Upstate Modern MAKING METROPOLITAN AMERICA ALONG THE ERIE CANAL
Upstate Modern is a series of courses and public programs at Syracuse University examining the urban history of Upstate New York through transdisciplinary research that draws on archives, buildings, landscapes, and communities.
Prison Air Conditions
by Annie Ray.
This is a photograph of the panopticon rotunda at the Isle of Pines in Cuba. What made the prison unique was it’s lack of doors on the prison cells. The 4,500 inmates were free to roam the panopticon prison as they wish. However, every level of the circular was filled with vermin and trash. There was no view to the outside and the while each cell had a sink and toilet there was no running water.
Prisons have been around since the 1800’s, and while conditions of living in them have not always been pleasant they seem to have only become worse with time. Most people think of a physical system when air conditioning is mentioned, but the air conditions of prisons tell a bigger tale. Some of the included categories are the physical air conditioning units, windows, ventilation grilles and ducts, slots for food at meal times, overall cleanliness, and air quality and temperature. In other words the overall experience in a prison is strongly dominated by something as simple as the air conditions in the facility. These conditions can adversely affect not only the prisoners, but also the guards.
Protestors and prison rights activists have been fighting many states, particularly ones in the south, over the lack of air conditioning in their prisons. For example every prison in Texas has central heating, but only the mental health and hospital sections of the prisons have air conditioning. While the fight has been going on for a while, the statistic in 2013 that stated fourteen inmates died in Texas prisons since 2007 due to heat caught national attention. Since then activists have been worked to find ways to force them to install air conditioning in all of the prisons. Texas democrat John Whitmire and Criminal Justice committee chair said, “But I can tell you, the people of Texas don’t want air-conditioned prisons, and there’s a lot of other things on my list above the heat. It’s hot in Texas, and a lot of Texans who are not in prison don’t have air conditioning.” Besides the fourteen reported deaths there have been multiple reports filed for illness due to extreme heat by not only prisoners, but also officers and guards.
Air conditioning and overall air conditions in prisons have been constantly changing and adapting since the beginning of prison usage. Everything from the use of skylights to portray heaven and penance to the declaration by many that not providing air conditioning is cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners has occurred. Air conditioning has been used as a method of transformation and improvement. It has been a method of punishment many times and today it’s being used to show power and privilege. The prisoner’s lack of air conditioning is really another way of showing them they are below everyone else and they do not deserve it. Overall, it has ultimately been a form of control in terms of controlling the prisoners to controlling the conditions they “deserve” to live in and to controlling their amount of fresh air, direct sunlight, and functioning utilities.
Emmerson Rudd looks out of a small break, used as the food slot, in his cell at Ellis Maximum Segregation Unit. Emmerson Rudd was executed in 2001. His cell was outdoors with the only air conditioning being a potential breeze that would pass through the cell blocks. The cell was three concrete 12 inch thick walls with steel supports and one wall made of metal bars creating a gate.
A fifteen year old boy in isolation at the Juvenile Justice Center in Laredo folds his hands in prayer below the one barred window in his isolation cell. During isolation a prisoner spends 23 hours of the day in the cell with only one hour a day to walk around in a small fenced in courtyard by themselves outside of the cell.
This photograph is of the interior of a cell from the late 1800s. The cell is concrete slab walls with a small metal bed on the floor. The door, while a metal gate on one side, also has a wooden door on the other side to block all vision and air from the hallway. The cell has a small window at the very top of the ceiling on the back wall that is barred on both the inside and outside with a 1 foot thick slab between.
This is a photograph of the panopticon rotunda at the Isle of Pines in Cuba. What made the prison unique was it’s lack of doors on the prison cells. The 4,500 inmates were free to roam the panopticon prison as they wish. However, every level of the circular was filled with vermin and trash. There was no view to the outside and the while each cell had a sink and toilet there was no running water.
This drawing shows sections of a typical prison cell of the time. In it you can see the thick concrete walls with the one stone sill for light. Directly next to that sill is a tube called the Foul Air Flue. Each cell also has its own toilet and sink.
This section shows the distribution of services in the Panopticon Penitentiary. It shows an inlet to the central stove as well as a recirculated air inlet. In the center there is a modified Franklin stove and radial hot air ducts extending from it. Closer to the exterior there are ventilation tubes to draw air through cells. From the center of the panopticon there are loud hailers for general commands as well as tin speaking tubes from governor to turnkeys’ galleries.
This drawing shows the thermo ventilation plant, ductwork, and extract shaft. At the bottom right you can see cell plans showing where the ventilation flues are running. The top left drawing is a section showing the foul air shaft function, corridor area, and the basement apparatus room.
The engineer for the boiler rooms in a California Prison stands in the basement of the institution. He is quoted questioning the method of the treatment of inmates.
This photo was taken at the Orleans Parish Prison when the air conditioning was not working on a 100 plus temperature day. Twenty three men gathered around one fan in the dining hall. However, upon returning to their bunks there was no air conditioning installed in the cell area. Since 2007 there have been complaints of lack of prison air conditioning in the south, but as of 2013 the prisoners still do not have any air conditioning in the majority of prisons. Many prison rights activists are protesting claiming they have a right to be cool. Meanwhile, the southern prisons are claiming tax payers money should not be wasted on men and women in prison feeling comfortable.
For image captions and credits, please see the associated spreadsheet.