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.
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Not for nothin, but…The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” So since you can die fron heat exhaustion, it probably is a cruel and unusual punishment.
No no no, you’re wrong! See, it says “cruel AND unusual” and since death is a common result from overheating, it is not unusual and therefore can’t be “cruel AND unusual” thus doesn’t violate the eighth amendment!
(Yes, some of them believe this unironically.)
But if they were supposed to die there, then they would have been sentenced to death by heat exhaustion. Which I’m pretty sure would be considered cruel and unusual.
I don’t think it’s fair to just tack on additional punishment after sentencing.
Found the #fascist symp.
EDIT: @Hazdaz got his #fascist stupidity removed & rightfully so.
Some of them are wrongly convicted, all of them are human beings under the states care. Should those under state care be subjected to cruel and unusual, extrajudicial punishment up to and including death by heat exhaustion?
The end of reddit days I began realizing it’s very easy to block people like you.
Bye!
Yep, I’ve become much freer with blocking. OTOH I worry that if we all do it the assholes will just think “wow no one is arguing with me, so they all must agree!” (When in reality the rest of us have just declined to be exposed to their bullshit.)
The same shallow gene pool also likes to spout “All these downvotes must mean I’m right!”
They must have edited their comment because the one I see now is fairly innocuous.
The original comment was removed, and Lemmy shifted these onto an unrelated one.
Prison is meant to rehabilitate, not punish. If you’re punishing, you’re not helping society. If you just care about causing pain, what value add is that?
Unfortunately, her in texas, unless you bow to the dictatorship (GOP) you are not allowed to be rehabilitated. Unless you think sitting in a pod of 24+ other prisoners in a space that might be comfortable for 4 people as a home, is rehabilitation.
Texas doesn’t care about anything but $$ to the point they will cut their nose off to spite their face. This state is so contradictory to human rights
Schadenfreude is the point, I guess
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.
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What the fuck do you know about prison, son?
And for the falsely imprisoned? Kinda a shit way to go.
Imagine trying to take the moral high ground after stroking it to prison torture.
Conservatism is a cancer on society.
Edit: it should be noted that the OP of this thread got removed, so Lemmy dropped these angry comments onto another user’s thread.
Oh, that makes a lot more sense because the comment I see these replies attached to is both fairly innocuous and entirely unrelated to what the responses are talking about. I thought they had just edited the original comment.
Kbin doesn’t do that. Just says deleted by moderator.
Why people think America is full of primitive cavemen.
Haha, so edgy, much outrage.
It may be prison, but those inmates are still human.
Even death row inmates get to die in less cruel ways than being effectively boiled alive.
Their punishment was their isolation from society and its luxuries, any further suffering purposefully/neglectfully introduced by the prison is cruel and unnecessary.
Deplorables
It wasn’t a compliment but you lean into anyway.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
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Do you think only rapists and murderers go to prison you empty headed creep? Cool your bloodlust and try to value human dignity.
Not a single one of the replies to your comment could be accurately described this way.
Imagine thinking people stop being entitled to basic decency just because they are in prison. For that matter, imagine thinking no one but rapists and murderers goes to prison.