Heating Up

By Yohannes Shakhem

Recently here at Nottoway Correctional, all outside movement was canceled due to lightning in the areas as "they" were concerned with our safety, health, and well being. However, during this most recent heat wave, none of those concerns were addressed nor were safety measures put in place to ensure that our health was their number one priority.

Right now intake prisoners are denied personal fans as well as prisoners housed in Restrictive Housing Units (RHU). Being kept in these concrete ovens for long periods of time without fresh ventilation and cool air could result in heat strokes or panic attacks that could end in cardiac arrest. If being placed in a hot car with windows rolled up equals criminal negligence or having a dog outside in a kennel without fresh water and shade is grounds for criminal prosecution, what about the lives of the incarcerated?

If all lives matter, then this would include prisoners as well. America is quick to fight for the rights of those around the world but continue to fail to even acknowledge the abuse of its own subjects. The next time the good Samaritan crusaders beat their war drums at home to launch a rescue, how about the good fight here at home against the cruel, barbaric, and inhumane treatment of it's own subjects?