Last year (2023) was unbearable, inhumane, and torturous living in a prison dorm in Arizona with record breaking heat and a swamp cooler. This year is expected to be much worse.
I know there’s still a war on anyone who would seek to make prisons in Arizona more humane, that we live in a desert, and incident after incident, and death after death, proved the Department’s attitude that it doesn’t care about the safety, health, and well-being of inmates. In addition, they have a history of ensuring that punishment is deliverately uncomfortable and inhumane. However, to my shock and experience, seeing them install misters, drinking fountains, providing ice cold drinking water, adding new air-conditioning units in admin, so visitors are not suffering, and making the dorms more liveable and cooler is unprecedented and shocking. Even though no inmate here has gotten free ice for personal use that the Director ordered is still unbelievable.
In 1990, I was incarcerated at Perryville when it was a men’s facility during the famous 122 degree record-breaking temperature. But, what you don’t know is we had ice machines in every buildinghousing unit, cell block, and dorm throughout the State that inmates could fill their Igloo ice chests or hotel bucket from. The ice machines were paid for and upkeep by profits from the inmate store and phone calls. We had grass and shade trees, inmate stores had merchandise (like grocery stores or convenience markets do) in every unit that we could buy cold sodas from on a daily basis and had 50 different kinds of ice cream, from fudgesicles to half gallons. And, we were allowed to carry quarters and dockets (money), we could get sodas from the vending machines when traveling from unit to unit. Sodas were $0.25 and inmate wages were $0.20 to $0.50 an hour. Today, sodas are $1.37 and wages are still $0.25 to $0.50 an hour.
The yards used to be opened till 11:00pm and 12:00 am on weekends, yet some buildings had air-conditioning that we could go into. Even though our housing units had 4x8in. vents for the swamp cooler air to flow from, we had fans up to 3 feet by 3 feet that we were allowed to be sent in or purchased. Also, you could change the temperature of the water when taking a shower (cold).
Around 1994, we weren’t allowed to carry money on us anymore, and couldn’t travel from unit to unit, couldn’t use the vending machines, and had to do our shopping once a week. In 1997, they removed hundreds of ice machines and buried them in the desert. In 2003, in Florence, and at other facilities, they rip up all the grass and removed all trees, and took away all personal fans and typewriters.
Here, at CACRF, working in the hot kitchen earning $0.45 an hour, then returning back to the dorm and opening the door felt like opening a pizza oven. But nothing was worse than 2023, dealing with the heat and coming off COVID restrictions. So, this year is supposed to be worse, but CACRF is doing something. Rattlesnake, a famous mountain man said, “There ain’t no cloud so thick that the sun ain’t shining on the other side.” So, if you see a homeless person, get them shade, cold water, and maybe an ice cream or a bag of ice!
Sweating, James Carlson #073536
Mr. James R. Carlson #073536
Central Arizona Correctional Facility
PO Box 9600 - PMB #173
Florence, AZ 85132
James, I’ve read your blogs and really like what you wrote about. Keep up the good work, and I’ll keep checking on them. I’ve tried to fix the email issue, without success. Writing is very healing for some people, and I believe that may be true for you, so keep it up! Janet
You should consider your life as one that is extremely fortunate to be existing…