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.
It’s basic in America but definitely not the average human experience. Most shelter is not climate controlled.
That’s kinda the problem with the whole “more heatwave from global warming” thing that has been killing people all over the world.
The US can and should do better, but it’s not a human right.
Should the expected experience of a person as determined by the culture in which they live be tuned to the expected experience of people in the culture in which they live, to the worst survivable experience, or to the median or mean local or global average? Should the US try to be as good as Denmark, as good as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or split the difference and call it good enough?
Genuine question: what do you define as a human right?
If I had the power we’d all live in a post scarcity utopia in the stars and all the resources of that community would be the right of all the inhabitants thereof.
My understanding of the phrase human right is an irreducible standard that all humans should be afforded. Peaceful living. Food. Shelter. Community. Learning.
The UN declaration on human rights is all in that vein.
Of course many people don’t live with all the “human rights” afforded by the UN, but it’s a standard that all humans should expect.
So calling climate control a human right doesn’t seem to fit? Hawaii nobody has AC or a furnace, does that mean their human rights are violated? Or only if Hawaiian jails do not have climate control, because they don’t get to choose?
The human right is not control of your climate: the human right is shelter and livable conditions.
Your response is like when a genie gives something technically correct but clearly not what you requested. Everyone must have the means to be with a temperature range that is not just survivable but also comfortable. That maybe a location that has stable conditions or a cave that stays cool in the summer.
Still, context matters, if it’s basic where people are demanding it, it’s a basic right for them, and anything else doesn’t really add to the convesation.
Yeah there’s tons of places where it’s not a thing, poorer countries, richer colder countries (where it’s gonna be hotter and their households are nowhere near prepared for heat management besides retention, which is what you don’t want for the future), but this is a comment thread about American prisoners deserving what is considered basic in America-
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.