Inmates cooked to death in Texas prisons

its murder. unconscionable

Is that what you think?

Living here in Texas, this sort of thing makes me see red.

Welcome to DU, Pepito

thanks for your post

This sort of treatment is like one would expect from a 3rd world country.

The median household income in Texas is about 47K, which is only 2K less than the national average.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/statemedian/

That puts it above most Western nations. It's many times higher than any third world country.

I know that there are a lot of good, decent, compassionate, thinking Texans (all of whom would be appalled by this), but unfortunately, they're not a majority in the legislature. I have a feeling that Texas legislators who fit that description caucus in a back closet.

Signed,
A Native Texan

I was raised in central Florida without air conditioning.

Or are you infering that global climate change has made this a more prevalent issue? No evidence was stated about over work or exposure.

We shouldn't abuse our prisoners, but neither should we coddle them. How many poor and homeless live without A/C?

I grew up in a hot and humid climate with no AC also, we slept on screened porches throughout the summer, even with 12 foot ceilings in the house it was just too damn hot to sleep otherwise..

Regardless if they are guilty of crimes comitted against society, there are still human rights to adhere to.

Put 'em outside under an overhang if necessary. With cots if req.

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people in the world have no A/C.

You made the comment "get a grip" and "we should no coddle" and I made the statement that these folks are still human beings regardless of their debt to society for whatever crimes committed.

Central air conditioning, no.

Large fans in day rooms or outdoors, perhaps.

Refuge from sweltering heat in which inmates are dying and access to cool water, absolutely.

About lack of those items.

Also made the point that quite a few people in Texas died from heat related injuries outside of the prison system.

Get a grip.

Anyone else you have issues with as being second-rate human beings worthy of death in your eyes...?

go directly to my IL.

Bullshit, but the majority of people in the world do not have A/C. And survive and thrive.

Pointing out facts is not bigotry.

The fact that you think facts are below consideration makes YOU a bigot.

Try it on. How does it feel?

Don't be so mad bro!

These guys, some of them, are locked up 23 hours a day, and they do NOT have access to cold water. These guys are dying, literally, during the summer months. This is cruel and unusual punishment. I don't care WHAT crime you've commmitted, it's against the Eighth Amendment, and a violation of their civil rights.

We are not supposed to be a third world country. We are supposed to have justice in this country. And, if it takes air conditioning to keep these guys alive in the Texas triple digit heat, then we are required, by our own laws, to provide it. You can't lock someone up for 23 hours a day in triple digit temperatures, not give them access to cold water, and call that justice.

And if we put them behind bars, it's our responsibility to see that they are treated humanely.

people in prison do not have the freedom to leave and go outside when the inside gets too hot.if it gets too hot in thier cells, they have to wait for a prison official to do soemthing about it.

since when is not cooking people alive in the realm of coddeling?

The fact that you refuse to consider facts in this case makes you BOTH a bigot AND ignorant.


The only bigot here is the douche that believes people should die just because a judge who may or may not be corrupt sentenced them to jail.

Now it would be my pleasure if that douche alerted on my post.

total are in prisons every year around the country? I bet they far out weigh the amount of heat related deaths!

Nice.

are you saying that a prisoner murdering another prisoner is not preventable? Or a prisoner raping another prisoner is not preventable? Well i know a way to prevent all of this. DO NOT GO TO JAIL. Maybe this will be yet another reason to not commit a crime. It's okay for me to not have insurance and not have air condition, or cable for that matter... but we MUST make sure that all criminals get these things because they deserve it! But I already know what you will say based on all the other remarks you have made on this subject, so there really isn't any reason to comment furthur! Unless of course you want to argue.
HAVE A NICE DAY!

Ken Kesey is applauding in his grave.

I'm sure he'd also get a big kick out of your nostrum that if you don't want to die, "DO NOT GO TO JAIL."

It may be news to you, but someone who ends up in jail, for whatever reason, doesn't suddenly become sub-human.

I sympathise with your circumstances. But your mistake is allowing others to divide you from your brethren who also are suffering. The way things are today, you or I could easily be the ones confined behind those bars.

You got bail money? No? Then you may be confined, like the others, behind those bars--without ever having been convicted of a crime. And if you have health conditions, you're going to damn sure demand that the system attend to you while you're in its custody.

Is that so much to ask?

