meanwhile, Dominik said, the state recently spent more than $750,000 to buy several air-cooled units for a large pig-breeding operation run partly by inmates. “And they don’t have it for humans.”
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