What was it like being locked up during a heatwave?
Short answer,
horrible. But one of the most beautiful things that I’ve seen in prison
happened on the most hottest day that I was there.
I was in a level 4 maximum level security prison
and there was no AC.
What that meant is the cell houses were like hot boxes full of people
and the only thing you had was a small fan
that you could buy on commissary.
The administration was actually worried
about somebody losing their life,
and they were not trying to install AC to solve the problem,
but they seen a lawsuit possibly coming if somebody died.
The prison that I was at
have fire hydrants located throughout the prison.
So what the administration did was
they had the fire department come out and open up the fire hydrants.
Then they released each unit a few hours during the course of the day
to go play in the fire hydrant.
This is a maximum level security prison
where everybody there has 45 years or more hardened criminals.
On this specific day, I’m working in the Education Department.
So the day ends
and they release the Education Department to go back to their units.
And when I got outside,
I seen a group of grown men playing in the fire hydrant
like they were kids.
It was something very beautiful about seeing this group of guys
in a maximum level security prison
having fun with their Friends and the fire hydrant
like they were kids. That’s a prison image I will never forget.