by Anonymous, CSP-Solano
There was an art show held at CSP-Solano in the level III gym, a very nice event held by the warden. Incarcerated people were invited to attend, I was fortunate to attend this event. In the event, I met three wonderful women who were advocating people to join membership with the newspaper (AOUON). I’ve always wanted to contact a paper, but was discouraged because I’m not from this area (Northern Cali) and thought no one would listen. Honestly, I forgot about the membership dealing with natural prison life that sucks you in. That’s what the yard does— distract you if you allow it.
July 15th, I received a knock on my door from a correction officer: mail. Just a few hours before, I was having a conversation with a sergeant who was unrelated to this housing about the heat. Ironically, today it was 100 degrees outside. It was like everything was lining up right to get something done about this heat. I explained to this supervisor I have a medical issue I wanted to address. He seemed to listen, and I told him I just needed a few minutes.
Please let me inform you, I’m housed in RHU— something we call the hole. I expressed that for years, we’ve been trying to get something established with staff as far as providing cooling mechanisms for the yard. I stressed that based on RHU property restrictions, we cannot have fans in the cells. If it’s 100º outside, it’s 105º-110º inside the cells. This year, some type of heat plan was supposed to protect against heat illnesses, where cool water, showers, and fans were provided. I pointed to a fan located next to a cell door which was only facing 1 cell, not down the tier to create a draft for the rest. I also explained to him that staff should be escorting coolers to the building filled with ice for cool water. Since it’s so hot outside, I assume the heat is causing the pipes outside to filter warm water into the cells. The ventilation is blowing the hot air from outside into cells, making it humid, unbearable, and uncomfortable to the point that you can hardly get any sleep at night because you’re drenched in your own sweat.
Living in RHU is already depressing, it has a psychological effect on the mind. Wit hot temperatures added to that, it drives you crazy. On July 13th and 14th, I had severe headaches. Staff’s response was to “go man down, I’m not bringing you any cool water.” How insulting was that? Not only is it hot for the incarcerated people, COs also have to work in this hot environment.
I opened the newspaper, and there it was: a title about the Coalition for Climate Justice in CA Prisons on AB 2499, addressing climate and a woman losing her life due to extreme heat inside CCWF before being set to go home. This was shocking and scary, and it didn’t help that it talked about the 2020 LNU lightning complex fire. The prison I was at was in the evacuation zone.
I had to write the paper and express how the prison is not following policy, but when incarcerated people don’t follow rules, we are punished and never considered. Solano is hot, and we need to cool down before someone dies. Administration are good people, this prison provides a lot and they listen when we grieve. The people under them just need to get on board.
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