No, I didn't have that luxury, did 2 yrs then out on parole. I never said that people who go to jail are somehow sub human. You my friend make alot of assumptions, and put alot of words in people's mouth. The truth is jail is not easy. Nor should it be, the experiences I have gained while in there, have left me NEVER wanting to return. And I will do everything possible to stay out.
Oh and if you don't mind me asking. Since you seem to know so much about prisoners and the system, have you every done any time, have you had to endure any of these conditions in which you speak?

You're suggesting that someone who is locked up for protesting against war, inequality, Wall Street, abuses by police (Anaheim) or any other thing covered under our right to free assembly but denied by the authorities should just have "not gone to jail"? Really?

Not everyone in prison is a murderer. As someone stated above, there are lots of people in there for protesting, or for not paying fines they can't afford, or for other unavoidable offenses.

MrDiaz, honey, you are on the wrong board. There are plenty of place like yahoo or freerepublic that would welcome that particular brand of "logic". DU is not one of them.

So you can realize how utterly fucking disgusting your comments are. And don't believe for a second it couldn't happen to you. I wonder how it is that we as a country are so rapidly approaching a police state and then I see comments like yours and it all makes sense.

i spent 2 years in huntsville, tx at the HOLIDAY UNIT, i have stated this in other posts in the thread. I have endured summers and winters there with no heat and no AC, and all I am saying is that there are alot more other things that could be changed and air conditioning to me would not be at the top of this list. This is coming from someone who endured 2 years of these conditions, how many years have you endured? You obviously know alot about these types of situations!

That you spent 2 years there and still could care less that prisoners are dying due to heat related ailments speaks very poorly of you.

its not that i dont care people are dying due to heat, but the number is so small that the other issues that exist in prison far outweigh that problem. People fear for their life for much more dangerous reasons in prison than lack of air conditioning! I understand that you do not realize this because you have not been in actual prison, if you spent 1 day in jail, it was probably a city jail which more than likely has air conditioning, alot less people, and alot less danger. I don't judge you for your opinion, so I do not appreciate when you judge me for mine. I had the experience and to me inmates aren't as worried about the heat as alot of people on the thread seem to think... they have alot more important things to worry and deal about other than the heat.

So, yes, they have a DUTY to care for the safety and well being of those in their charge. It's our law. Remember our law? Or does that not matter when it comes to people who make a mistake and end up in jail?

How many of us have NEVER committed a crime? Even a small one? And how many of those inmates are actually innocent? We've already seen it proven that many inmates on DEATH ROW are innocent of the crimes that they were convicted of; doesn't it stand to reason that there are even more in the general population that are innocent? What about them? Is it okay to cook THEM?

It's not about coddling anyone. It's about being responsible for people in your care. You lock them up, you have an obligation to protect them from dangers, not SUBJECT them to them.

they were sued becuase they didn't prevent a single act of rape in which resulted in AIDS? That happens ALOT more than you seem to think, maybe not AIDS but the act of rape. I will tell you what i told everyone else, I did 2 years, and on my "making prisons better" to do list... AC isn't as high up as everyone here seems to think. But you are entitled to your opinion as am I. Have a nice day.

Look, what difference does it make whether it's rape that causes someone to get a disease that kills them, or the lack of adequate air conditioning that causes someone to die? These people are still in our custodial care and we have an obligation to them.

What we are doing to them is inhumane. It's that simple.

but like I said there are more prevelant things that we can worry about... but i see your point

And it is doing that. In the end, it costs you and me money, in taxes, to fight these suits, and more when we lose them, and we WILL lose them. Why not just do the right thing, on the front end, and treat these people humanely?

I'm right there with you that we can't solve every single problem overnight, but when we find one that can be solved without extra manpower, which is the highest cost of maintaining prisons, why not do it?

“The old, the weak, the infirm, people with other (health) complications..." (from the OP) dying in the heat is no problem, because we wouldn't want to "coddle" them?

May have been frailty. Not lack of environmental protection. Also didn't classify anything as problem or not. You have to make quite a leap to assume it was a prison condition rather than poor health.

If you form opinions from incomplete data, that's not the worlds fault.

Not denying wrong exists. Not jumping with outrage from incomplete set of facts.

Gee how unreasonable...

Why is it such a crime to suggest that the death rate at that facility might be roughly equal to the civilian population?

The original author might be trying to stir up support for a phony cause and get his name in the public eye.

If so, he certainly succeeded with this group.

Unpaid, no less.

