Those who are like me old enough to remember life before air conditioning in the Deep South often flinch a bit when passionate, well-meaning young prison reformers launch into a lecture about the cruelties of operating state prisons without the benefit of that comfort.
Air conditioning on a national scale in the U.S. was a decidedly post-World War II development. Depending on one’s socioeconomic status and geography, it was in the period between 1970 and 1990 when a solid majority of Mississippians first enjoyed residential air conditioning.
As I’ve noted before in writing on this topic, the notion that the taxpayers of Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida were submitting prisoners in those states to “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of 8th Amendment rights by not providing air conditioning for their cells was news indeed to people of a certain age across the South.
Beyond that, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for the comfort of criminals – some violent, repeat offenders among them – is a political non-starter among taxpayers who favor a more “get tough on crime” approach.
That said, it seems to me that the decision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections to air condition first the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and later the Central Mississippi and South Mississippi prison complexes is a decision that reflects both basic humanity and surprising business acumen.
It’s not all about the inmates. Here’s why: post-COVID, there is a labor shortage across the board. Air-conditioned factories and service industry employers are advertising hiring bonuses seeking workers to accept comfortable jobs in their enterprises and the employee shortfall endures.
At the same time, MDOC needs some 600 staff members to guard and otherwise interact with the state’s prison inmates. Pay is better now than when Gov. Tate Reeves brought in MDOC Commissioner Burl Cain to lead the agency. But finding workers who want to take on guarding prisoners in sweltering prisons that regularly reach temperatures of 124 degrees and beyond remains a hard sell.
While installing air conditioners in prisons automatically fuels political cries of “coddling prisoners” the fact is that when considering the costs of almost constant federal litigation over Mississippi prison conditions, MDOC personnel challenges and the inmate healthcare cost burdens presented by failing to provide safe and human conditions, this so-called “coddling” is a cheaper and better business decision for the taxpayers than maintaining the status quo.
And then there’s that pesky consideration of the basic humanity we offer prison inmates. There is a fine line between necessarily austere and unpleasant prison conditions and subjecting inmates to unreasonable extremes of heat or cold. For the MDOC personnel who guard prisoners and the rest of society who await their eventual return to our communities, the words of a New Jersey life sentence inmate resonate: “You create Spartan conditions, you’re gonna get gladiators.”
After observing multiple executions, conducting Death Row interviews, and covering federal court interventions in Mississippi’s storied correctional systems for four decades, my thoughts on the current political tut-tutting over Cain’s effort to air condition the state’s prison system return to the stifling bedlam of Parchman’s old Maximum Security Unit 17 — once called “Little Alcatraz.”
It was a venue filled with the howling of mentally ill prisoners and the brutalities of those sane but past the point of any moral boundaries. It’s instructive to remember that Mississippi is less than 50 years from the demise of the old prison “trusty” system exposed in the landmark Gates v. Collier case in which the late U.S. District Judge William C. Keady declared Parchman Farm “an affront to modern standards of decency” with living quarters “unfit for human habitation.”
A half-century later, Mississippi prisoners still deserve humane conditions and treatment, no more and no less. Anyone who argues that Parchman inmates are remotely “coddled” simply hasn’t been inside the gates.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com
43 comments:
"...this so-called “coddling” is a cheaper and better business decision for the taxpayers..."
I'd like to see the math -- and, also a comparison to increasing pay for the guards that have to patrol in the heat.
Prison isn't supposed to be pleasant, and if you really want to resort to pre-1970 tactics, let's bring back chain gangs.
Agree with the article.
With so many creature comforts available, it's no wonder why so many people find prison as a way of life, and not a deterrent.
Prisoners in the north shouldn't get heat? Just constant, 24x7, freezing temps?
Also interesting that when we subject the inmates to a lack of AC, we're also subjecting the guards and staff to that same environment. And then we wonder why we can't find quality people to work in prisons.
Yak, yak, yak, blah, blah, blah...
Sid, I believe you grew up in unairconditioned schools in Mississippi just like I did. I don't remember the heat being a problem, except that we didn't have sweat-proof paper. Open windows and fans did fine. I don't see why prisons couldn't use the same thing.
My hard working employees don't have AC in our shop. This is bullshit
I went to Spann elementary when there was no air conditioning. The only time I remember being hot was right after recess. I was there when they first got ceiling fans, that was a big deal at the time.
There has to be some sort of outrage going at all times. When they get their AC, they'll find something else to complain about.
Air Conditioning vendors and their unbid, overpriced, poorly installed inferior equipment will be the mules carrying the next hoards of fraud and embezzlement of tax money from state coffers into the pockets of grifter weasels.
Air conditioning controls the humidity as well as the temperature. Humidity is bad for steel and concrete.
As per Woketards and the Climate Gestapo air conditioning is bad.
8:58am
Humidity is good for concrete, which takes 28 years to cure 100%, even though mostly cured after 28 days. New concrete routinely is misted with non-salt water to enhance proper curing and prevent premature evaporation.
