To keep us warm in winter, the prison provides a single extra thin blanket and a canvas-type jacket with a thin layer made of the same material as the blanket. The jacket is usually old and rarely the correct size.

Properly fitted and better-made jackets would make winter more bearable. 

On occasion, the prison may offer a sale that permits prison residents to purchase a blanket. These often cost between $25 and $45.

Until 1999, the prison provided sweatpants and sweatshirts at no cost. Now, if you want or need them, you either buy them or go without. Many prison residents can’t afford them; those who are lucky may get hand-me-downs (an act forbidden by policy). Others simply bear through the cold and/or rain, or create their own way of staying warm.

Some guys exercise to warm up, but that’s hard to do because food is so scarce here.

The only clothing we can buy is a shirt for $5 or a pair of socks for $1.36 off commissary. The unit doesn’t issue thermal shirts or thermal bottoms, apparently because someone once killed themselves using thermals. 

I asked maintenance how cold it must be for them to turn the heat on for all of winter, but I got no acknowledgement.

My neighbor, Ray, told me, “They’ve kept us freezing back here the whole nine years I’ve been in this supermax.”

In our dorms, during cold bouts, we don’t want to do much more than burrow under our wool blanket for warmth. 

Who can write, or draw, or even hold a book with fingers that are painfully stiff from the cold? 

We sleep in multiple layers of clothing under the blanket. Any body part exposed seems at risk of frostbite, and the cold air through our noses causes a version of brain freeze. 

How do we women survive? Hot water bottles. We’ll use empty Powerade, milk of magnesia or shampoo bottles constantly filled and refilled with hot water to snuggle with. I have one; some women have four. In fact, I have to go; it’s my turn in the hot water line.

Prices vary a bit by size, but sweatpants are available for around $34 as part of a top-and-bottom set. Long underwear is about $15 for a set. Either is difficult to purchase when you only earn 40 cents per hour.

The winter severely affects my body, due to my arthritis, which causes pain and stiffness. The cold makes me surly and impatient with people.

It’s very difficult for me to warm up because I’m waiting on back surgery and cannot do any strenuous activity.

To keep us warm in winter, the Idaho State Correctional Institution provides plastic film to put over the windows in Units 9, 10 and 11. The windows aren’t insulated and stand about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It usually has to be late October or early November for the administration to provide this. 

Unit 8 — the segregation unit — wasn’t afforded the window covers when I was there in 2017, even though it had the same style of window and got notoriously cold in the cells. 

If I could have one item from outside, it would be a waterproof coat with a built-in waterproof windbreaker. It would make a difference because it’s not the cold that really gets to me, it’s being wet. The denim coat the prison provides year-round is warm enough, unless it gets wet. Then it’s not only cold, but it starts to develop a funky odor.

Winter can be punishing, especially for our newest arrivals and those who have been released from disciplinary units and are returning to general population. 

They’re ushered outside from their respective units wearing orange medical scrubs or white jumpsuits, green T-shirts underneath and blue canvas deck shoes on their feet. 

Within their first 24 hours in general population, most will receive a long-sleeve button-up shirt, blue jeans, a coat and a beanie. But I’ve seen men wait as long as three days before receiving their full prison uniforms.

Everyone has to bear the cold at some point. Because the majority of our housing units sit on one end of the campus, and the cafeteria, pharmacy, school, gym and chapel sit on the other, we may have to walk across the compound — about a quarter-mile round trip — six or more times a day.

If the cold is brutal, and sometimes it drops below zero here, guys without coats have to choose between taking the walks in short sleeves and without head coverings, or skipping their meals and medications. Both are bad choices.

Summer, I learned harshly, is the season of the rich and privileged. You can always layer in winter or ask fellow incarcerated individuals for help. But in the summer your skin becomes a layer you can’t remove to cool off. 

Summers are for vacation, where you find reprieve in pools and air-conditioned living spaces. In prison, you are crammed in cages where your only solace is a small fan or laying on the floor with your shirt off because it provides a couple seconds of coolness.

The best way I’ve found to warm up is drinking or eating something hot. Or you can take a hot shower and then put on all your clothes as if you’re going outside.

In January 2022, when I finally transferred from Patuxent Institution to nearby Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup, I was placed in a cell where my window was badly broken.

The unit sergeant gave me a trash bag to cover the window, and an extra blanket, but even that didn’t help much. I slept under both blankets, in full clothes and a hat, and still was freezing.