You have been ignoring facts, not arguing them, from the get-go. What facts have you brought here? Oh yeah, that's right...none.

Just so ya know.

I didn't alert, and I hope no one else does, either. Some things should be left as they are.

Actually, I confess that I didn't know it was a 'battle,' I thought it was a discussion among fellow members here. But when you stake out an outrageous, inhumane position, you have to know that it will be contentious.

But do not think we are joking--we are deadly serious about the value of life and the responsibility to protect and preserve it.

good response.

Not in evidence. But don't let that get in the way of your outrage over sensationalistic journalism.

Are you calling them liars? You've got nothing, except disdain for activists who care about human rights.

THIS IS AMERICA, NOT CHINA.

Not all of those prisoners are there because they're GUILTY. Especially not in TEXAS which has one of the highest if not the highest post-conviction exoneration rate in the country.

1. Prisoner death rate different from general public for that health group.

2. No other complications existed.

3. No protection from heat existed.

No disdain either. Many abuses exist. God forbid we should get the facts before hitting the caps. lock.

You should be a private investigator. Or a PR specialist.

Repeating oneself makes for a boring thread.

Can we identify an actual problem before leaping? Just once? Please?

perhaps you have a problem.

and you've got Dick Cheney's heart.

Is this how you get kicks?

Sounds like something Rush Limbaugh would say. So not letting a prisoner die is coddling?

Prisoners die every day. The salient issue is whether or not adequate heat protection was provided to prisoners.

"Get a grip" and questioning "coddling" of prisoners clearly amounted to an opposing statement.

If you want to reconsider now, that's perfectly reasonable. But don't try to reconstrue those statements as something other than what they were.

But facts stand on their own. And they're lacking in the OP.

Coddling was and is possible when people who go off without the facts create policy.

Or post on public forums.

Or are you seriously going to postulate that the majority of people in the world are being mistreated/abused?

Not reconstruing either. OP stands as is.

The OP clearly identified elderly and infirm, and others with health conditions, as part of the prison population (which shouldn't be surprising to you). They are in a custodial relationship in which the prison authorities are responsible for their health and well-being.

Arguing that, because others in the world lack adequate health care and proper protections, custodians of prisoners have no responsibility to provide humane care and conditions, is just mind-boggling.

Keep digging that hole deeper!

So if the prison population is suffering equivalent percentage of deaths as an unincarcerated population we should be outraged?

We should insist on a higher standard of environmental protection than what the majority of the world enjoys?

We should assume no other conditions existed?

We should further assume no protection was being given?

Keep forcing it. Silliness and half baked conclusions are all part of your view. Rather than identifying and fixing true problems, you jump off a cliff of partial knowledge.

Or is asking questions beyond reason?

You're suggesting that people under custodial care--and prison health care--should suffer the same adverse consequences as someone in the third world who has no health care.

And I especialy love your argument that we should have no higher environmental standard than the lowest in the world.

Your whole argument is BS, and you've fallen into a trap of your own making.

You haven't been asking questions, you've taken a position. If you want to ask questions, research the issue and come back with facts, not smoke.

If you at least had SOMETHING, you might not have gotten so beat up here.

Very worried about the living conditions of these prisoners. Well there are alot worse conditions than no air condition. I spent 2 years in huntsville, tx. AC would of been nice, but it is not as bad as you make it sound. In the article notice they said that the only ones who died had something wrong with them, like hepititis c, or liver cancer!

I don't. Their custodians are responsible for their health and well-being. Their individual health conditions are known to those who have responsibility for them. Leaving them in conditions in which they may--and do--die indicates a callous disregard for human life.

Yet you are obviously prepared to defend that.

i do not agree with these circumstances, but i also reallize that the mission to save everyone from being wrongfully treated at times is impossible. And i am sorry if you don't like the fact that i do not believe that air condintion is a right. I live without AC and have been for quite awhile now and i live in houston texas where the heat is pretty bad. So because i can't afford to have it, should the state provide it to me?

The point is that those in custodial care who are elderly, infirm or sick should not be subjected to conditions which threaten their health or their very survival.

What's so hard to understand about that?

The buck stops right at YOUR door. If you know that something is not right and you do NOTHING about it, you are complicit in that wrong. If you simply sit by and say, "Oh well, there's a lot of bad things going on, so I will do nothing about this one," then you are complicit.

These people are dying when they otherwise would not die BECAUSE they are living in conditions which do not support life. We are their custodians; we are responsible for their care, and we are responsible for their deaths, if we do not take reasonable care.