Air condition it, but set it on 78
8:58. stop posting facts. most people here only want to know how prisoners will suffer.
if we would just let out all the weed offenders (users and small time dealers) there would be plenty of room for the violent prisoners without overcrowding
Randy Tucker keeps the Madison County jail a crisp 59 degrees. The cold makes the inmates docile. Heat agitates people. I doubt he would be doing that if it didn’t make economic and net positive sense. He has almost zero incidents with inmate violence. Proof is in the pudding.
Just remember, we all are one step from ending up in these places and situations. So glad this state is filled with Christians. Even Christ was against abuse of prisoners.
The inmates will tear up the AC units and ductwork faster than they can repair it, like everything else of any value at Parchman. Burl better have a unlimited repair/maintenance budget.
We should partner with the Mexican government and keep our incarcerated in that country. I will bet that they will come back with a new outlook on life or not at all. Either way its a win for honest folks.
Every prison should have an air conditioned factory making the cheap and simple plastic crap that we import from China. If the prisoners want AC and decent food, then they can work in the factory. The lazy prisoners can lay in their bunks and sweat and eat prison loaf.
@10:14 AM - The could only "lay" in their bunks during a conjugal visit. Otherwise they would lie in their bunks.
Ductworks are pre-built escape tunnels.
It’s hard to believe that they weren’t air conditioned previously. It’s like we want our prisoners to come out worse than when they went in. I don’t see any value in making their lives as hellish as possible, try to give them a chance to become productive citizens.
10:39 AM, They already had the same chance to become productive citizens. Instead they decided to prey on the productive citizens. It should be our job to make their life just as hellish as they tried to make ours.
What we have is failure to install AC.
@11:55 - you don’t know their situation. I bet if many of the commenters here grew up in similar circumstances as many of the inmates, they would have the same outcome. Some inmates are beyond rehabilitation, but many just need some stability and life skills and things can change.
Do y'all not read the whole article ever?
The problem is for the guards and administrators and staff!
They can't find prison employees willing to swelter at work as well as , no doubt, deal with the stink!
I tried to tell em, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNf7klboYCo
MS Grifter ACs will perpetually be inoperable, convicts will rip up sheet metal for shivs, the AC units will clank and noise will cover groans of stabbing/rape victims. Looping Legislature will authorize millions to study, then millions to repair, then millions to study, then...
Oh, puhleeeze, Pothead.
What percent of state prisoners are being held for marijuana possession only?
Answer: 0.1% of state prisoners are being held for marijuana possession only.
In total, one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of state prisoners were marijuana possession offenders with no prior sentences. For Federal prisoners (who represent 13 percent of the total prison population in the U.S.):
About half (51%) had a drug offense as the most serious offense in 2009.
99.8 % of Federal prisoners sentenced for drug offenses were incarcerated for drug trafficking.
Simply stated, there are very few people in state or Federal prison for marijuana-related crimes.
The BLUNT TRUTH
Prisons are not filled with marijuana possession offenders.
@1:22 - what percentage of parole and probation violations are due to positive tests for marijuana? Sure they aren’t technically in for possession, but the outcome is the same.
How many of the thugs running the streets of Jackson have a home with an ac in it? Why should they have a better living condition while in jail than they had before going to jail? They are thugs who will kill you for what is in your pocket. No resemblance to a human.
Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but I kind of feel like we should put our resources into combatting prison rape first.
I am also not opposed to having air conditioning at Parchman, particularly for well behaving inmates. I think getting to move to air conditioned quarters (and the threat of getting moved out of them) would probably be a pretty effective incentive?
2:19, if you want to start splitting hairs over pot use, let's start looking at the numbers of murderers, spree killers, and mass shooters using pot when potheads claim it's not associated with violence. Keep digging. Sorry, but the MYTH of "pot users filling prisons" is just a limp wristed lie.
I went to K-12th grade without AC, and we were not allowed to wear shorts.
Don't see why prisoners should have it any better than we did.
When will Phil, Brett, Nancy, and others be sitting in one of those cells? Never of course.
Apparently all greedy geezers who "went to school without AC" 70 years ago were not educated that prisons do not have a summer break.
Does Sid actually believe the junk he writes?
@ Apparently all greedy geezers who "went to school without AC" 70 years ago were not educated that prisons do not have a summer break.
August 3, 2022 at 8:24 PM
Dude, I went to summer school (once) too, to get ahead in college. All the other summers growing up I was working in an unairconditioned metal building and living in an unairconditioned house. It was not punishment, it was just life, and we were happy.
I ve been smoking pot for 50 years and I have never been to prison !
The discussion about air conditioning in prisons should be postponed until there's clean drinking water in Jackson. One step at a time to be a civilized society.
I don't think prisons need to be air conditioned. One-armed federal judge Keady (Greenville) flat out destroyed our prison system.
Humidity is bad for steel and concrete. August 3, 2022 at 8:58 AM
Sure it is, Luther. That's why we see buildings of steel and concrete crumbling and falling to dust all over the South today.
I feel like I need AC after all the hot air from Sid with each maximum verbosity post…. Lol
Conjugal visits?
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