A Crime of Vast and Undocumented Proportion

Please read the attached guest blog by our friends at Improve Texas

Monday, August 8, 2011

A Crime of Vast and Undocumented Proportion

Imagine a serial murderer that over a lifetime has perhaps hundreds of murder victims; one that every year causes the extreme suffering of thousands of victims…

Imagine a society that doesn’t care…

You’d probably think what 3^rd world country could that possibly be in, right?

You’d probably think what government would allow that to go unchecked?

You’d probably think surely the media would call attention to such a monstrous thing?

The answers would be the United States of America, Texas, and no the media is not calling attention to this…

Most of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison systems have no air conditioning for prisoners, and now in the famous Texas summer heat especially with global warming and the verified increase in the frequency of deadly heat waves the increased information sharing ability the Internet has brought us brings to light this massive crime going on in Texas.

It’s impossible to say the full extent of this problem, but this year (2011) alone it could be estimated more than 10 people have died from easily preventable heat related causes. There could be as many as 100+ dead people this year. With outside temperatures peaking at 110 degrees give or take 10 degrees, inside prisons often with no ventilation or open windows frequently climb another 20+ degrees. Temps of 132-145 degrees have been reported. At one unit it is reported paramedics told the prison officials to open the windows and a Fire Marshall said it is too hot for humans, but still they didn’t open the windows…

One could go on and on to describe the agony of over 100,000 human beings each year living in 100+ degree environments with one or two if they are lucky 8oz glasses of water per day. Please educate yourself and call attention to this hidden travesty. One that is unconstitutional, illegal, and immoral. A crime that if it were done to dogs would be immediately dealt with severely yet every year over one hundred thousand humans experience it right here in the USA, far outstripping any abuses at Guantanamo Bay.

Imagine a member of your family, perhaps even the black sheep of the family, or a loved spouse or your very own child dying, how would you feel? The Supreme Court has ruled; it is not in question, the State must provide prisoners with humane living conditions that the prisoners cannot provide for themselves because their freedom has been restricted. Torture and death are not what Judges sentenced them to, and we ask that you don’t sentence them to this either…

Imagine hundreds and hundreds of human beings laying on concrete seeking relief in wet clothes in pure agony barely able to breathe. Imagine your 70 and 80 year old grandparents doing this. Imagine your father and mother going through this; imagine your own children going through this.. Even outside the walls imagine the daily worry of family, even the little children who each year wonder if this year will be the year they will become an orphan. Imagine the weak and infirm, the countless with medical problems suffering without break. Imagine all this and you'd still have only a fraction of the reality...

Please speak out publicly as well as make your opinions on this known to your legislators and media representatives. Please observe a moment if not a day of memorial every August 10 for one of the greatest crimes in American history...