This is not the first year that this shit has happened to these prisoners, and it is going to get worse because it is going to get hotter and hotter. Surely that is not okay with you.

DO something. Write a letter. Send an email to your Congressman. Write to the warden. Do SOMETHING. You have no idea what your small action might mean to these helpless prisoners.

but you only care about the former.

With the private jails. They pay the law makers to pass bills that will imprison more people, often with unfair sentences. Empty beds cost them money. Forced work for corporations paying just cents while people can not get a job. They just have not found a way to put us all there yet.
But treating people decently even if you think they do not deserve it is always the right answer. Poor, homeless and mentally ill usually end up in jail it's just a matter of time.

Prison privatization is a blight on this nation--one of many, thanks to repubs--and yes, I do believe if they have their way, all of us will end up in their forced labor camps for some small infraction. And treating us decently will not be in their playbook.

Makes me incredibly sad...

He is trying here in Ohio they know very well it does not save money in fact it ends up costing us more in the end. Greed is a terrible thing. They should be the ones behind bars, stealing our hard earned income.

then, yeah, I think a civilized society should do a little more coddling.

And just for general principle, a roly eye for you.

But could we please find out the facts before we begin screeching and wringing our hands?

Or are you seriously suggesting that the majority of the people in the world are being abused?

Your post makes no sense, but I have a hunch that's a frequent occurrence.

and my grandfather doesn't either... he is 73, what is the number to the inhumane society, so i can call them and get us some air conditioning? That would be Real nice.

And maybe a fan? Can he take a cool shower whenever he gets to feeling the heat?

Windows and cool water are great luxuries when conditions are such that 10 inmates die of heat related causes. Think perhaps windows and a fan might be too much coddling or would that be ok?

Julie

He is not in jail lol, of course he can... im not arguing about this anymore, you can see all my other posts on here and that should answer your questions. If you have been to prison then you would know that the inmates are much more worried about other things alot more dangerous than heat!

But at the very least, we should keep them from dying from the heat.

Get your own fucking grip.

Or do they even matter to one such as yourself?

OP stated nothing about heat protection at facility. Majority of people in the world live without A/C. Frail people are more at risk for heat injury, incarcerated or not.

Hey, the facts have a grip!

But thanks!

"heat indexes outside at least one prison last year surpassed 150 degrees." (from state records)

"autopsy documents detailing agonizing deaths inside sweltering prison cells."

"During a week when outdoor heat indexes exceeded 130 degrees, McCollum suffered a seizure. He was hospitalized with a body temperature of 109 degrees, the lawsuit said, then slipped into a coma and died."

I get that outside temps of 150 aren't relevant, that autopsy reports aren't relevant, and that body temps of 109 aren't relevant. But can you tell us what type of facts you believe would be relevant?

Lots of the world has those things, think maybe prison inmates might be worthy of such luxuries or have I lost my grip too?

Julie--who's never noticed you before but while reading your posts in this thread is thinking "Ayn, is that you??"

.

End of public service announcement.

Never a bad time for a grammar lesson!

Not really a grammar lesson. I was just suggesting that now might be a good place to stop.

but it's inhumane to intentionally house a prisoner in a small, confined room that is essentially a sweatbox. And if you think that providing a more life-sustainable temperature is coddling them, I doubt the genuineness of your concern for other vulnerable people -- like the "poor & the homeless" you mentioned ( ) whose lives could be made better if there were much less Americans who looked at humane treatment or a helping hand as coddling.

'Over the top' is entirely justified in this case. Our community values life, and naturally reacts strongly to expressions of inhumanity.

I think you're good, bro--and you have hordes of us in your corner.

trying to monitor the Anaheim PD situation today (variation on the same theme as this thread), so I'm probably a bit too all-in right now to be conducting rational discourse.

I'm looking forward to our DU delegation getting together again in those actions.

at least in this thread. Not surprised.

Coincidence?

I hope the NRA treats its employees and volunteers well.

it 20 hours a day?

At one point people grew up before penicillin. Would that be an argument today medical care? After all lots of poor and homeless people did from lack of access to medical treatment.

is a key word that I generally associate with conservatives.

It's a loaded term.

The homeless can go somewhere and get in air conditioning, because they have a thing called FREEDOM. They are not locked in cages at night.

