[edbob]

> The inmates are not viewed as humans by the people responsible, enabling horrible conditions.

This was not my experience as an inmate in Texas. Actually, we are referred to as "offenders" [0] because the terms "inmate" and "convict" are considered offensive. Staff can get in trouble for using a pejorative word like "inmate". (Not that they never do because quite honestly I don't know anyone that actually finds the word offensive, but it's still not a word you want to say in front of the warden or higher administrators).

The truth is that staff and administrators are human and have diverse viewpoints. Some don't care about the inmates, but some really want to make a difference in the world. The staff are racially diverse, so you get, for example, a black officer that is very tough on black gangs because he thinks they make black people look bad, but then you have black staff that are particularly sympathetic to black offenders. You can't stereotype the staff—they're just too different.

They're also paranoid about legal liability, so they are pretty careful about avoiding things that could potentially expose them to a lawsuit. It's just like any other large bureaucracy.

> in the meantime, you would revert to pen and paper accounting to ensure the correct release of each prisoner.

Per the article, they are in fact manually computing each prisoner's projected release date:

> In the meantime, Lamoreaux confirmed the “data is being calculated manually and then entered into the system.” Department sources said this means “someone is sitting there crunching numbers with a calculator and interpreting how each of the new laws that have been passed would impact an inmate.”

[0] https://live.staticflickr.com/2048/2235184432_47cfa473bb_b.j...

[distribot]

> This was not my experience as an inmate in Texas.

Where did you do your time? Because 70% of Texas inmates are housed in facilities without A/C. Concrete structures that get up to 105 degrees. Inmate accounts of this are truly horrific.

The state spent 7 million fighting against having to fix this, potentially (according to plaintiffs) more than the cost of fixing it. So the state is so dedicated to horrible conditions that they spent more money to fight than it would have cost to fix them. Litigation has been going on for years, and the state authorities are still dragging their feet.

This is just one example of the way the carceral system dehumanizes people. I'm sure youre familiar with Nutraloaf.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07/26/texas-prison-heat-ai...

[edbob]

The lack of A/C really sucks, and it's worse in the dorms which are steel buildings rather than concrete. I actually stayed in the top level of the dorms on the corner of the building that got hit hardest by the sun. It was hard.

I call bullshit on the cost of installing and maintaining A/C in 100-ish large prisons being under 7 million. Back of the envelope, but the cost of crane rental alone could be millions. How much to remove (and later replace) the fencing to move the trucks and cranes in, and how much in overtime to make all this happen and provide security? We could be over 7 million before we even get to the thousands of A/C units, which will predictably fail and have to be replaced, with cranes, every 20-30 years. TDCJ maintenance is pretty good at keeping things running on a budget, but no heavy equipment other than boilers can be expected to last more than 30 years at the very most.

Edit: Another article [0] made it clear that the $7 million figure was only for the lawsuit over a single prison, while the cost of installing A/C in that one prison was estimated at $4 million, with no word on if it went over budget. This is true, but it's clear that the lawsuit would be used as precedent for requiring A/C in other units, so it would be more accurate to compare that one lawsuit's $7 million cost to the much greater figure of $500-1,000 million for the prison system as a whole. The Pack Unit is on the small side, and there are about 120 prisons in TDCJ, so I actually think the $1 billion figure seems reasonable. Note that this is just the cost of installation, and is not a one-time cost but will be repeated every 20-30 years, regardless of how much prices may rise. I would like to see A/C installed throughout, but it's important to account for the true costs.

As hard as the heat was, I didn't feel dehumanized by it. First, the system does identify people who are actually at risk and houses them in cooler areas. I wasn't at risk, so it was merely very uncomfortable. I'm tough enough to handle a high degree of physical discomfort. Second, I felt like many of the staff would have liked to have A/C everywhere, and that the lack of it was due to decisions made long ago which will take a decade or more to change, as I don't think TDCJ is realistically capable of installing cooling systems in just a few years. Their efforts in court have seemed to me to be panicked efforts to get out of a task that they know they aren't able to perform, not about intentionally wanting people to suffer or viewing them as less than human. I will note that TDCJ made, and is continuing to make, radical changes to improve the cooling of the buildings. They have replaced plexiglass with steel mesh to allow airflow, issued personal fans to indigents and provided many, many fans for the housing areas. They installed swamp coolers in some prisons, but those aren't practical everywhere due to mold and corrosion.

I can definitely see where people would have different opinions, but this was my experience. The important dehumanizing factors to me were the futility and pointlessness of wasting time there, along with the toxic culture and attitudes of some of the inmates. Heat would not make a top 5 list of dehumanizing factors.

> I'm sure youre familiar with Nutraloaf.

We call it foodloaf. The breakfast one can actually be really good, but the lunch and dinner ones can be gross. The problem is that you have people who constantly assault the guards, throw feces on them, etc., and the loaf delivered in a brown bag is the only meal that can be delivered with minimal risk to the staff. Open the slot, toss in the bag, close the slot as quickly as possible. Less than a second window to be attacked. Do you have a better solution that doesn't compromise safety?

I never felt like having short-term consequences for my actions was dehumanizing. If I don't want to eat foodloaf, I don't jack off on the nurses or attack the guards. If I do attack the guards, I can still change my ways and just not attack them for 30 days (probably less in reality) to get normal food again. In that case, I actually feel like I'm being treated like a responsible adult. If I could behave like an animal without any real consequences, that would be dehumanizing to me. Not to mention how dehumanizing it would be to have to live with a bunch of people who can freely act like animals.

[0] https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/21/texas-prisons-air-co...

[nybble41]

> Actually, we are referred to as "offenders" because the terms "inmate" and "convict" are considered offensive.

Odd. I would think "offender" would be much more offensive than either "convict" or "inmate". The "convict" label may be in dispute in some cases, e.g. pre-trial or with a case undergoing appeal, but it's hard to argue with the fact that someone is (rightly or wrongly) an inmate of a prison. To me, of the three, "offender" sounds the most like a pejorative personal judgement rather than a neutral summation of undisputed facts.

[serial_dev]

It's tragic that the wrong noun is offensive and staff is taught to use the "right" terms, but being not being released on time... Well, sorry, the software says you stay, you stay, even if everyone realised it's a software "bug" (or outdated software).