This year is on track to be the hottest on record. Summer heat was particularly brutal throughout the South. Texas endured more than a month of 100-degree days.
In Texas prisons, about 100,000 beds — or close to two-thirds of the state’s prison system — don’t have air conditioning. Temperatures regularly reach 110 degrees inside those Texas prisons, according to a report from Texas A&M University.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice claims that no heat-related deaths have occurred in its prisons since 2012. But research and analyses tell a different story. One study estimates that 271 deaths in Texas prisons without air conditioning might be attributable to extreme heat exposure.
Last month, PJP worked with The Guardian to publish a story by PJP contributor Khaȧliq Shakur on extreme heat in Texas prisons. You can read it here.
Shakur was chosen for the assignment because he had previously written about heat in prison. He is also a good reporter who works quickly and comprehensively, and with integrity.
A byline in an international publication like The Guardian — which is read by millions and has been in existence since 1821 — was a massive accomplishment for Shakur. We asked him some questions about his reporting process, and why he does accountability journalism like this, even when it comes with risks to his safety. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: When you first got this assignment, you turned it around quickly. What was the writing process like?
Shakur: With this story I just wrote it like I was explaining to a friend what I have been through.
Q: Your story opens by comparing the heat inside your prison to a rotisserie chicken being cooked under a hot red light. It’s a provocative image. What made you want to start the story that way?
Shakur: The reason I compared the heat to a rotisserie chicken is because you can actually feel yourself cooking. You have tattoos on your body from before prison that swell up on your body from the heat. You have constant headaches. You never have a chance to cool down before the heat returns the next day.
Q: Your story lists various ways people try to combat heat in prison (wrapping themselves in cool towels, ice water when it’s available, respite periods when those are available). How often do people in your prison talk about the heat inside during the summer months? Do people also discuss the politics behind getting (or, in this case not getting) air conditioning inside more Texas prisons?
Shakur: Heat is talked about often. Offenders have families that contact places like Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance and Texas Inmate Families Association so they can lobby at political hearings to try to encourage lawmakers to pass bills that will help us. They also sometimes organize petitions that can be used to further pressure legislators. Offenders who are no longer incarcerated have held peaceful protests as well.
Q: You’ve been incarcerated inside Texas prisons for more than two decades. During that time, climate change has warmed the planet. How does this last Texas summer compare to your first years in prison?
Shakur: Of course with climate change the summers are much hotter than when I first became incarcerated in the late ’90s. Yet the suffering of offenders with health issues or who are on medications that make people more sensitive to heat [like psychotropic medications] have always been ignored. At one point people were being forced to work against the heat restrictions given to them by medical providers. At least that is no longer an issue.
Q: Many writers on the inside who write critically of the prison system often face reprisal. This was a risk you were aware of, as you’ve experienced it before. What kind of reprisal have you experienced for your journalism? And what drives you to write stories like this one in the face of those threats?
Shakur: So far, the unit has been withholding my mail and denying me any of the items I am fighting to have as a transgender male. That started when I began to inquire and then fight for my rights as a transgender male, such as wearing the head covering of a Muslim male or trying to receive gender-affirming top surgery. What makes me continue journalism in the midst of this? There is a sign I saw that says when you are telling the truth, do not be afraid. It’s a quote from Rosa Parks. Plus, I believe that God knows that my article was not a lie — so as a Muslim, God says with every difficulty there is relief. So I trust in him for that. It is not an easy task.
Q: We know the internet is mostly banned in prisons, but we are curious if anyone has heard about your story or talked to you about it. Have people in your prison reacted to this story?
Shakur: I have spoken to a few inmates that read the article and they are hopeful. It has taken two decades just to get this far. Basically I was not going to just be someone who sits around complaining, then does nothing. When people lose their lives, it doesn’t matter if I know them or not. The hurt and the things their families wonder about is what drives me. In that regard, how can we as offenders sit quietly and not speak out?