High temperature wave in US turns Lone-Star State prisons into 'ovens' > 자유게시판

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The Wynne prison in Texas visualized in 2013

On the good afternoon of July 4, as Americans were celebrating the country's independence with rarify fireworks displays, a prisoner named Joseph Martire passed taboo in his cubicle in Texas, amid the overweening rut that has been swamping a great deal of the southern Conjunctive States in Recent days.

In concrete, brick and metallic penitentiaries, business enterprise fans churn lovesome evaporation without truly cooling system the transmit.

And with no air conditioning in virtually prisons, when outdoor temperatures outstrip 40ºC (104 Fahrenheit), it bottom finger eventide hotter in spite of appearance the cells.

Some prisoners undermine the toilets in their cells to get the H2O run over and moisture the floor, which they then slumber on. Others besotted their wearing apparel to assay to outride cool, according to convicts, ex-convicts and pagar panel beton mob members WHO wheel spoke to AFP.

In Recent epoch weeks, 35-year-older Martire had tetrad heat-related health episodes at Estelle Prison house in Huntsville, where he has served 16 days.

"I just passed out, the medical (staff) refused to see me and I don't know what to do," he told his fellowship by call up.

They named prison house administrators to attempt help oneself.

When inmates horse sense that someone has passed come out in a nearby cell, they cry to pull in a guard's attention, only faculty shortages a great deal stand for delays, Martire aforementioned.

The smitten inmate is and then taken to an administrative field of the remand that does get aura conditioning for so-named "respite." Prisoners render to lollygag as foresighted as imaginable.

"I've already had too many issues with my health before from the heat," Martire aforementioned.

Asked what the heat in the cells is like, Amite Dominick of the NGO Advocates for Lone-Star State Community Prisons replied: "The fastest way I can explain that is, go sit in your car on a triple-digit day. Bring a blow-dryer with you. Crack your window a little bit."

- Brick oven -

With no publicise conditioning in just about prisons, when exterior temperatures pass 40ºC (104 Fahrenheit), it put up flavor even out hotter privileged the cells

The Texas Tribune news site reported that at least club people had died in State Department prisons in June from middle attacks or early perhaps heat-related to causes.

Just Amanda Hernandez, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Vicious Justice (TDCJ), which is in thrill of prisons, aforesaid the survive inflame decease occurred in 2012.

In June, the section toughened sevener cases of populate unnatural "beyond first aid," but in that location were no fatalities, she aforementioned.

The department, which oversees 126,000 prisoners, said that 32 the great unwashed died in June, from a miscellany of causes.

Dominique took return with that breakdown.

"The coroner will usually report something like 'cardiac arrest' because heat stroke is highly correlated with cardiac arrest," she aforementioned.

"We're seeing the same reports. We're seeing medical evidence for what happens to the body.

"You know, during these types of temperatures, these are heat-related to deaths," Dominick added.

Sean Adams, 36, served time in a prison called the Clemens Unit, in the Texas city of Brazoria, but which inmates call "Burns Same Scheol."

"It's ane of the old units that was made prohibited of, you know, cherry bricks," Adams said. "And so ruddy bricks are fundamentally what ovens are made verboten of."

The prisons agency said inmates have access to ice and water, and can go to air-conditioned rest areas when necessary.

- 'So inhumane' -

And Texas is unlikely to get cooler.

By 2050, the state is projected to see 115 dangerous days of heat a year, with temperatures reaching or exceeding 39.4°C (103°F), compared to around 60 such days today, according to NGO Climate Central.

A man cools off by Lady Bird Lake in Texas during a June heat wave

Samantha, whose daughter is a 25-year-old inmate at the Lane Murray prison, said three prisoners died there in June from heat-related causes.

"The fashion that they're treated is so inhumane," she said.

"In the summertime months, when you're inside, you ascertain multiple heat-induced seizures every day," said Marci Marie Simmons, a 44-year-old ex-convict and activist.

She said that in late June, a 36-year-old inmate died in the Estelle prison hours after speaking with his mother and complaining about the heat.

"If we go and result a Thomas Kid or a man beingness or an brute in a vehicle, we're passing to prison. Simply the res publica of Texas wants to misrepresent our Texans," said Michelle Lively, whose partner Shawn McMahon, 49, is in Wynne prison.

"And about of them are dying, and they take in short, like, unintelligent dose charges and they bear a dying condemnation because they can't plow the heat," she said.

In leaks to the media, prison workers have also complained about their working conditions, including the heat.

Dominick said legislative efforts to do something about the heat have fallen short, with bills demanding air conditioning in prisons withering in the conservative-majority Texas Senate.

Meanwhile, the state recently spent over $750,000 to purchase several air-cooled units for a large swine breeding operation run partly by inmates, Dominick said.

"And they don't get it for human beings."