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Category: Environmental Issues

Life on the Island: Connally Unit Guards Use Unsanitary Showers as Respite Areas

Life on the Island: Connally Unit Guards Use Unsanitary Showers as Respite Areas

Life on the Island: Connally Unit guards use unsanitary showers as respite areas By Jason Renard Walker, 7 August 2022 Administrative staff and ranking guards at the Connally Unit are allowing guards to use a dark unsanitary shower as a respite area for medium custody prisoners housing in 8 Building’s J-Pod, commonly known as “the island”. On August 6 2022, during 1st shift, a Hispanic-looking male guard approached me and my cellmate. We were told the respite area is a…

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Retaliation 101: Requesting Access to Respite Areas at Allred Unit is a Big No No

Retaliation 101: Requesting Access to Respite Areas at Allred Unit is a Big No No

Note: the first draft of this essay was censored by the Allred Unit mailroom, leading Jason to record an audio version that wasbroadcast by Kite Line Radio. Jason was then able to send out a written version of the essay, which is below. “I don’t think prisoners are treated like humans in this state. If there was air conditioning in that prison, my dad would be alive, out of jail, and rebuilding his life right now.” –  Ashley Frantom on her father’s…

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Heat-related conditions at the Allred Unit are cruel, unusual and a purveyance of unwritten policies

Heat-related conditions at the Allred Unit are cruel, unusual and a purveyance of unwritten policies

As the extreme summer heat in Texas nears, Texans are preparing by purchasing summerwear, drinks and trinkets designed to combat the humidity and heat. In contrast, officials at the Allred Unit in Iowa Park, Teas, haven’t prepared to protect prisoners from heat-related injuries, like strokes, dehydration and exhaustion, despite temperatures here reaching the high 100°s. But what they have done is made an effort to relieve themselves of civil liability from foreseen prisoner heat strokes and other illnesses. I’ve written…

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Censorship, Staff Negligence, and Extreme Heat at the Telford Unit, Texas

Censorship, Staff Negligence, and Extreme Heat at the Telford Unit, Texas

Since 2011, at least twelve Texas prisoners have died from heat stroke, which was a result of the sweltering temperatures inside buildings, dorms, day rooms and the cells where prisoners live. Hundreds more have suffered heat-related illnesses, many of whom were among the elderly and disabled inmates housed at the Wallace Pack Unit. This does not include prisoners who didn’t report their injuries or those who attempted to treat themselves. The Pack Unit is a medical and geriatric prison where…

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Report on Unhygienic Living Conditions at Ramsey Unit, Texas

Report on Unhygienic Living Conditions at Ramsey Unit, Texas

As I explained in a previous piece, we prisoners at the Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, TX, have to drink discolored and contaminated water. Besides this, we are being forced to live, eat and congregate under conditions that are egregiously unsanitary. Every cell has a colony of roaches living in it. Throughout this prison are many cellblocks. Each cellblock has a number of cells that remain closed while we are in the day room. Several times a day we are allowed…

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Water Supply at the Ramsey Unit, Texas, May be Contaminated Like the Rest of the State

Water Supply at the Ramsey Unit, Texas, May be Contaminated Like the Rest of the State

his is a notice to the Fight Toxic Prisons campaign, the EPA and everyone who is against tainted drinking water: the Ramsey Unit here in Rosharon, TX (near Houston) may have high levels of radium in the water supply. I was brought to this conclusion after hearing a news update on January 15th 2018, which mentioned that the water supply throughout the state of Texas was at high risk of containing harmful levels of radium. The city of Houston was mentioned as being…

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