One morning I woke up and needed to use the bathroom. I couldn’t understand at first the nature of the sound the toilet gave me. Then I looked down and saw a layer of ice in the toilet bowl.

When it’s really cold, I have to sleep in layers of clothes. During those freezing days, my body feels weak and my mood is sluggish and tiresome. I feel lazy and just want to stay in the bunk.

The coldest temperature I remember experiencing in prison was at Missouri State Penitentiary in February 2002. I remember how cold it was because at that time most of the prison’s windows were broken, so we slept in stocking caps, coats, full state-issued clothes and sometimes shoes.

The coldest temperature I experienced in prison was several degrees below zero during January 2024. I can remember how cold it was because the pipes burst in front of the housing unit and ice covered the entire walkway.

If I could have one winter item from the outside, it would be a real coat and a heated blanket. God, that would be marvelous! It would make a difference because I could finally be comfortable. Everything in prison is about meeting minimum requirements and never about comfort.

My most valued possession during winter are my socks. I get the diabetic socks from my job, which are much thicker than the ones they sell to us. I hate my feet being cold more than anything else.

To keep us warm in the winter, the prison sometimes provides a second blanket, but parts of these blankets are mesh. We usually try to use them folded in half to make a double layer, but tall people can’t do that.

Around Oct. 15, the heat is turned on and is immediately turned up to the highest capacity. All that heat that is supposed to circulate throughout the entire building instead feels concentrated in our rooms on the side of the wing with heat.

My window is open as wide as it can open, and I’m still sweating. Meanwhile, my neighbor directly across the hall has on her coat, hat and scarf and is laying under two blankets watching television. She’s freezing as if she is sleeping outside in the yard.

We complain every year and the administration sends a big, orange heater that sits in the middle of the hallway. The heater is worthless. It does not reach all the way down the hallway, so the rooms at the ends are left out. 

Then the doors are shut or locked, and none of the rooms on that side get heat. The heater does, however, further heat the rooms that are already stifling hot. 

Feeling bad for my comrades, I asked the maintenance man if his department could bleed the radiators on the side without heat. He explained the problem: The pipes are eroded; so if they bleed the radiators, once the heat does regulate it could cause the pipes to burst in different places.

The best way I’ve found to warm up is to dress in my thermals, put on my sweat suit and then fold my blanket in half, so its thickness is doubled, and drape it over my shoulders. 

The only warm clothes we are allowed to purchase from the commissary are sweatpants for $16.25, sweatshirts for $20.72 and thermal tops and bottoms for $6.39 apiece. Gloves have been out of stock the last two winters; as a result, I’ve seen guys make makeshift mittens out of sweatshirt material.

If I could have one winter item from the outside, it would be a hot pot. It would make a difference because I would be able to boil water to make soup, tea or hot chocolate to warm me up whenever I wanted.

These days, we sew our sweats with insulation to keep warm. The heater system is so old it hardly works; it actually cuts off periodically, by design. A better heater would make all the difference. Given all that, the best way to warm up is by running in place. Some people soak their feet in heated water from a hot pot. That’s ingenuity! 

After catching COVID-19, I’m susceptible to respiratory viruses, so my brain is my most prized possession during winter. And since old bullet wounds hurt during the cold season, warmth is paramount.

In December 2023, prison staff provided space heaters. They were 3-foot-tall fans with a thermostat and timer to warm the common areas in our prison. We could adjust the heaters any way we liked. It was very icy that year and, if memory serves, it hit the teens on the East Coast. 

Before Christmas there was Yule, a winter tradition celebrated by Germanic peoples. There was no Santa, but people gathered during those long nights to celebrate with each other in warm halls with loud music. They knew that this was the trick to surviving the most depressing of seasons. 

I remember when I lived in Alaska, driving home on a winter day after a long weekend. My friend was asleep in the passenger seat. It was during the few hours the sun makes it over the horizon before setting and sending that northern frontier into darkness again. The sun was hidden behind grey clouds. I was so tired I thought I would have to find a place to stop. Then the clouds parted briefly and the rays of sunlight warmed our skin. My friend and I erupted in full belly laughter. It felt so good. 

In prison we need to celebrate something too. We need to decorate and have events — not for religious purposes, just some distraction, with a little loud music and laughter with our friends.

In winter, the temperature in the cell dips so low that the medication in my inhaler compresses in the canister. When it warms up again, the pressure of its expansion forces it out of the canister. This is a problem because I need the inhaler to help me breathe. 

