I'd always wondered how prisonsers survive in U.S. prisons during heat waves...it sounds awful: [View all]

[C Moon]

I know prisons aren't supposed to be comfortable, but this sounds life threatening.

Texas inmates sue for relief from prison cells that ‘hold heat in like a parked car’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/06/20/texas-inmates-sue-for-relief-from-prison-cells-that-hold-heat-in-like-a-parked-car/

"Texas prisoners have sued (again) to force the state’s Department of Criminal Justice to bring temperatures in their cells down to 88 degrees or less.

Most people would probably consider the high 80′s to be uncomfortably hot, but the federal lawsuit — filed on behalf of four inmates at a facility that houses ill, geriatric and disabled prisoners — alleges that the status quo is far worse.

According to the suit, filed in Houston this week by the Texas Civil Rights Project and other advocates, the cells at Wallace Pack Unit, near College Station, are so hot “that inmates have resorted to wrapping themselves in damp towels and lying on the concrete floors,” according to Texas Monthly.

Inmates lay towels on the burning hot stainless steel tables to rest their elbows. The walls, also made of metal, trap in hot air like a “parked car.” Some dorm windows are sealed shut; others that do open don’t provide relief from the heat. ..."