A Minnesota prison has “resolved without incident” a situation involving about 100 inmates in one housing unit who would not return to their cells Sunday in what one former inmate there called an act of “self-preservation” amid dangerously high temperatures in the region.
The situation was “calm, peaceful and stable throughout the day,” a Department of Corrections spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “incarcerated individuals in the unit indicated dissatisfaction” because the understaffed facility had to limit inmates’ time out of their cells.
But advocates positioned outside of the Stillwater prison, some of whom have family members inside, said inmates are fed up with the excessive heat, lack of air conditioning and limited access to showers and ice during on and off lockdowns over the past two months.
A human rights violation is not the same as a basic rights violation. A genocide is not the same thing as an execution. Are they not human indicates this is a human right, and the discussion was then on human rights.
Despite all of that, as I explicitly stated in my comment, America can and should do better.
A prisoner does not deserve death by heat stroke, regardless of their crime. Providing sufficient ice to keep the prisoners alive is mandatory for them. Providing AC seems like a better long term solution. American justice considers it a crime for prisoners to die in custody on a date other than their execution day. They have a legal right to life.