G’day,
My name is Dane. Firstly, great job on the paper. I look forward to it every month and expect I’m not the only Aussie inmate who is appreciative of the effort that goes into producing such a thing and at no cost to the incarcerated. Keep up the good work.
The following is in response to the article by Denham Sadler titled “Sweltering Behind Bars: Stifling Heat in Australian prisons”.
I’d like to thank Mr Sadler for raising this serious and long-standing issue in About Time. The Townsville (Men’s) Correctional Centre (TMCC) houses over 900 inmates, just under 400 of whom reside in air-conditioned secure units. The remainder of TMCC prisoners reside in un-air-conditioned cells, 69 of whom do not even have fans installed. While after reading Mr Sadler’s article I certainly feel for those locked up in Alice Springs, Broken Hill and elsewhere, Townsville is arguably one of the hottest and most humid regions of Queensland, yet its prison is the only one in the entire state that does not have air conditioning installed in any of its residential or protection units (that collectively contain just over 300 cells, which hold just over 500 inmates). It seems TMCC contains the majority (if not the entirety) of the 10 per cent of un-air-conditioned cells in Queensland jails mentioned in Mr Sadler’s article. And I can assure About Time that there is no monitoring of air flow and temperature levels in any of the residential units at TMCC, even though these units are severely overcrowded and in which at least 50 men are forced to sleep on cell or living room floors.
All this is insufferable for inmates. It is contradictory to the idea that the residential units are part of the system of “progression” that supposedly acts as an incentive to encourage inmates to behave in order to move to better living conditions – a system that is ultimately designed to maintain the safety and good order of the prison. Perhaps the “specialised unit” within Queensland Corrective Services mentioned in Mr Sadler’s article needs to spend a night or two in the fan-less and air-con-less residential cells at TMCC to experience how bad things get in summer. And, while I understand that the larger public doesn’t care particularly if prisoners are comfortable, the tortuously hot, humid and overcrowded conditions in some TMCC units are bordering on cruel and unusual punishment. Something needs to change.
Kind Regards,
Dane
G’day,
My name is Dane. Firstly, great job on the paper. I look forward to it every month and expect I’m not the only Aussie inmate who is appreciative of the effort that goes into producing such a thing and at no cost to the incarcerated. Keep up the good work.
The following is in response to the article by Denham Sadler titled “Sweltering Behind Bars: Stifling Heat in Australian prisons”.
I’d like to thank Mr Sadler for raising this serious and long-standing issue in About Time. The Townsville (Men’s) Correctional Centre (TMCC) houses over 900 inmates, just under 400 of whom reside in air-conditioned secure units. The remainder of TMCC prisoners reside in un-air-conditioned cells, 69 of whom do not even have fans installed. While after reading Mr Sadler’s article I certainly feel for those locked up in Alice Springs, Broken Hill and elsewhere, Townsville is arguably one of the hottest and most humid regions of Queensland, yet its prison is the only one in the entire state that does not have air conditioning installed in any of its residential or protection units (that collectively contain just over 300 cells, which hold just over 500 inmates). It seems TMCC contains the majority (if not the entirety) of the 10 per cent of un-air-conditioned cells in Queensland jails mentioned in Mr Sadler’s article. And I can assure About Time that there is no monitoring of air flow and temperature levels in any of the residential units at TMCC, even though these units are severely overcrowded and in which at least 50 men are forced to sleep on cell or living room floors.
All this is insufferable for inmates. It is contradictory to the idea that the residential units are part of the system of “progression” that supposedly acts as an incentive to encourage inmates to behave in order to move to better living conditions – a system that is ultimately designed to maintain the safety and good order of the prison. Perhaps the “specialised unit” within Queensland Corrective Services mentioned in Mr Sadler’s article needs to spend a night or two in the fan-less and air-con-less residential cells at TMCC to experience how bad things get in summer. And, while I understand that the larger public doesn’t care particularly if prisoners are comfortable, the tortuously hot, humid and overcrowded conditions in some TMCC units are bordering on cruel and unusual punishment. Something needs to change.
Kind Regards,
Dane
