The summer’s incessant and relentless heat wave has returned an issue to the front of the shelf that needs some examination.
It is whether to install air conditioning systems into Texas’s massive prison system. Think for just a moment about something. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar projects that the Legislature will convene in January with an estimated budget surplus of about $13 billion.
Well, how might we spend some of that surplus? Oh, here’s a thought. Perhaps we could install A/C units into at least some of our state’s prisons.
I sort of understand why Texas hasn’t chosen to give the state’s enormous state prison population some of the comforts others of us receive and take for granted. However, reports indicate that indoor temperatures at some of our prison units have reached 140 degrees during this summer’s intense heat wave.
That is unacceptable.
I became acquainted with the lack of A/C units during a tour I took in 1995 of the Clements Unit outside of Amarillo. Frankly, I hadn’t studied the issue much since my arrival in Texas in early 1984. However, I was acutely aware of how hot and hostile summer gets in all regions of Texas.
My first thought upon learning of the lack of A/C was: Hey, didn’t an inmate sue the state for housing inmates in “inhumane” conditions … and didn’t he win that lawsuit, forcing the feds to take run the state prison system for many years?
Putting A/C units in our state prisons surely doesn’t turn our lockups into “country clubs.” It simply provides a livable environment for inmates who, frankly, deserve to be treated like human beings.