It’s that dreaded time of year again for Texas prisoners: summertime. A time full of misery-inducing, extreme heat, which causes all kinds of interesting, unique, and often just plain stupid reactions. It even unites two opposing groups: guards and prisoners.
I don’t watch the weather much during the summer because I’m trying some Jedi mind tricks on myself: what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Maybe all the prisoners that have experienced heat-related illnesses and deaths should have tried this, or perhaps my brain has been a bit fried from the heat. This is your brain, and this is your brain on Texas heat with no AC. And regardless what TDCJ [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] puts online, most of our units are not air-conditioned.
If you were to look up the unit I’m imprisoned on, Ferguson, on TDCJ’s site, it would say it is air-conditioned. It’s not! Let me tell you a little secret: TDCJ is very good at twisting the truth or outright hiding it. The unit does have AC in certain areas, like the chapel, school, medical, ranking guards’ offices, and the warden’s. There is no AC in our cells, day room, or chow hall. You know, the places we spend most of our time.
Speaking of the chow hall, it’s four stars all the way during the summer months. I don’t even need to salt the food due to all the salty sweat I’m dripping into it, or maybe that’s from my fellow prisoners who prepared it. Best not to think long on that. What’s even better is I get to stay in there for 30-60 minutes because the guards like to shove hundreds of us in there before they let us out.
Needless to say, I’ve seen many summertime fights in the chow hall due to tempers running high from the high temps. Maybe I need to find a new establishment to eat at. That’s why so many prisoners choose to stay in their cell and eat some overpriced commissary. The cell is in no way cooler, especially if you are unfortunate enough to live on 3 Row, the top, hottest part of the cell block. About twelve feet from our cell front is a wall full of windows, and some of them open to let air in. Most of the time they get opened the beginning of May; this year the guards didn’t open them until the middle of June, and that was after I got my family to call about it.
To stay cool, we throw our tap water, which is all one temperature, lukewarm, all over the floor and lay in it to sleep, because it’s quite hard to sleep hot, sticky, and dripping sweat. Some swear by wetting a sheet and hanging it up like a canopy with the fan pointed at it. I’ve never experienced that much of a difference for the trouble, or maybe I’m not strong enough in the Force for that Jedi mind trick. Its a good thing the Empire (I mean, TDCJ) has posters up telling me to drink water, because if not I’d certainly forget.
How about the posters about urine color? We’d never know something was wrong with our carrot-colored urine if not for that poster hanging above the urinal. How about the “category 3” rule that has us getting off the rec yard when the heat index is over 100°, but workers are still out slaving in it? How about it being too hot to cook a meal for last chow, so they serve Johnnies (two sandwiches, one with a smear of PB and J and the other a questionable “meat” patty?
In my 24 years here, the heat is the only thing I’ve seen the guards and prisoners unite on. They are pushing for AC like we are. Their unions and our advocacy groups speak out about it often. I’ve seen a number of older guards pass out due to the extreme heat. While I can come to my cell and strip down to my boxers, they have to stay fully dressed for their twelve-hour shift. Is it any wonder TDCJ can’t get anyone to work here?
The Republican-led government still refuses to budge on this, though. The money-hungry bastards don’t want to spend the money even though I’m writing this on my tablet. That’s right, I have a tablet, but not AC. And I’ll be charged 50¢ to email this to my editor. They can make money off the tablets but not AC. That only costs them money that can’t be made back, and it costs us prisoners our lives; but to them, we deserve that and aren’t worth the money. You just have to love the Republican mindset, huh?
You know, when I was free, I enjoyed summer. Now I hate it. Yet another joy this place has taken from me.
