News from Polunsky

An excerpt from a letter from my PP on Polunsky (letter dated December 12th)

In keeping with TDCJ's usually unprecidented levels of ignorance and stupidity, they've once again out done themselves. Ever since this Tabler ordeal jumped off they've been down here on F-pod sealing up the cells, virtually using a welder and metal plate to entomb us alive.
Of course this has no bearing on how the cell phones got into the prison to begin with, they are still doing it. 'weld som' on it' is always the redneck bubba's answer. So they removed the dammned door handles and welded solid plate over it, welded extra pieces of metal over the mail slot the rat hole and the bottom skirt and are yet to add more and rubber seals and sweepers to those already on the door. Well, they've been over there on the other side of the pod welding angle iron in both corners of the back (outside) walls and when they do it sets off the smoke detectors which in turn activates the gas/smoke extraction exhausts, a series of huge fans in the side walls and roof of each section. These fans suck in massive quantities of air from the outside and blow it directly into the cells, out the cell into the pod common areas and out the fan exhaust thru sidewalls and roof to the outside.

Day before yesterday they ran these fans all day long. The temp outside is hovering at freezing to low 40's. The first day it was raining and my cell leaks, so there was a pond in the middle of the floor. That night for the first time in years, it snowed. So here they come again to continue their little welding spree and want to set off the extractor fans again. It was so cold frost was forming on the cell tables and stainless steel toilet and and condensing on the stainless wall the toilet is afixed too. Whee! So it was like an arctic freeze in hereall day long that day and now of course we're all sick. ALL that would've been required to alleviate this problem is one exhaust fan sitting in the cell door to suck out the smoke, dissipate it out into the huge common area. If it gets a bit much after a while turn on the gas purge and air it out. In 5 minutes the entire pod will be cleansed and the fans can be turned off and we'll all stay warm. See, when the purge fans come on it kills the heat coming out of the cell vents in favour of fresh air from the outside. It takes the system 5 minutes to freeze out totally. If they did it this way we would never lose heat... Now tho', instead, we're all sick. It's ridiculous. Oh well, it's the states medical bill. This freezing air routine is actual torture.

There is a S. court precident:- Prisoners are not to be subjected to extremes of temperature during inclement weather.

The thing about it is, they're subjecting us to punishment in the form of solitary confinement now, without any due process and no sentence to solitary. Even if we were sentenced to solitary we could only be kept there 15 days, this they're doing is in-definate!

Hank Skinner DR Polunsky