Prison director works to mitigate heat, but advocates, incarcerated say efforts falling short

The swamp coolers at High Desert State Prison have struggled to keep up during the summer months. (Photo: Michael Lyle)

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Nevada’s prison director James Dzurenda last week candidly acknowledged with state officials and advocacy groups that correctional facilities throughout the state need more money to invest in infrastructure to fix ongoing issues.

Those problems became more apparent at High Desert State Prison, located northwest of Las Vegas near Indian Springs, where the more than 20-year-old swamp coolers have struggled to  adequately cool the facility during the recent searing temperatures.

Dzurenda’s recognition of the problem offers little comfort to those inside the High Desert where some of the prison units reached 85 degrees and higher.

Rickie Slaughter, who is incarcerated at the prison, warned the trouble with the prison system goes beyond high temperatures and lack of adequate cooling systems.

Those incarcerated have to deal with “rats, bugs and vermin in our cells,” he said, adding that there is “mold in our building structure” in addition to the rising temperatures. There aren’t doctors available and those inside struggle to access medical care, he said.

“There are animals in the kennel who are being treated better than we are being treated by this prison,” he said. “If we were dogs or any other animal, our owners would have been charged with cruelty already.”

Democratic Assemblywoman Cecelia González, organizers with the Mass Liberation Project and attorneys with the ACLU of Nevada visited the prison July 12 amid concerns of malfunctioning cooling systems as record breaking heat waves surged through the West.

Nevada Current toured the facility, spoke with those incarcerated inside and saw thermometers reach temperatures close to 90 degrees.

Dzurenda explained the facilities operate on swamp coolers rather than air conditioning. While two coolers had malfunctioned, even the operational ones struggled to keep up.

“Las Vegas’s water is very hard and it gets into the swamp cooler and corrodes it,” Dzurenda said.

Replacement parts are difficult to come by since the units are older.

The cost to switch from swamp coolers to air conditioning is an estimated $168 million, he said.

NDOC is scheduled to speak to lawmakers at an Interim Finance Committee meeting Tuesday about temperatures at facilities as well as other infrastructure issues.

In the meantime, Dzurenda said the department is trying to mitigate the heat by purchasing fans, which arrived late last week, and providing ice throughout the facility, though it has struggled to keep supplies full.

More than 150 people have been moved from High Desert to other NDOC facilities. There are about 3,400 people incarcerated at the facility.

Athar Haseebullah, the executive director for the ACLU of Nevada, said it doesn’t matter that the department is acting out of good faith. NDOC, he said, has still been negligent.

“There are leaders within the Nevada Department of Corrections who are trying to fix these issues, but it has become readily apparent that they are incapable of fixing these issues,” he said. “If you can’t fix it, you can’t house people there. And they can’t fix it.”

Rather than allocate more money to the system, the Mass Liberation Project said lawmakers should look into decarceration as a solution.

Leslie Turner, an organizer with the Mass Liberation Project, said keeping people in prison “does not serve in the best interest of justice anymore.” The group is working with Slaughter and González on proposals for next year’s legislative session that would look at reducing the population.

“We are seeking legislation such as the Second Look Act, where people can be re-evaluated despite their sentences,” she said.

At least 12 states have enacted similar legislation that allows for sentences to be reviewed if people already served lengthy periods of time.

“People change, people grow, and one thing we all saw and can say without a doubt is that people – human beings – cannot be housed at (High Desert State Prison) in ways that uphold their well being, dignity and humanity,” Turner said.

“I haven’t stopped sweating”

Teri Vance, a spokeswoman for NDOC, said 20 industrial fans had been ordered and placed throughout the prison’s 12 units, as well as five-gallon igloo water coolers with ice.

One of those fans is located inside the unit occupied by Elijah Kennon, who has been in the facility since April. He said it hasn’t helped much.

“I haven’t stopped sweating,” Kennon said.

Kennon was among about 80 others being allowed to congregate in the unit’s common area outside of their cells.

Though it was one of the areas of the prison that had a working swamp cooler, he said the cells still get uncomfortably hot and he won’t return inside until he has to.

He plays cards and chess in the common area to pass the time. But mostly, he is trying to figure out ways to remain cool.

Jeremy Bean, the warden for High Desert State Prison, invited those touring the facility to step inside a cell in the unit. Then he closed the cell door.

A thermometer brought in from the outside reached near 90 degrees.

It’s not just heat, but the humidity inside the facility that has been brutal. Dzurenda said the prison has an average of 60% humidity, which could get higher “in monsoon season.”

