November 14, 2014
As the temperature continues to drop outside, we inmates in here on cell isolation suffer even greater. As I said before, this unit which was once for the juveniles convicted as adults was destroyed by the juveniles before they shipped out to another prison. In some cells the juveniles even broke the windows. The windows were of course replaced along with everything else before turning this unit into cell isolation, but they were obviously just quick fixes made by inexperienced inmates. My cell window has a tremendous amount of cold air blowing in through large cracks where there should be an isolated seal, causing this cell to be extremely cold. In the chow hall I overhear many of the other inmates in this unit complaining about the extreme temperatures in their cells. I've gone as far as slapping wet toilet paper over the cracks around my window in an attempt to minimize the frigid air blowing in; it did help just a little bit, but nowhere near enough. I wake up shivering at night from the cold, so cold that I'm unable to go back to sleep. During the day I wear my jump suit, extra socks and even my coat just to stop from shivering. It wouldn't be so bad if we were allowed to have some of our winter clothes like sweat pants, sweat shirts and long johns, all of which I own in here, yet I'm not allowed to have any of them right now. Another one of many cell isolation punishments is taking away most all of our personal property and packing it in storage until our release that includes most of our personal clothing too, which I just can't seem to understand. The only things I was allowed to bring with me were three pairs of socks, 3 underwear, 3 t-shirts, one bar of soap, 1 tube of toothpaste, one towel, one wash cloth, my television and my JP4 tablet. I still can't understand why they wouldn't let us have many of these items because we're still allowed to purchase this stuff from the commissary; we just had to purchase them all over again. Unfortunately the commissary doesn't sell things like sweat pants or long johns, that kind of stuff has to be purchased from an outside company that ships orders to the prison and unfortunately we can't order that stuff on cell isolation. What doesn't make sense is having to pack up all my vitamins, and other hygiene supplies like q-tips, razors, shampoo and so much more that I had to purchase all over again. All that nonsense is tolerable, but what I just can't understand is having to suffer through cold cell temperatures without proper clothing to stay warm. I remember an interesting chapter I read from the 'Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook', it stated the 'Liberty Interest', which is "when the prison's actions interfere with or violate our constitutionally protected rights, or result in conditions of confinement that are much worse than is normal for prisoners". This is the Due Process Clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. If you ask me I would have to say that my conditions in this unbearably frigid cell have reached the criteria for a liberty interest and I would also have to say that many other inmates in here agree with me.
Steven Dybvad
