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| Crowded concrete prisons like these create 'cruel and unusual punishment' for many. |
Each summer there is a wave of heat-related deaths in America's prisons, mostly in states of the former Confederacy which have opted for a policy of building poorly ventilated concrete prisons without air-conditioning. Most of Virginia's prisons are no exception.
"[Air-conditioning] is seen as a luxury and prison officials do not want to be seen as running luxurious prisons," stated David Fathi, director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.
Virginia facilities do air condition areas such as guard shacks, dental and medical departments, security offices, staff control rooms, staff dining rooms, and warden's offices to ensure the comfort of staff members. But typically areas where prisoners eat, exercise, live, shower, sleep, and work do not.
Often overlooked are the oppressive conditions men and women have to endure to earn their pay of $0.50-1.50 per hour while incarcerated. Some of the hottest spots in prison are Enterprise Shops, kitchens and laundry areas, most of which do not even have windows to allow cooler fresh air to come in. Then after work inmates have to endure sweltering and restless nights in their housing units during the summer months.
Often overlooked are the oppressive conditions men and women have to endure to earn their pay of $0.50-1.50 per hour while incarcerated. Some of the hottest spots in prison are Enterprise Shops, kitchens and laundry areas, most of which do not even have windows to allow cooler fresh air to come in. Then after work inmates have to endure sweltering and restless nights in their housing units during the summer months.
Some housing units are not equipped with exhaust systems to remove the heat from the area and to draw fresh air through each prisoner's 10 x 13 inch window, which has a plate with multiple holes smaller than a No. 2 pencil.
Other facilities do have large industrial fans to circulate air, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, fans are ineffective at temperatures over 95 degrees and can actually increase body heat. They also state that both cool showers and cold drinking water are effective only for brief periods, and consuming large quantities of water can cause other medical complications.
As one anonymous inmate notes, "The general population thinks of air conditioning as simply making air colder, but there's so much more to it that that. There's large particle filtration. There's small particle filtration. There's odor diffusion. There's humidity control."
Other facilities do have large industrial fans to circulate air, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, fans are ineffective at temperatures over 95 degrees and can actually increase body heat. They also state that both cool showers and cold drinking water are effective only for brief periods, and consuming large quantities of water can cause other medical complications.
As one anonymous inmate notes, "The general population thinks of air conditioning as simply making air colder, but there's so much more to it that that. There's large particle filtration. There's small particle filtration. There's odor diffusion. There's humidity control."
Prisons should be retrofitted with climate control to keep interior temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit year-round and which takes into account the heat index, the measure of heat and humidity that indicates what the air temperature actually feels like.
"Climate control is not a matter of comfort and luxury," says David Fathi, with the ACLU. "It's a matter of life and death."
This is especially true for inmates who are 65 years old or older and who may be overweight, have been diagnosed with asthma, coronary artery or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who have diabetes, hypertension, liver cirrhosis, thyroid dysfunction, have been prescribed calcium channel blockers and psychiatric medications, or who are required to use a CPAP machine. Prisoners often experienced dizziness, nausea and weakness due to extreme heat conditions that make it hard for them to breathe.
People outside of prison who experience extreme heat have options that prisoners do not have. For example, they can take a cool shower (most prison showers have mixing valves which control the temperature of the water), drink cold water (most prisoners have access to only a limited amount of ice), move into the shade or go to a place that is air conditioned.
In 2017, an American Meteorological Society study warned that what we now call extreme heat will be commonplace as soon as 2020. It is my hope that the Virginia Department of Corrections will join the 21st century and install air-conditioning in each prison before that time. If not, those prisons without should be closed.
Please contact Governor Ralph Northam and request that he address this problem, and that he reduce prison overcrowding and provide first class education and computer, vocational and job training to all inmates who are parole eligible and will be returning citizens.
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