In 2008, Eugene Blackmon became the first incarcerated person to sue Texas prisons for inhumane heat conditions. But it wasn’t just any ordinary heat - it was the kind of heat that makes your shoes melt.
A torturous heat that literally COOKS and destroys your cells from the inside.
Blackmon suffered from nausea, blurred vision, and headaches. Intense seizures and frothing of the mouth are also common. Too many people have died. And not just in Texas.
States with the highest heat risks in the country, from Mississippi to Arizona, fail to provide air conditioning. In 2012, after hearing Blackmon’s case, a federal appeals court did rule that extreme temperatures CAN violate the constitutional rights of people in prison.
But today, it still isn’t uncommon for incarcerated people to suffer in over 100-degree temperatures and 150-degree heat indexes. Why? Because the prison system THRIVES off of forcing people to live in inhumane conditions.
Texas Democrat John Whitmire, even said the quiet part out loud in 2011 about air conditioning: “We couldn’t afford to do it if we wanted to. But number one we just don’t want to.”
Prisons are meant to discard and punish, not rehabilitate. But just because people are behind prison walls, doesn’t mean they’ve vanished from our empathy. Blackmon’s fight for our health and well-being will not be fought alone.