Austin (Nexstar) — In Texas’ state jails, the inmates are sentenced to just two years or less. But every summer, former inmate Maggie Luna remembers, the women inside worried their short sentences may take their life.
“All of these women that were suffering with me had not a lot of time, and they feared that they were getting death sentences,” she said. “Several times I told my mom, ‘I hope I make it out of here.'”
Her jail is one of the 70% of units within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that do not have full air conditioning. As much of Texas braces through record-setting triple-digit temperatures, current and former inmates are describing dangerous and disturbing conditions inside their cells.
“It is suffocating. It’s terrifying just to feel like you’re cooking. I remember asking my bunkie, ‘do you think our brains are frying?'” Luna said.
She was released in 2016 after serving two years in the Lucille Plane State Jail for drug possession.
“Some days, we wouldn’t have water,” Luna recounted. “I saw a lot of women have seizures because of the heat. It is inhumane. We were like feral animals locked in this giant cage.”
Several emails sent from inmates and obtained by Nexstar express similar challenges within the last week.
“I’m having a really hard time breathing right now,” one inmate wrote. “It’s so humid you can’t breath… we were in AC for shakedown yesterday all morning and when we came back it was 118 degrees in here and going from AC to that made me sick to the point I threw up my electrolyte drink and I just felt sick and nauseous all day… not sure how long ima last here in the heat.”
“We are still not getting water,” another wrote. “They don’t give us respite at all. It’s very hot, we only have one big fan. They don’t give us respite showers AT ALL.”
Of the 100 units TDCJ operates, 14 have no air conditioning. Fifty-five units have “partial” AC, meaning they have “respite areas” such as cooled chapels, but do not provide AC in the cellblocks.
by: Ryan Chandler
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