This happened last year, too. I was in a bank in Paris, TX, when it was over 100 degrees outside, and I was standing next to a prison guard who happened to mention that the prisoners in the local prison complex were dying because of the heat. When I paid attention and started asking her questions, she got a little scared and shut up.

YES, global warming is causing our states, and our prisons to heat up. And it's killing the most helpless in our population--and yes--those include prisoners.

It's wrong, wrong, wrong. It's not a matter of "coddling" them. It's a matter of cruel and inhumane punishment, and it's against the fucking law.

And, by the way? When you take rights from one group, YOU also lose yours. It brings us ALL down, as a society. Is this okay with you?

During heat waves it is always recommended that the old and infirm are placed in air conditioned environments.

in a state like Texas should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

But, on my first (roughly) 15 days, I spent my time in a barrack which had like three barely-operating AC. I got lucky enough to get an AC right underneath my bed, so while the others sleep, i divert a tiny bit of cooling air to me - I'm used to cool air. Colorado born and bred. The other 50 days had me in a differnet and un AC'ed barrack except for a big fucking fan at the end of the hall, running 24/7 trying to keep the prisoners cool.

Later, on my last 3 weeks before release, I was moved back to my original barracks with a lower bunk after requesting it (after the first day! first two bunks were high - and hated that - I'm not very nimble - a bit chubby)

When someone calls me a bleeding heart liberal I always thank them. Following in the footsteps of the original bleeding heart. Jesus.(sacred heart of jesus paintings) Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethern, you did it to me.

I would imagine Texas prisons are much the same. That's part of the punishment I guess. There should be water available for everyone at all times. Other than that, it pretty much is what it is.

Disgusting?
Inhumane?
Unconstitutional?
All of the above.

But I'm certainly not going to call lack of air conditioning inhumane or cruel.

One does not need air conditioning to survive. One needs water to survive. The reason that people die from heat is dehydration. If 40 men died, 40,000 men suffered under the same conditions. Its is cruel and unusual punishment and some one should be held accountable.
I do hope the US attorney investigates this .

until they take care of the corruption and crimes against humanity in it's own back yard.

And frail prisoners are not put anywhere which might have fans or additional ventilation.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting that everyone needs air conditioned comfort, but access to adequate air flow and plenty of cold fresh water are just humane. WWJD and all that.

Forgive them and let them out of that shit-hole.

Repukes however only like to pick and choose their verses. They use the NSC (New Swiss Cheese) version of the bible. It has 4 pages; 3 of which are illustrated pictures to keep their attention.

Needs are placed in the medical unit which does have a/c....

in an air conditioned medical unit.

And where did all these defenders of the Texas Prison System come from?

Phoenix gets hotter than Houston. (But it's a dry heat) (sarcasm)

And many incarcerated there are just awaiting trial, and haven't been convicted of anything. But, like you said, "it's a dry heat." So no BFD.

FCI Texarkana, Texarkana, TX

Fortunately I went from September to December - the cooler months. But it was still hot enough to sleep on my shorts. Finally switched from shorts to sweatpants around late October.

I was released on Xmas Day.

But the paper mill near the prison was always wafting our way - and they STINK.

I'm not sure if I stayed long enough to call myself a Texan.

I'm a Coloradan, through and through. The judge decided not to send me to the FCI nearby (20 miles from here) but sent me out of state.

Ugh.

...and that must have been a Merry Christmas!

of small amounts of pot.

yeah, his death toll goes up and you can bet he loves it, he loves it deeply in his heart!

for all inmates in our correctional system!!
btw, I watch those jail/prison shows on TV, I think the torture is all the f'in floresent lights. They should have a softer glow, might help to keep inmated from going insane.

is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people."--Helen Keller

When you treat men badly, they will react - when you treat prisoners badly, they will react - how much mistreatment will they take before they react and cause harm to themselves, the guards and others who work in the prison? We should care about how people are treated whether they are "inside" a prison, or on the "outside" - it is the only right thing to do.

Doesn't work well, does it? Because families of those inmates need to find lawyers.

...you're absolutely right and directly on point.

in the mid section of Alabama, and my schools didn't have air conditioning until 5th grade, but people need to realize its a different situation.

I had plenty of access to water and hydration salts if needed. I had access to air conditioning if I started to get weak. The ceilings were built with exhaust fans, I had a rotating fan, and the windows were open. If it was too hot I'd sleep outside. My guess is that TX prisons have none of these.

