studios in Washington and pbs.
John: The extreme heat scorching
much of the country is
particularly brutal for
prisoners and the guards that
watch over them.
By one count, 44 states do not
have air conditioning's in their
presence -- prisons.
In Mississippi, the justice
department cited temperatures as
high as 145 in the state
penitentiary that were among
conditions that violated
prisoners constitutional rights.
Mississippi began installing air
conditioning.
In Texas, more than 2/3 of
prisoner living areas lack
air-conditioning.
We spoke with people who have
been inmates in Texas prisons or
have family members that are
currently in prison to learn
more what it is like to live in
extreme heat behind bars.
>> I spent over a decade in a
Texas prison.
I have been home for about two
years.
>> He is the youngest of my sons
and he is serving a 15-year
sentence in Texas.
>> I spent just over 14 years in
the Texas prison system.
>> I was in prison for a total
of 11 years.
>>>> I was incarcerated for 17
years in Texas prisons.
>> The heat was like being
suffocated.
It took your breath away.
>> It is very easy to give into
that oppressing heat and almost,
frankly, forget to breathe.
>> I would be so hot that my
vision would blur.
I could not hear for some
reason.
I would flood the toilet and lay
in one inch of water with my fan
over me.
>> My daughter has nine months
to go.
She is sweating profusely all
the time.
She cannot sleep.
She works in the kitchen.
It is like 120, 130 degrees in
there.
People are fainting.
People are seizing and falling
to the floor.
>> Heat related seizures are
very common in the summer months
in prison.
I do not mean common like one a
day I mean like three or four a
day.
That is what I saw when I was
incarcerated.
>> I hit my head.
They could not bring my
temperature down.
I was vomiting, I had diarrhea.
I thought I was going to die
that day.
>> A guard had come in to sit
with us.
He passed out in the pod from
being so hot and having that
vest and uniform on.
He started to seize.
>> We had one inmate passed away
from a heat stroke because they
were not allowing us to have
fans.
>> There is mediocre
air-conditioning.
There is an opportunity that she
can actually be in semi-
air-conditioning for two hours.
In the metal building, you are
talking about maybe 120, 130
degrees or even higher.
It is inhumane.
My heart aches.
When see him.
When I talked to him.
I cannot help him.
John: Earlier this year, an
effort to include money for
prison air-conditioning in the
budget failed in the state
senate.
A nonprofit news organization
focuses on the criminal justice
system.
You took a deep dive into this
topic and did a documentary but
the weather channel a few years
back.
You talked to a lot of people
around the country and in Texas.
Is what we just heard unusual
compared to what you heard from
others?
>> It is very in line with what
is happening in prisons across
the south.
You get reports from
incarcerated people that it is
just an elemental struggle to
survive and an increasing number
just do not make it.
There was a study in Texas that
found about 14 deaths a year
could be attributed to the
higher heat it is hard to
pinpoint that a particular death
is because of the heat.
Sometimes it stands as a heart
attack or stroke but we know
that frequently the underlying
cause, the strain on the body
that led to some of these deaths
come from the summer heat.
John: We reached out to the
Texas department of criminal
justice and they provided a
statement.
It says in part much like those
Texans who did not have access
to air-conditioning in their
homes, the department uses an
array of measures to keep
inmates safe.
Some inmates are potentially at
a heightened risk of heat
related illnesses because of
their age, health conditions or
medications.
These individuals are identified
through a heat sensitivity score
that uses information.
Individuals with a heat
sensitivity score receive
priority placement in a housing
area that is air-conditioned.
They talking about prisoners'
health conditions but you also
say a growing segment of the
population is becoming more
sensitive to heat.
>> I should say many of the
measures Texas prison system
took were only in response to
lawsuits brought by prisoners'
families after a wave of deaths
and other medical issues.
There are a number of prisoners
who are especially susceptible
to summer heat.
We passed laws in the 1980's and
1990's that set more and more
people to prison for longer
sentences.
We are dealing with the reality
of people in their 60's and 70's
that have less physical ability
to deal with the heat in the
hottest months.
On top of that, you have a lot
of prisoners suffering from
mental illnesses.
We know drugs depresses the
body's ability to deal with heat
so you have a heat index of 120,
130 degrees in there.
People desperately go off their
medications and that can lead
them more dangerous to other
prisoners or staff.
You ca rise in suicides.
You also see more corrections
officers either take off work
because they have had some heat
related illness or just quit or
not take the job in the first
place.
John: Why are there so many
prisons without air
conditioning?
>> The issue is political.
Since the 1970's there was this
understanding that many
Americans do not have air
conditioning.
What I think policy makers in
the public did not realize was
anyone outside of prison can go
outside and catch a breeze and
they have more access to water.
They are not literally living
day by day, hour-by-hour in
these cells in buildings made
out of concrete that are heating
up like ovens.
John: What does this say about
how we treat prisoners in the
United States?
>> It says we are tremendously
unsympathetic toward them.
There has been a lot of talk of
criminal justice reform over the
last five or 10 years but you
still see not just in southern
states but there is an idea
still that prisoners are the
castaways of society who have
put themselves there even though
we know many people are
wrongfully convicted or
sentenced to really, really long
sentences for what most people
consider fairly low-level
crimes.
This lack of sympathy and mercy
is still very much with us from
the 1980's and 1990's and you
see it in this continuing
unwillingness among policymakers
to install air conditioning and
reduce the likelihood that
prisoners will have strokes and
die every summer.
John: This also affects
corrections officers and other
people who work in the prisons.
It becomes a workplace
conditions issue.
Our states and prisons more
receptive to them than
prisoners?
>> In theory but Texas writes do
not have air conditioning.
Even though they have said the
shortage of guards, the
inability of the state to hire
people to work in prisons is
partially attributable to the
fact that people do not want to
spend their workday in these
conditions.
Part of that if they do not want
to live through the heat but
part of that is correction
officers do not want to live
with the increased levels of
violence and suicide and other
problems in a prison during the
hottest summer months.
John: Thank you very much.
>> Thank you for having me.