Inmate Deaths Raise Questions About Temperatures in Oklahoma Prisons
Tonya Wilson Peel, a former correctional case manager at Dick Conner who worked alongside Lanford during her employment at the prison, said he had a sharp sense of humor and loved his job making license plates for the State of Oklahoma. She said Lanford had complained of excessive heat for several weeks leading up to his death but declined to seek help because he didn’t want money to be deducted from his commissary account for a medical visit.
“He had a heart attack that I’m pretty sure was caused due to the heat,” Wilson Peel said. “He was just so hot. He had told me several times that he was taking a towel and dipping it in ice water and putting it around his neck because he felt like he just couldn’t breathe.”
A corrections department employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of violating the agency’s media policy said Lanford and Willis had pre-existing health concerns but lived in a general population unit and maintained jobs. On one particularly hot day, the temperature inside a cell at Dick Conner reached as high as 97 degrees Fahrenheit, the employee said.
Dick Conner is one of several Oklahoma prisons that does not have universal air conditioning. Corrections department policy does not mandate a temperature range in living areas, though it does state prison officials should try to increase airflow during the summer months. The Oklahoma Department of Health requires pretrial facilities to maintain positive airflow if temperatures exceed 85.
We have investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing. There's nothing cruel and unusual about slow cooking prisoners at 120F.
The second portion of cruel and unusual punishment was required using commissary funds for medical bills. Health care should be a right for the incarcerated and the non-incarcerated alike.
If a person's right to freedom is removed, then the moral responsibility for their health and wellness falls upon their captors, regardless of what the law allows.
Private prisons are immoral top to bottom
Yes, but I was speaking more broadly than private prisons. There are many reasons to restrict a person's freedom, and many ways to do it.
Can’t disagree with you there.
Mmm the meat just falls right off the bone
Loads of inmates in their 30s died of "heart attacks" around the county this summer - tortured to death
Its is absolutely torture. They feel like can dispense their own form "justice" bro, they have already been convicted they have been punished and are serving their time.
Also pretrial detention is the same? Fuck, some of these people haven't even been convicted and they can't splurt a bit extra on air con?
I smell financial corruption.
It goes to Stitt he is corrupt as they come.
Oh I'm sure someone is making money, but the torture is it's own reward for those sickos
Exactly, their form of punishment and torture, is the twisted delusion that they are preforming some sort of justice not given by the courts.
"Oh they went light on him? we gonna make sure he get it here."
Pretty sure it's a cut and dried violation of the 8th amendment..
Only amendments these chucklefucks are familiar with are the 2nd and a misinterpretation of the 1st
Nope. The courts have ruled that punishment has to be unusual to violate the 8th amendment.
And this is normal
Specifically, it has to be cruel and unusual. If it's just cruel but commonplace or just unusual but not cruel, it's fine.
Anything cruel should be considered unusual.
Every row can be death row if you don’t have empathy.