Death row inmates sue Angola Prison over 'extreme' temperatures
Inmates sell their wares behind a chainlink fence at the Angola Prison Rodeo on April 20, 2013. (Photo by Chelsea Brasted, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Three inmates on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary have filed suit in Baton Rouge federal court against jail officials for what they call "appalling and extreme conditions ... as a result of extreme heat" in the facilities. The lawsuit requests that corrections officials work with the warden and jail staff to mitigate "extreme and unsafe" temperatures and humidity in the Death Row facility at the penitentiary, which is more commonly known as Angola Prison.
The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of the inmates by the Promise of Justice Initiative, says the conditions prisoners suffer each summer violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eight Amendment.
The defendants are Department of Public Safety and Corrections and specifically its Secretary James LeBlanc, Angola Prison Warden Burl Cain and Death Row Warden Angela Norwood. The plaintiffs are Death Row inmates Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee.
According to the lawsuit documents, the heat index -- or how hot "it feels" -- on Death Row reached 195 degrees Fahrenheit on more than one occasion in the summer of 2011. Last summer, the index was above 126 degrees on 85 days between May and August, the suit said.
The Advocacy Center, a non-profit organization offering free legal advice, obtained the heat index information through a public records request after being alerted to the temperature concerns by inmates about two years ago. Additional information was added by inmate and visitor anecdotes.
The lawsuit states Angola's new Death Row facility was constructed in 2008 and outfitted with duct work throughout to provide climate control. However, while visitation rooms, guard towers and offices are air-conditioned, the "tiers" occupied by inmates are only outfitted with fans that "merely blow hot air into Plaintiffs' cells," the suit said.
"During the summer, the bars of the cells are hot to the touch and the cinder block walls release additional heat," according to the suit. Inmates choose to sleep on the concrete "because the floor is slightly cooler than their beds."
Additionally, clean drinking water is "contaminated with debris" and water from the showers "is scalding hot," sometimes exceeding 115 degrees during the summer months, the suit said.
All three inmates suffer from hypertension. Ball, 60, is a diabetic; Code, 57 has hepatitis; and Magee, 35, is treated medically for depression. Because of these ailments, all three are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit said.
Mercedes Montagnes, Promise of Justice Initiative's deputy director, said the suit was filed after Cain was sent a letter by the group in April 2012 requesting the temperature concerns be addressed.
"They simply said they were monitoring the situation" and that the heat levels were "acceptable," Montagnes said Monday.
She said the suit calls for the concerns to be mitigated by guaranteeing a heat index not to exceed 88 degrees, providing clean, uncontaminated ice and drinking water at regular intervals in the summer and providing shower water of a temperature that can supply relief from the heat.
Pam LaBorde, communications director for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, declined comment on the lawsuit Monday: "It's pending litigation so the Department will respond appropriately to the court."
All three men are on Death Row at Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the country, on murder charges. Of the more than 5,000 inmates housed at the prison, less than 2 percent, or around 80 inmates, are on Death Row.
Code was convicted of killing eight people, including three minors, in the mid-1980s in Shreveport. Ball killed a beer delivery man during the course of carrying out a robbery in 1996 in Jefferson Parish. And Magee was convicted in 2007 of the shooting deaths of his wife, Adrienne, and his 5-year-old son, Zach, near Mandeville, as well as the attempted murder of his two daughters.
"We don't expect prisons to be comfortable, but anyone who looked at these numbers or heard about the conditions would find them shocking, beyond what's conscionable," Nilay Vora, Associate at the Los Angeles-based firm Bird Marella, said in a Monday press release.
Angola is on 18,000 acres of farmland located around 60 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. It houses 5,149 prisoners and is the state's only maximum security prison. The prison is most commonly known for its controversial biannual prison rodeo.
The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of the inmates by the Promise of Justice Initiative, says the conditions prisoners suffer each summer violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eight Amendment.
The defendants are Department of Public Safety and Corrections and specifically its Secretary James LeBlanc, Angola Prison Warden Burl Cain and Death Row Warden Angela Norwood. The plaintiffs are Death Row inmates Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee.
According to the lawsuit documents, the heat index -- or how hot "it feels" -- on Death Row reached 195 degrees Fahrenheit on more than one occasion in the summer of 2011. Last summer, the index was above 126 degrees on 85 days between May and August, the suit said.
The Advocacy Center, a non-profit organization offering free legal advice, obtained the heat index information through a public records request after being alerted to the temperature concerns by inmates about two years ago. Additional information was added by inmate and visitor anecdotes.
The lawsuit states Angola's new Death Row facility was constructed in 2008 and outfitted with duct work throughout to provide climate control. However, while visitation rooms, guard towers and offices are air-conditioned, the "tiers" occupied by inmates are only outfitted with fans that "merely blow hot air into Plaintiffs' cells," the suit said.
"During the summer, the bars of the cells are hot to the touch and the cinder block walls release additional heat," according to the suit. Inmates choose to sleep on the concrete "because the floor is slightly cooler than their beds."
Additionally, clean drinking water is "contaminated with debris" and water from the showers "is scalding hot," sometimes exceeding 115 degrees during the summer months, the suit said.
All three inmates suffer from hypertension. Ball, 60, is a diabetic; Code, 57 has hepatitis; and Magee, 35, is treated medically for depression. Because of these ailments, all three are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit said.
Mercedes Montagnes, Promise of Justice Initiative's deputy director, said the suit was filed after Cain was sent a letter by the group in April 2012 requesting the temperature concerns be addressed.
"They simply said they were monitoring the situation" and that the heat levels were "acceptable," Montagnes said Monday.
She said the suit calls for the concerns to be mitigated by guaranteeing a heat index not to exceed 88 degrees, providing clean, uncontaminated ice and drinking water at regular intervals in the summer and providing shower water of a temperature that can supply relief from the heat.
Pam LaBorde, communications director for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, declined comment on the lawsuit Monday: "It's pending litigation so the Department will respond appropriately to the court."
All three men are on Death Row at Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the country, on murder charges. Of the more than 5,000 inmates housed at the prison, less than 2 percent, or around 80 inmates, are on Death Row.
Code was convicted of killing eight people, including three minors, in the mid-1980s in Shreveport. Ball killed a beer delivery man during the course of carrying out a robbery in 1996 in Jefferson Parish. And Magee was convicted in 2007 of the shooting deaths of his wife, Adrienne, and his 5-year-old son, Zach, near Mandeville, as well as the attempted murder of his two daughters.
"We don't expect prisons to be comfortable, but anyone who looked at these numbers or heard about the conditions would find them shocking, beyond what's conscionable," Nilay Vora, Associate at the Los Angeles-based firm Bird Marella, said in a Monday press release.
Angola is on 18,000 acres of farmland located around 60 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. It houses 5,149 prisoners and is the state's only maximum security prison. The prison is most commonly known for its controversial biannual prison rodeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment