Diane Wilson, co-founder of Texas Jail Project, along with many other Texans in county jails, has described the misery of being numb with cold and wrapping their arms with toilet paper…but you thought the problem was the terrible heat, didn’t you? A frustrating aspect of reporting about county jail conditions has to do with the temperature. County jails, unlike prisons, are mostly airconditioned whereas the state prisons are places of hot and terrible suffering, sometimes leading to death. The prisons get the attention, and people think that everything’s the same in local jails. Then they hear that the local jail is air condioned and think, “Well, those lucky dogs!”

Little do they know. The “standard” says the cells must be being betwee 65 and 85. Now imagine that the jail keeps it at the very minimum (if not below 65) and that you’re living on concrete wearing a thin polyester jumpsuit. Oh yeah, in many jails, you have no underwear and the women have no bra. You don’t have any activity or outdoor rec to give you a break either. And finally, don’t forget that more than 60% of you are pretrial—not yet convicted and thus should be treated as a citizen being held until her or his case is decided.

Here is the latest report of misery in a jail I’ve had bad reports on before:

“Eastland County Jail has the air conditioning set as low as it will go, they say they will have it ‘fixed’ but do nothing.  the inmates are freezing, teeth chattering, their bunks are like ice and if they complain, eventually, the officers cut it completely off which makes it very very hot.  The inmates tried to cover the vent and the officers removed the covering …  What about human rights for inmates? I  know they have rights to protect them from this kind of ‘abuse’.  If family members say anything the officers retaliate against the inmates.  Some inmates are actually innocent from what they’ve been accused of and shouldn’t be there.  Regardless of what they are there for, don’t they have rights to be taken care of while they are in the custody of the correctional facilities.”