Every year during the winter, we have occurrences where the heat may go out. It may be out for several days or maybe come and go until they get it fixed. This breakdown in the steam system is to be somewhat expected. We use a thirty year old system and it serves an entire prison. How it’s managed in each building is beyond me, as I’m not in the business of knowing. That’s not a trade I’m interested in or a skill I have. Kudos to those who can out smart this HVAC system. All I know is that my cell is freezing and the water isn’t warm and it may be awhile until that changes. In years past, because it does happen every year, I learned to use the right body cleansing products to turn a five minute shower into a much shorter one, bundle up before bed, and keep some cough drops on hand for the inevitable. So why is this worth mentioning now?

With the response to Covid symptoms (or anything that remotely looks like a Covid symptom) being dealt with in such an absolute way, illness induced from a lack of heat might just mean being quarantined in spaces that have actually Covid ill people. The lack of heat might just mean a death sentence for the wrong person. More over, the prison maintenance folks know how to fix the heat, so it just seems irresponsible to allow it to linger for days at a time. With so many in close proximity, what was in years past a simple nuisance, might just be the deal breaker for the wrong immune system. It may seem like a situation you might just say “Suck it up” over, but when you watch the perceived punishment that comes with illness these days in here, man… just fix the heater….

by Rory Andes

Covid changes everything about prisons…

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Rory Andes 367649
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