When the Punishment of Prison Itself is Not Enough

 I had an interesting discussion recently with a prison staff member about the views of the general public on prisoners and on how prisons operate. 

The discussion started around the fact that air conditioning is difficult to find in prison. It exists in very select places, like counselors' offices, medical areas, control centers, in a few select school building rooms, and some of the hospice units where terminally ill elderly prisoners go to die. 

From a prisoner's perspective, of course it would be nice to have air conditioning in the hottest parts of the year. It can be nearly unbearably hot in the housing units, and especially in the chow hall, when temperatures hit the 90s and 100s. It'd also be nice to still have heat on when the temperatures drop into the 30s like it has several nights over the last few weeks. Yet, the heat has been turned off in the housing units for several weeks now. 

I get it. We're prisoners, and comfort isn't supposed to be something you think of when you think of prisons. Frankly, I don't want prison to be comfortable either. I mean, within reason yeah, but I want to remember how much I hated it. (How could I forget?!)

This staff member I spoke to shared that the general public mostly feels that prisoners don't deserve A/C or the comfort of reasonable heat (or even basic medical care, nutritious food, and basic dignity). This reflects the general belief that prison itself is not punishment enough. Our suffering must be multiplied through deprivation of what most people consider "necessities" in life (temperature modulation, medical treatment, and reasonable nutrition among them). 

However, as the staff member pointed out, the public often forgets that people have to work in prison, too. Should the officers, who are required to wear hot uniforms, suffer too? Should other staff members be deprived of a comfort they could easily obtain in other employment? As difficult as it has been for the State of Michigan to hire and retain corrections officers, one would think their comfort on the job should matter. 

Installing and paying for air conditioning in prisons would be expensive. That's true. In a place like Michigan where we might only have 30 days of unbearable heat out of the year, it might not make financial sense to put air conditioning in already notoriously energy inefficient buildings. 

But not installing air conditioning in Michigan prisons because of the unreasonable costs associated with it is far different than dismissing it as unnecessary because prisoners "don't deserve it." Elderly prisoners and those with heat related illnesses (all prisoners for that matter!) don't deserve to have their legitimate medical needs ignored just because they are prisoners. They're human beings first. 

Unless that really doesn't matter, and in that case, let's just be honest as a society about how we view prisoners. Then we can dispense with the question of ethics altogether. Or have we already?