Texas Pizzeria

Texas Pizzeria

There's something very special about a pizza cooked inside of a brick or stone oven using a wood fire. Evenly cooked from dough to topping. The fluff of the crust. The fantastic preservation and independence of each flavor. The enchanting aroma stored within the mind's database of pleasurable senses. As you can see, I have a passion for pizza, but I never imagined that I would be one. Experiencing heightened degrees temperature within a stone oven does not sound very pleasant nor beneficial to my health. Little did I expect that my beloved pizza would finally have its revenge as I was sentenced to a life of a similar fate within a Texas prison: The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).

I use this analogy of the brick oven pizza not as hyperbole, but as an effective depiction of a summer within a Texas prison and because, well, I sincerely miss pizza. The vast majority of Texas prison cells are made of concrete/stone and shared by two occupants, while most dormitories are typically made of metal which can house anywhere from 45-125 people. My cell has an area of 11.25'x7.5', is 8' tall, entirely composed of concrete with metal furniture. Each cell has an outside facing wall, some with two, which soak up heat and the suns rays and will retain thermal energy very effectively. Just ask our pizza. Our cell temperatures have been recorded temperatures of 120°F (48.9°C) and up.

Surely when the state of Texas designed these prisons they could not have possibly known about stone’s ability to retain and radiate heat at such high efficiency. Such scientific data could not have been available in the 1990’s when my facility was constructed. Despite Texas‘ „tough-on-crime“ stance they certainly did not want us to suffer nor could they have predicted any such mortality rates due to temperatures in excess of 100°F for months on end. Unfortunately this design flaw is no flaw at all. This was deliberate.

A former senator and chairperson of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ), John Whitmire, commented on the installation of air-conditioning within Texas prisons and stated: One, we don’t want to. Number two, we couldn’t afford it if we wanted to.

Currently, the prison population in Texas hovers around 130,000 people +/- and there are over 100,000 beds that do not provide A/C within the 70 units that are not fully air-conditioned. Prisoners have had to force TDCJ to install A/C by filing lawsuits like one filed in 2016 at the Wallace Pack unit which succeeded. See, Cole v. Collier, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112095. Texas spent years fighting this, lost and was forced to install air-conditioning at the Pack unit. In addition, Texas had to pay $4.5 million in attorney fees. Installing the A/C at that unit would’ve been cheaper than contesting the suit, but this is an ideology we are up against. Apparently money knows no bounds.

I am the General Secretary of the National Lawyers Guild – Prison Chapter (NLG-PC) and we have initiated a series of lawsuits challenging the multitude of cruel and inhumane conditions within Texas prisons. One of these suits, Baker v. Collier 1:22-cv-01249, specifically challenges the conditions of excessive heat and the lack of air-conditioning within all prisons in Texas. Not just one facility like the Wallace Pack unit.

In our lawsuit, Texas filed Motion to Dismiss. In document 21, page 19, they state: „It is worth noting that the trial court in Yates [a different case] found the techniques inadequate as applied in practice after receiving evidence on conditions at the Wallace Pack Unit and no other Texas prisons.“

What this is saying is that unconstitutional heat conditions and the ineffective her mitigation techniques only effect Pack unit and no other Texas prisons. This is laughable because heat conditions are universal in Texas and ALL of Texas is hot! See exhibit A: Summer of 2023.

TDCJ only provides „mitigation“ in the form of ice water, a cold shower, or access to respite areas that have A/C. We’re only given ice 3 times a day to share amongst 48 people where I live. Guards do not let us go to respite areas and retaliate against us when we ask. If you do get to go, they strip you naked and place you inside of a small cage with no access to water or toilet. Due to excessive staffing shortages we are confined to our cells all day during the summer without access cold water, cold showers or respite, and we don’t see a single guard for hours at a time. If someone is dying within their cell, they are doomed. No one can help us.

So how do we deal with the heat? The toilet water is much cooler than the water that comes from the faucet so… If you want cold drinking water, you drink from the toilet. We also flood our cells with toilet water, turn on our little 10-12“ fan, and lay in our makeshift pool. We also soak our clothing in toilet water and put them back to stay cool. This however, is very problematic for me. I have tinea versicolor, a skin condition, and moisture combined with heat makes my skin break out, and it is difficult to get rid off once I have it.

Sometimes we will soak our sheets or blankets with toilet water, place it in inside the windows in our cell and attempt to make what they call a "swamp cooler". The theory is that the warm air passing through the wet sheet/blanket will cool down when it makes contact with the water and cool down the cell. In practice this has just made my cell very humid, so not a good idea.

