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Why don't they air-condition prisons? Isn't that inhumane?

I happen to know that prisons don't have air-conditioning for prisoners. The heat here in Texas gets to 120 F. some summers. That is really hot! I wonder how many prisoners die with that kind of heat.

Posted - July 11, 2016

Responses


  • 3907

    Hello M:

    Well, of course, it's inhumane..  But, that's what they think their jobs ARE - to make prison as miserable as they possibly can.  They're PROUD of it too.

    excon

      July 11, 2016 8:22 AM MDT
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  • They do have A/C in some prisons.

      July 11, 2016 8:29 AM MDT
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  • 1002

    Not true, every jail I've ever been to not only has air-condition, but the bigger problem for me was that it got too cold, rather than too hot.

    Air-conditions do go out at times. It isn't uncommon for many air-conditions to require seasonal freon-boosts here in TX. And believe me you, I have quite a list of complaints about our prison industrial complex, this just isn't one of them.

      July 11, 2016 8:42 AM MDT
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  • Bez

    2148

    It's part of the punishment and part of the deterrent.

      July 11, 2016 8:44 AM MDT
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  • 3907

    Hello again, M:

    Interestingly, about HALF of your respondents said NOT TRUE..   Prisons are wonderful places (ok, they didn't say that).  And, the OTHER half says, why of course, prisons are NOT air conditioned..  It's part of the PUNISHMENT..

    Both positions, however DENY reality..  Oh, it's real that they inflict punishment.  What's UNREAL is to expect a positive result from it..  Look..  We ALL know, that if you prod a tiger in his cage with a sharp stick, you'd better not EVER let him out...  But, we prod our prisoners with sharp sticks all the time, and when their time is up, we say have a nice day, and then INFLICT them upon society.. 

    If that's NOT delusion, I dunno what it.

    excon

      July 11, 2016 8:58 AM MDT
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  • 44604

    When I first joined the Navy, ships and barracks weren't ACed either. It got brutally hot in Guam but I quickly got used to it.

      July 11, 2016 9:04 AM MDT
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  • 2515
    #Fork, Jails are not prisons.
      July 11, 2016 9:04 AM MDT
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  • 44604

    You seem to be doing OK.

      July 11, 2016 9:05 AM MDT
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  • 44604

    Free food.

      July 11, 2016 9:06 AM MDT
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  • 500

    I grew up without AC as many of us did.

    The barracks I stayed in in the Army did not have AC. We spent the whole time without AC.

    Many regions of the world do not have AC.

      July 11, 2016 9:20 AM MDT
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  • 1002

    I'm aware... I've been to "prisons." I know for a fact they're air-conditioned... sometime too much, though that's just my opinion, I do get cold easily. That's besides the point. There is no-broad, federal "anti-air-conditioning" policy in prisons throughout the country, that I know for certain. I cannot speak for case by case examples outside those I've experienced personally. In my personal experience, all had air-conditioning in the inmate facility.

      July 11, 2016 9:22 AM MDT
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  • 3907

    Hello Chief:

    Couple things...  "Doing OK", is relative..  I could be doing a lot better if they didn't steal $100,000 from me  I'd be doing better if I had those years back, too.  But, I'm a survivor. I adapt well, and I'm also a GOOD person.  However, I don't, for a minute, think other excon's are like me.

    excon

      July 11, 2016 9:26 AM MDT
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  • 13277

    @ForkNdaRoad: They're air CONDITIONERS. Speak much English?

      July 11, 2016 9:51 AM MDT
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  • 2515
    @Lynn, some states may not need air-conditioning, as their summers are not as brutal as in others. I did some research on Texas prisons. Out of the 109 prisons, only 30 are fully air-conditioned. In others only the medical, psychiatric, and geriatric facilities have air-conditioning.
      July 11, 2016 9:54 AM MDT
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  • 46117

    Tent City?  In Arizona in the summer those tents are so hot you can die in them. 