It's not about air conditioning, it's about humane conditions.

reading the comments here and on the main story, I also can't help but notice the massive amount of crab mentality going on.

I mean yes there is a lot of ignorance. Like the difference between someone who at least has the freedom to leave for someplace cooler as opposed to someone who has to stay all day in a cell 24/7 until someone lets them out.

And there's the logical fallacies. Like how someone else in the world not having air conditioning doesn't mean inmates aren't dying from the heat.

And there's the rush to judgment. Sure some of those inmates are violent murderers and rapists. Others are small time thieves, non violence drug offenders and some are there because they got rail roaded into jail (It's the height of ignorance to assume every person in a Texas prison is there because they deserve to be. Google Tulia Texas and a Texas defense lawyer named Ronald G Mock). I guess I could ask which of these groups deserve to be baked alive. But that would be silly. The heat doesn't care what you've done or if you deserve to die before it starts to kill you.

But all the arguments seem to (pardon the pun) boil down to is that since group A is having problems and needs help then group B which is also having problems and needs help should basically be left on their.

I'm screwed so you should be too, is the sentiment.

Thus the plight of group A becomes the excuse to ignore the plight of group B. So no one gets any help.

And then these same people wonder why nothing gets better.

We Americans have a horribly punitive streak in us that leads us to believe that it isn't enough to separate a convicted criminal from his loved ones, from his possessions, from his friends, from everything he holds dear, from his dreams and aspirations, from almost every last vestige of his humanity, often for a period of many years. No, that isn't enough for us. On top of all of that, we also seem to find it necessary to place our collective foot on his head and grind his face into the dirt.

We tell ourselves things like, "Prison isn't supposed to be a picnic," and then proceed to turn a blind eye to the systematic destruction of human souls that occurs within prison walls. We convince ourselves that if only we punish convicts brutally enough, that brutality will somehow serve as a deterrent to others, or, failing that, will at least give the convict "what he deserves." And as we tell ourselves these things, the image of convict we conjure in our minds is an amalgam of all the very worst violent criminals we can remember having heard about -- some hybrid of, say, a Manson or a Bundy or a Dahmer -- meanwhile completely ignoring the fact that the largest number of incarcerated persons are nonviolent offenders. And many of our prisoners wind up spending weeks, months or even years of their confinement in inhumanly cruel solitary confinement, sometimes for things as trivial as infractions of minor prison rules. But we shield our eyes from those realities, and instead take comfort in the thought that the last violent criminal to make sensational headlines is suffering.

Yet our long-cherished notions about the effects of our brutal punishment never seem to pan out. Excessive, brutal punishment does not deter crime. (Indeed, do we really think most extremely violent offenders undertake a rational, carefully considered cost-benefit analysis before committing their crimes?)

Years ago I had an uncle (by marriage) who was a prison guard in Pennsylvania. He had a Bachelor's in secondary education (history, I believe), so in addition to functioning as a guard, he also often taught classes. I remember back in the early '80s, when every elected politician was all about "getting tough on crime," and there was a lot of talk around the country about eliminating various "luxuries" from prisons. One of the "luxuries" that got a lot of focus was the availability of weights/exercise equipment in many prisons. (Televisions and libraries were also targeted.) People didn't like the fact that prisoners were bulking up while on the inside. My uncle, however, based on his long experience as a guard, took a different view. He pointed out that one of the biggest problems in managing prison populations, of keeping both guards and prisoners safe, was the long hours of boredom and idleness. He said the last thing he wanted to deal with, as a guard, was several thousand inmates -- many of them potentially very dangerous -- who had too much time on their hands with nothing to do and with few physical outlets. Working out, in my uncle's experience, served as a relief valve for prisoners, and thus made it easier for them to deal with the stresses of prison life.

So we convict people of crimes (not always correctly), and we then put them into the worst possible hellhole we can create for them. If they weren't animals when they arrived, many of them will be by the time they leave. They have to become as bad as the worst they encounter, merely to survive. And then when they finally get out, we offer next to no real support to them for reintegrating into society. In fact, we make it almost impossible for many of them. And then we scratch our heads when these folks return to a life of crime in order to survive. We have earnest discussions about "recidivism" and about the root causes of crime.

There are other countries that seem to do a better job in all of this. But we're too busy being "exceptional" to be bothered learning from anyone else.

Good ole Southern Christian Boys, get a boner just thinking about being able to boss an operation like that.(makes them look good to their Good ole Southern Christian base too.)