Over the years, RadioIQ has heard from prisoners like this woman at Goochland, a facility built nearly one hundred years ago.
“Some of the rooms are hot as hell. There’s no ventilation coming through the vents. I think it was 79 in the hallway, but in the rooms it is crazy. I mean it’s bad.”
And another inmate, who studied heating and air conditioning technology while in prison, says there are more fights, and people with medical problems could die in buildings not designed with human health in mind.
“The construction was more security-minded than comfort-minded. It’s like a big oven, and with the failure to remove the correct amount of air out, it becomes particularly stifling.”
That’s why Delegate Holly Seibold introduced a bill that would require the Department of Corrections to measure temperatures in prison cells and ensure they don’t exceed 80 degrees. Lawmakers approved it, but Governor Glenn Youngkin cited the cost of air conditioning and operational burdens in exercising a veto. He added that existing D.O.C. records do not substantiate claims of extreme temperatures or health risks.
