Texas Prison Pigs Get Cool Climate, Inmates Get Unbearably Hot, TDCJ Gets Money
Note: I am using the title of the article since there is a reference to pigs within the article.
Larry McCollum, 58, lasted just one week in prison before suffering a fatal heatstroke on his bed in the middle of the night.
He arrived at the Hutchins Unit on July 15, 2011, amid one of Texas's hottest summers on record, and was to serve 11 months for the crime of writing a hot check. Temperatures in the un-air-conditioned prison were between 109 and 111 degrees, with a heat index of roughly 150 degrees for at least four hours in a row on July 19. Even though prisoners are supposed to receive regular refills of ice water during extreme heat, McCollum did not yet own a cup because he didn't have access to the prison commissary for at least 30 days. There were two industrial fans to cool off the 58 men he lived with, and none of the inmates had personal fans because there were no electrical outlets.
On the night of July 22, McCollum was found convulsing on his bed bunk. Prison staff called 911 one hour later. Upon arrival at the hospital, his body temperature was found to be 109 degrees.
McCollum was one of ten prisoners to die from the heat that summer alone, and one of 22 since 1998. While his family has filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, his death and those of the 21 other men have become a rallying cry in the additional class action lawsuit filed against the state prison agency, demanding relief from the hellish living conditions and for air-conditioned dormitories in the summer months. This week, an injunction hearing wrapped up in federal court, including testimony from the prisoners who endure the heat and from prison administrators (whose offices are air-conditioned) who said the heat was not a dire problem and that air-conditioning would cost between $22 million and $120 million to install at single prisons.
Read more: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/tdcj-defends-no-air-conditioning-in-unbearably-hot-prisons-in-federal-court-9567996
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