The water that runs from the faucet inside the cell, which is not quite hot but more than warm, offered no relief either.

Dzurenda said the department provided ice to pass out to those incarcerated. Ahead of the tour, Beam informed him they already ran out for the day but are anticipating another shipment.

Kennon said that the unit’s five-gallon igloo water coolers with ice had been empty all morning.

“One gallon of water and ice for 84 people,” Kennon said.

Within a matter of minutes, a correctional officer brought a new bag of ice and filled it up.

Before he came to his current cell, Kennon was placed in a different unit that houses those transferred from local jails during the prison intake process. The swamp coolers aren’t working in that area.

During the morning tour, when temperatures outside were well over 105 degrees, temperatures inside reached around 90 degrees.

Kennon said while staying there, he would often “bump heads with my cellmate” out of frustration.

Dzurenda said they had planned to fix the cooler in that unit by that afternoon.

The Current asked NDOC on Monday if that happened, but the department didn’t respond.

‘I throw up and pass out from the heat’

Dzurenda first addressed the Nevada Board of Prison Commissioners, which includes Gov. Joe Lombardo, Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, about the heat on June 28 .

At the time, he told the board that they were implementing measures to keep prison units under 85 degrees, the current state standard, and he didn’t have any health or safety concerns.

Though Haseebullah didn’t tour the facility last week, two other attorneys from the ACLU provided details to him about the visit.

“The fact that today multiple areas of the prison were above 85 degrees actually shows regardless of what the state says we can’t simply rely on their word,” he said.

Turner also spoke at the June board meeting warning that they were getting “frantic calls” from people inside.

Vance, the spokeswoman for the department, said they received “reports related to the evaporative cooling systems not functioning properly beginning approximately the third week of June.”

“The exact date is hard to list as the cooling systems do not operate to maximum potential when humidity levels are high,” she said.

Slaughter has been chronicling, in great detail, the conditions inside as temperatures began to rise.

The first line in three pages of notes he shared with the Current was from June 10. He wrote “The AC goes out (pumping hot air).”

Three days later, he wrote that he sent a “kite,” a formal complaint that those incarcerated can file to officers, to Bean, the prison’s warden.

By June 25, he wrote that “approximately 20 of us sent kites about A/C to Bean.”

The Current asked NDOC if it tracked the number of “kites” due to temperatures, but they didn’t respond.

Vance said there was one heat-related illness reported at the facility. Slaughter argued there were more, including himself.

“I throw up and pass out from the heat,” Slaughter wrote July 7. “Despite man down, I get no help.” He said he still hasn’t seen a doctor.

Slaughter warned that if the prison doesn’t respond to what those inside are facing, people will get harmed “or flat out die.”

“We think at some point, the federal government needs to start looking at what’s happening here,” Haseebullah said.

This isn’t new

The problem with heating, ventilation and air conditioning units at High Desert prison, or any Nevada facility, isn’t new, said Haseebullah.

“This happens consistently throughout summers here and during the winter it’s the exact opposite in Northern Nevada prisons” where it’s too cold, he said. Meanwhile, officials have been “feigning ignorance” and “saying ‘Oh we had no idea this was happening.’”

The ACLU of Nevada provided the Current with a 1989 letter from former Gov. Bob Miller “regarding heating outages” in Northern Nevada.

“As an institution ages, the maintenance problems multiply,” Miller wrote. “We have been trying to provide additional maintenance staffing to keep up with the ever-increasing problems caused by the aging process. We have requested additional staffing in the 1990/91 budget year to keep [ace with the deteriorating facilities.”

Dzurenda is expected to bring similar concerns to lawmakers on the Interim Finance Committee.

Slaughter wrote on July 8: “Dzurenda says, ‘we need you, your family, and your social advocacy groups to help or get legislators to give us the money’ for alternative swamp cooler, fix the AC, etc.”

It is unclear what solutions will be discussed at the meeting, or how long it would take for lawmakers to allocate funding for repairs and other fixes.

Instead of adding more money, Turner proposed the state looking at cutting “the population but taking a realistic look at who can re-enter society and even more, who can positively contribute to society.”

In the meantime, Dzurenda said the department was facing a court case this week from a person incarcerated at High Desert citing “inhumane treatment” over the temperatures.

ACLU attorneys didn’t know anything about the case and weren’t representing the person. Haseebullah said he is confident additional litigation will come.

“We are exploring what potential legal remedies might look like,” Hasebullah said. “The propensity of civil damages is high, but that doesn’t solve what folks are facing right now.”

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