Another appaling suit...

G

greenfreak

New Member
Suit: Florida prisons too hot to handle
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AP) --Florida death row inmates say temperatures routinely top 100 degrees in their cells, forcing them to stand in toilets, drape themselves in wet towels and sleep naked on concrete floors.

In a class-action lawsuit, inmates say the heat and lack of air-conditioning inside Union Correctional Institution amount to cruel and unusual punishment, and could lead to mental and physical illness and even death.

U.S. District Judge Ralph W. Nimmons, who has toured the prison 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville and last week interviewed some of the 300 inmates, is expected to rule later this year.

By the time the lawsuit is decided, the inmates will have endured three summers of what their attorneys claim is a "dungeon-like atmosphere" since the case was filed in 2000.

"We want them to bring the temperatures down," said Randall Berg, a Miami attorney representing the inmates.

But lawyers with Florida's Attorney General's Office said the heat conditions are not severe enough to violate the Constitution.

"I consider this a borderline frivolous lawsuit," said Caryl Killinski, who represents the state in the case. "It gets warm in any building not air conditioned."

Berg said the heat is especially oppressive for older and obese inmates and those with physical and mental health problems.

"Subjecting inmates, who are confined in their cells nearly all the time, to temperatures almost always in excess of 90 degrees, frequently in excess of 100 degrees, and as high as 110 degrees, can only be called physically barbarous," the lawsuit alleges.

But Killinski disagreed.

"Since 1992 ... there has not been one single case of an inmate suffering from a heat-related illness," she said in a telephone interview.

Court documents show 30 prisoners sought medical treatment from June through September 2000 and 18 for the same period in 2001 for symptoms of faintness, nausea, headache, apprehension, dizziness, irritability, weakness, unsteady gait, or excessive thirst and hunger.

"It's just a matter of time before someone dies," Berg said.

The 1999 annual report of the Florida Corrections Commission said elderly inmates need more heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

Florida's death row population is aging. Of the 329 death-sentenced prisoners on January 22, 107 were 45 or older and six were over 65. More than a third of the prisoners, 129, were obese, according to court documents.

Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said he could not comment on matters in litigation.

The lawsuit, originally filed by condemned inmates Jim E. Chandler and William Kelley, also alleges three recent changes in policy have worsened the temperature problem. Inmates are no longer allowed to hang air deflectors on the vents in their cells, screening has been installed over the cell bars and air handlers have been turned off.

While the subject of installing fans has been discussed, Killinski said the electrical system could not support 300 individual fans.

"The plaintiffs want air conditioning," she said. "If they want air conditioned prisons, they should go to the Legislature and not to federal court."
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http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/08/deathrow.heat.ap/index.html
 
pussies, 100ºF is about 37ºC

i can sleep with no problems at that temperature.
 
They are prisoners. There are people that don't have air conditioning. In fact, I lived the first 18 years of my life without air conditioning. Fuck em.
 
LastLegionary said:
Luis that is not normal. I have my thermostat at 18 C (~ 65 F).
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well, i'm used to have 40ºC on spring nights..........so i just can say they are bunch of pussies, if i can take it and i'm not a criminal, then i guess they should be able to take it too ;)

btw, it's 1:45am, the window is open and the temp is 26ºC right now.
 
They're on death row, for Christ sake. We're eventually going to wax 'em anyway. My pity factor on this one is extremely limited.
 
Luis G said:
well, i'm used to have 40ºC on spring nights..........so i just can say they are bunch of pussies, if i can take it and i'm not a criminal, then i guess they should be able to take it too ;)

btw, it's 1:45am, the window is open and the temp is 26ºC right now.
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I just want to know how some prisoners get 'Obese'.

FWIW...Air Conditioning is not a right. Niether is cable TV. I can see giving them some type of education if it's needed (GED or AA), but anything else is up to them to pay for. We need to go back to the old idea of '3 hots and a cot'.

BTW...In Panama, prisoners must be fed by their families on the outside, or they just don't eat. I'm not advocating this. I'm just showing how bad it could get...
 
:hmm: may i ask why you quoted me? :confuse3:

and btw, you made me wonder how a prisioner got "obese".....
 
You mentioned the heat you deal with, so I figured that if you can take the heat, so can they. ;) How can they cry for A/C when not everyone has it?
 
even thou, i think i will buy one soon, because springs are getting hotter and hotter with each year that goes on. I think is because the growth of the city = less forest around.

BTW, i bet some people in Florida enjoy the heat going to the beach....let the prisioners "enjoy it" in their cell.
 
That's really horrible. I've always felt that if you break the law, you should have your rights as a citizen taken away... maybe not for speeding in your car or jay walking, but for something bad enough to land you on deathrow? Wah! I'm just cryin' for 'em!

I have no A/C and during the summer when it got over 100º F outside, it would be over 90º in my home. Even when I lived in an apartment with A/C, the thermostat was set to 80º (trying to save a few $$$ on my utility bill).

BTW, I love the idea of an inmate's family feeding them, otherwise they don't eat. My wife's cousin purposely gets himself thrown in jail just so he'll have 3 square meals, free medical, free living quarters, free cable TV, etc.... Everytime he's released, he can't deal with the "real" world (having to work for a living and all) so he just goes and commits some crime to put himself back in the slammer where they treat him so well.
 
HomeLAN said:
They're on death row, for Christ sake. We're eventually going to wax 'em anyway. My pity factor on this one is extremely limited.
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you actully have a pity factor for them? theyre on death row and also they took away whoever rights they violated(IE the right to stay alive unless you wish to be euthanised or in my book rape is also punishable by death so theres that. they should have NO sympathy whatsoever.) and luis if he can stand the heat so can they. and i maybe wrong on this so gato please correct me if im wrong but didnt you say on another thread that the bunks you live in on the base dont have air conditioning yet you actully try to defend us. am i the only one who thinks thats just a little i dont know wrong or fucked up?
 
Gato_Solo said:
FWIW...Air Conditioning is not a right. Niether is cable TV. I can see giving them some type of education if it's needed (GED or AA), but anything else is up to them to pay for. We need to go back to the old idea of '3 hots and a cot'.

BTW...In Panama, prisoners must be fed by their families on the outside, or they just don't eat. I'm not advocating this. I'm just showing how bad it could get...
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My thoughts exactly. Some of these prisoners have more "rights" than decent hardworking citizens.

I think Panama has the right idea. Let their families take on the burden of feeding their own.
 
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