General Discussion

xchrom

(108,903 posts) Sun Jan 5, 2014, 08:50 AM Jan 2014

In the hot house: Prison staff held liable for extreme heat in Louisiana cell block

http://grist.org/climate-energy/in-the-hot-house-prison-staff-held-liable-for-extreme-heat-in-louisiana-cell-block/

?w=470&h=265&crop=1

When we talk about the people who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, we rarely, if ever, mention those in prison. For example, last year, we found out that prisoners in New York’s Rikers Island jail were not included in evacuation plans when Superstorm Sandy hit. They were held in their cells throughout its duration, though thankfully unharmed.

It’s going to become more difficult to disregard captive populations, however, in a future that’s virtually certain to include more extremely hot days — especially if more courts hand down rulings like the one, just before Christmas, that found the staff of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola liable for neglecting three death row inmates who complained about the unbearable summer heat. Federal judge Brian A. Jackson ruled that the inmates were subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” when prison guards refused to cool their cell blocks down from temperatures indexed as high as 195 degrees.

Judge Jackson’s 102-page ruling included a stinging rebuke of the prison warden and staff who may have tried to obstruct justice. During an earlier hearing, Jackson ordered that temperature data be recorded in the inmates’ cells over three weeks in July, so that he could determine just how hot it was for the prisoners. During that data collection period, Angola staff put awnings over hotspots and hosed down prison bars and walls with cold water. Assistant Warden Angelia Norwood at first testified that the awnings and water sprays were not done to affect the temperature results, but then later testified that they were done … I’ll let her tell it:

To see if it would make a difference as far as providing shade over the windows, to see if it would cool — to see if it would make a difference, as far as the temperature, to bring it down.