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

    Tent City Jail (Phoenix)

    Number of prisoners: ~2,000

    Who's in charge: Joe Arpaio, warden and sheriff of Maricopa County

    The basics: No jail is more closely associated with its jailer than Tent City, the 20-year-old brainchild of Maricopa County's infamous tough-guy sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 1993, to save the county the cost of building a new jail, Arpaio set up hundreds of Army surplus tents from the Korean War era and used them to house prisoners. Tent City residents now number more than 2,000, most of them awaiting trial. (See this county press release (PDF) for an event celebrating its 20th year.) The tents are unheated in winter and uncooled in summer—temperatures inside them have been clocked as high as 145 degrees. A few permanent buildings suffice for showers and meals, and a guard tower displays a permanent "vacancy" sign, warning passersby to stay in line. Arpaio himself has called the place a "concentration camp," while Tent City's prisoners have gone so far as to cobble together a survival guide.

    To humiliate his charges, Arpaio dresses them in old-school chain-gang stripes, and forces male prisoners to don pink underpants—a detail that has scored him some points among locals. "I can get elected on pink underwear," the 80-year-old sheriff has said. "I've done it five times." By day, men, women, and even some teens are sent out to work on chain gangs, sustained by twice-daily meals that are the cheapest among the nation's lockups. (Arpaio brags that he saved taxpayers $20,000 by eliminating salt and pepper.) Back at camp they risk beatings by gangbangers and guards, and medical care so abysmal that it has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court.  

    The backlash: In a 2011 report, the Justice Department report found "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos" in the jails run by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, based on the frequent use of racial slurs and punishments for prisoners who fail to speak English.  The federal lawsuit that followed is just one of the many legal actions against Arpaio, accusing him of corruption and incompetence as well as racial profiling. So far, he has pretty much dodged all bullets, and in November was reelected to his sixth term.

    Watch: Arpaio refers to Tent City as a concentration camp.

      July 11, 2016 9:55 AM MDT
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  • 2465
    Exactly, Andy. They aren't on vacation at some 5 star resort nor are they enjoying the creature comforts they could expect at home. If they could enjoy those same comforts of home while in jail, you'd have worse crime and the homeless as well as those not homeless would be fighting for a jail bed, so they'd be safe, warm, receive free medical care, housed and fed three meals a day for free and no monthly rent and no boring 9-5 job.

    So in order to avoid the above, jails were intentionally designed to be a deterrent. And if they have to break out in a sweat now and again, so be it. They aren't there to be nurtured or coddled. They should thank their lucky stars they aren't in some jail in a foreign country.
      July 11, 2016 10:31 AM MDT
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  • 2465
    And I thought the grammar troll infestation had been eradicated.
      July 11, 2016 10:38 AM MDT
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  • 34253
    I don't believe air conditioning is required by law anywhere.
      July 11, 2016 11:12 AM MDT
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  • 13277

    And I thought the ProblemChild troll infestation had been eradicated.

      July 11, 2016 11:31 AM MDT
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  • I think it makes sense to A/C prisons.For a comfortability aspect, yes...but not to make it all roses and peachy...When it's hot and nasty, people get miserable and tempers flare...It would make sense to keep a moderate temperature in order to help keep the prison population calm. 

      July 11, 2016 12:52 PM MDT
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  • 17593

    It's Texas you are talking about and the answer is probably cost.  I know at least three Southern states do not air condition prisons because of the high cost.   They use large industrial fans.  I know, not good but people  can live without AC.  I never really had air conditioning until I was grown and had been married for a few years.

      July 11, 2016 1:20 PM MDT
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  • 17593

    LynnCal, yes some states have some air conditioned prisons. 

      July 11, 2016 1:22 PM MDT
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  • 46117

    I hope you don't get thrown in one regardless.  Many poor people are.  You are hardly better than many prisoners and your ignorant comment about not caring may come home to roost some day when maybe someone you actually care about as much as your smug self gets locked up for no good reason.

    People get arrested all the time for stupid reasons.  That does not mean they need to be housed in 120 degrees, which I am SURE your house has not ever reached. 

    People who talk like you do irritate the hell out of me.  I'd love to see you spend a weekend in Tent City where your lifestyle doesn't matter as much as your ability to pay parking tickets.

    The temperature in there has reached beyond dangerous.   I had a friend in there who was actually sent there for a trumped up charge.  He said the thermostat reached 130 some afternoons and you could not stay in the tent.  Nice?  I think you will  change your tune if that happens to you and your saintly lifestyle.

      July 11, 2016 1:24 PM MDT
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  • Could be worse America could always adopt how Russian prisons are or worse North Korea.

      July 11, 2016 5:12 PM MDT
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