Opinion: Jails are too Cold

This past summer, I had the opportunity to serve as an investigations intern with the DuPage County Public Defender’s Office. In this capacity, I had the opportunity to meet with many people, watch and learn much about the legal field, and do some work in our county jail. I thought I was prepared for my first jail visit from experience with prison shows and movies, but one thing did catch me off guard—just how cold it was. I was in long sleeves and pants, but still I thought that the entire complex was freezing. And I didn’t get the worst of it—the inmates and clients that I spoke with were wearing short sleeves. I’m not alone in this assessment. An article from the Marshall Project called The Big Chill, which was written by a prisoner named Tracy Meadows, echoes very similar sentiments about how cold jails and prisons are. The effect of this temperature may seem minor from an outsider, but I know from my visits (which lasted hours, not years) that they have real impact. 

One potential cause for why my and Meadows’ jail experiences have been so cold is plain and obvious: it is hot outside. I worked during the summer and Meadows is writing about his experience in Mason, Tennessee, a warm place. However, taking this obvious cause into consideration, I don’t think that it answers everything. Because when I say that I was cold, I mean that it went way out of proportion to what is reasonable. If canceling out the heat was the only reason for the aggressive AC, then my jail was doing some serious overkill. 

Another cause that Meadows points to in his article is the dehumanizing effect that the cold has on people. Being so cold led Meadows at one point to aimlessly walk around just to stay warm—this temperature can dictate what you do and control you. To a lesser extent, I also think that some sort of a dehumanizing effect could be a cause for this cold. It is hard to forget when you are sitting in jail just how cold you are. For the prisoners, I’d imagine it’s easy to come to the conclusion that this temperature is another one of your punishments. 

I am not here to advocate for an elimination of jails or for providing prisoners with every luxury imaginable. Tracy Meadows is an inmate for disturbing child pornography—he should be punished. However, if we extend these punishments into areas that are cruel and almost inescapable, I believe that we have then crossed a line. Finding a way to lower the AC, to make sure that simply existing in jails isn’t a punishment for anyone, can lead us one small step closer to a more humane criminal justice system. 

"the jail man" by chubiboako is licensed under CC BY 2.0.