In the summer of 202 I experienced heat exhaustion. My cell was on the 3rd floor, facing the sun and it was 108°F outside that day, and we were locked in our cells. I was on the verge of passing out and another prisoner flagged down a Sergeant named Norton. I needed to go to medical, but I couldn't walk ,so he got mad and left me there. Luckily someone got in contact with the Major who sent a different Sergeant to escort me to medical. Norton was reprimanded for leaving me in the cell so while I was at medical he wrote me 4 disciplinary cases, one of which was for "creating a disturbance" (which were later dismissed). When I came back to me cell, it was demolished. All of my belongings were thrown into a pile on the floor and some of my property was damaged including my radio, books and pictures. Norton had done this.

Being placed back into the same hot cell that caused my symptoms, coupled with the mental stress was very unbearable. At night, you cannot sleep because it is too hot. It still feels like 100°F+ at 2am. I have not sought respite or medical attention for the heat since being retaliated against. This is a very common tactic utilized by guards a deterrent because of the extra work involved.

There have been numerous occasions where our water pipes have burst and the water is shut off for days. We never receive bottled water during these times nor can we use the bathroom. Sometime in 2014 or 2015 before I came to prison the pipes burst at my unit, the French Robertson unit. They were without water for around 10 days. Guards managed to fill up water coolers and through them into housing areas where gangs took control of the water and sold it. The local news was notified, and the warden claimed that they were being given bottled water and port-a-potty’s (like bathrooms on construction sites) but that was untrue. Thus far no investigation has ever been conducted to identity who provided enough port-a-potty’s for 3,000 prisoners.

Summer during COVID was a nightmare. Guards would only let half of the cells out into the common areas at a time while the other half was forced to remain inside our hot cells during peak temperatures. Guards used this as a punishment and called it „policy“.

During the summer of 2019 a prisoner at my unit (Robertson) died of heat exhaustion, named Seth Donnelly. I didn’t know him but from what I learned, he worked outside and would help train the dogs track prisoners. He was overworked and experiencing heat exhaustion but was denied water and respite by the guards and died as a result.

In the summer of 2022 at my unit one of the prison guard's drug dogs died from heat exhaustion while here at the unit. The dog's handler, a prison guard, neglected this dog while we were experiencing a heat wave. This is of course very tragic.

Winter is very harsh as well. In February 2021 Texas experienced a polar vortex that shut down a lot of the infrastructure in Texas and froze our water pipes. Texas had at least a weeks notice of this polar vortex and neglected to prep its prisons. My prison was without water for about a week. Multiple organizations donated water to our unit for us, but we only received 2 bottles of water the entire time. Guards were without water at their homes and were likely stealing the water that was meant for us.

Prisoners filled up 55 gallon drums with shoveled snow from the outside grass, recreation yard and parking lot. They melted the snow, filled up our water coolers and gave it to us to drink. Guards posted a „boil water“ notice but did not provide us any means to boil the water. A spit in the face. The water contained dirt, was cloudy and had a Polly film on top. This was all we had to drink, so we had no choice. Wouldn’t snow from a car parking lot maybe contain motor oil? So maybe that’s what Mobil 1 tastes like…

To top it off we were completely without heat. To give you an idea of how cold my cell was, I placed a bottle of water next to the outside wall overnight and the next day it was frozen. One prisoner filed a complaint about the heat not working a couple weeks prior to the polar vortex, but maintenance refused to fix it. Surprisingly one of the guards involved was fired as a result, but the heat still does not work as of today.

I don’t recommend that you do this, but imagine your home having no insulation or air-conditioning. You’re trapped within your home all summer while it’s 100°-105°F on average. All you have is ice 3 times a day and a cold shower and most of your meals are hot. Then open your windows in your living room (our windows in the common areas remain open all summer). This is the equivalent of our pizza oven.

Air-conditioning in Texas prisons has been a long and hot debate, no pun intended. It’s a crime in Texas to leave a child or a pet inside of a vehicle during the summer due to the deadly heat. It’s also mandated by law that Texas jails provide A/C within their facilities for their inmates. But once you’re convicted of a crime, your life is no longer of importance, and you are left to the fate of Mother Nature.

Guards complain of the heat as well. I’ve witnessed four guards just this year get carried off on a stretcher due to heat exhaustion. The attrition rate is also very high due to excessive heat. What this says to me is that Texas is willing to allow prisoners to suffer at the expense of employee safety and retention.

TDCJ has not classified a death as „heat related“ in more than a decade. This is blatantly deceptive and shows the institutions unwillingness to admit that excessive heat is an issue. Prisoners are no doubt a vulnerable population in America which means our risk of heat exhaustion is much higher than normal. Texas is fighting desperately to avoid the financial burden of keeping us safe but as the temperature rises, our chances of success rise with it.