Now that everyone has cooled down, this is a good time to take a calm look at whether and how to provide more air conditioning in New Jersey prisons.
Summer heat, although not especially high this year, lingered longer than usual. Advocates for prison inmates drew attention to the heat in some cellblocks and urged more widespread air conditioning. The N.J. Department of Corrections gave some women in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility the option to transfer after the temperature indoors reached 93 degrees.
Several state prisons already are fully air conditioned, and a few are only partially so. In them the department lessens the effect of heat once temperatures reach 86 degrees by making commercial fans or water mist fans available; increasing access to showers, fluids and ice; and opening windows when appropriate. Inmates are referred to the infirmary if they show symptoms or complain of heat-related illness.
People are also reading…
Last month, the new head of the Corrections Ombudsperson’s Office, Terry Schuster, reported on prison heat and urged the Legislature to fully air condition three of the state’s oldest prisons — Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, East Jersey State Prison in Rahway and Garden State Correctional Facility in Crosswicks.
“We want incarcerated people to come out better than they went in and to have the type of experience inside prisons that’s going to make them good neighbors when they come home,” Schuster told New Jersey Monitor.
There are a number of factors for legislators to consider before spending money on more air conditioning.
One is that the state is emptying and shutting prisons following bail reform and the easing of substance-abuse laws. New Jersey’s 25,300 inmates in 2010 have declined to just 12,500 in nine prisons for adults. This trend should soon mean existing air conditioned cells are sufficient for the state’s prison population.
Lawmakers should also think about the aim of prison air conditioning. Will it, as the ombudsperson suggests, make inmates less likely to be repeat offenders? Does better quality of life in prison lead inmates to become “good neighbors”?
Since guards work in these prisons, we’d expect them to demand more air conditioning if needed. But William Sullivan, who works at East Jersey State Prison and is president of PBA Local 105 that represents corrections officers, recently told NJ Spotlight that he had not heard many complaints from officers. “I guess I’ve worked there so long, it’s kind of like, it’s hot, but it’s not unbearable,” he said. “It’s not the worst thing in the world. But it is hot. It’s an old brick building where the bricks heat up and they stay hot.”
Many prisons in the U.S. aren’t air conditioned, including many in the South where temperatures are much hotter in the summer. A federal appellate court ruled that Louisiana didn’t have to air condition its prisons. Texas only requires curtailing the work of inmates when the temperature reaches 120 degrees!
New Jersey’s prisons and practices seem well within what’s humane and healthy for inmates. If the state ombudsperson and advocates want the goal to be maximum comfort for prisoners, they’ll have to make a stronger case for the public advantage of that. Perhaps while legislators are looking at the issue, they could consider the cost savings of keeping prisons no cooler than, say, 80 degrees.
Above all, in this age of closing and consolidating prisons at all levels, the state should be able to get its future inmates into the existing air conditioned cellblocks. No point expensively retrofitting an old structure that should be among those destined to close.
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
