At least 41 people have died in the Lone Star State’s unairconditioned prisons due to heat-related or unknown conditions this summer, according to the Texas Tribune.
Even so, it’s hard to firmly establish how many have succumbed to heat-related illness, according to observers. That’s because TDCJ’s official stance is that no inmates have died of heat exhaustion since 2012 — the same year the agency began to be bombarded with wrongful death lawsuits from inmates’ families, the Tribune reports.
Is it? Not being sarcastic. In my country that’s what prisons are supposed to be to. But does it say somewhere in the USA “law” (quotes because I’m not sure that’s the proper word to use here) that states that rehabilitation is the goal of prisons?
I mean, probably not, but it’s otherwise useless, plus it makes an argument for cruel and unusual punishment. Any other desire from sentencing is simply perverted in my mind.