Last winter, half the cells on one side had no heat for well over a week. This year, it feels like the outside air is pumped in. It gets so cold all I can do is lie on my bed and cover up with my coat, which I use as a blanket. 

I tend to wear two to three layers of pants and four to six layers of shirts, sometimes with my jacket and coat over them. On the weekends, the heating dips from Friday afternoon until about 6 a.m. Monday — that’s true of every jail and prison I’ve ever been in.

For me, the best way to warm up is to move and drink hot water. I also make hot water bags or bottles, but it can be dangerous if they come open. My most valued possession is a scarf and headband that I received as a gift. They keep my neck and ears warm.

Around the middle of October, the institution switches the system from air conditioning to heat, but the system is inconsistent. At times throughout the winter season, one half of the housing unit will be toasty warm, while the other side is cold. This lasts about two weeks, then, like clockwork, the side that was cold becomes hot.

I am a guy who sometimes wears shorts and a T-shirt during winter because the cold weather does not bother me. Bulky clothes in prison can restrict movement and hinder my ability to defend myself. But sometimes it’s just too cold.

The coldest temperature I remember experiencing in prison was 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus 2 during the end of the first week of December 2024. I remember how cold it was because I actually had to wear my gloves and wool cap.

The coldest temperature I remember experiencing in prison was two winters ago, in January 2023. I remember how cold it was because everybody was moved off T-A Block because the heating system broke down completely. 

I can buy warm clothes from the commissary, including thermal pants and shirts for $4.66 to $6.33, depending on the size, and jersey gloves for $1.04. I wear multiple layers of jersey gloves, but my hands still get very cold in winter. If I could have one winter item from outside, it would be better gloves.

The low country of South Carolina, where I’m currently incarcerated, rarely sees extremely cold weather. The normal January low is 40 and the high is 60. But we do have brief periods of cold. Once, the temperature fell to 16.

My current cell is actually well heated — in fact, it becomes too warm! Windows do not open and it is a waste of energy and misuse of resources to run heat in 70-degree weather.

During cold snaps, I use a religious head cap. It stops the loss of heat via my head.

While at South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tennessee, I was housed in a corner cell. Corner cells have two walls exposed to the outside air, which makes them especially frigid. 

The blue jean-style jackets issued by the state prison system have a thin fabric lining and do little to ward off the chill. If you want a toboggan (stocking cap) or thin cloth gloves, you have to buy them from the commissary.

I was always glad when I saw the first signs of spring.

In winter, my body feels sluggish. I don’t want to move around at all. My mood is downbeat since many of the staff are on vacation, which means everything is running slower and some things don’t get done. I feel forgotten since I, along with many people, don’t like the holidays.

One time, I saw a neighbor wrap his arms and legs in towels to stay warm. He looked like the Michelin Man, all puffed up.

I’m from Michigan, so I know layers will keep me warm. In January, I prepared my sleeping bag: I had one blanket as a mattress pad, then I covered and tied a flat sheet to the mattress (fitted sheets aren’t permitted). Next, I sandwiched nine folded blankets (purchased from the black market at $5 each) between two sheets tucked securely around the mat. Then I filled three empty water bottles with heated hot water from my electric teakettle ($24.50) and placed each one in a sock to warm my bed. There are no pillows permitted at my facility, so I use a pack of pads ($3) wrapped in a T-shirt. 

As the bed warmed, I got dressed.

I layered a T-shirt ($7.75), shorts ($10.50), thermals and two pairs of socks ($1.50 each), and I wrapped a sock around my head as earmuffs, with a bath towel as a hat. 

Most of my neighbors lack outside financial support and are stuck freezing with the state-issued shirt, pants, gown and undergarments, threadbare blanket and two flat sheets. 

Winters would be more tolerable if we had heat available throughout the season and were issued, or at least able to purchase, hats (only Muslim men are allowed to purchase the thin $8 white-knitted hat), waterproof shoes, thick socks, sweatshirts and jogging pants, long-sleeve shirts, scarves, flannel shirts, insulated winter coats and better gloves. The state-issued attire is geared toward surviving Texas’ triple-digit summer temperatures without air conditioning.

The most creative way I’ve seen others warm up is by starting a fire (which is dangerous), using socks to make beanies, or cutting open the bottom of socks and putting them on their arms. I sew and make gloves out of socks.

If I could have one winter-weather item from the outside, it would be better boots, insulated thermals, cotton gloves and thicker pants. It would make a difference because I could also sleep in these items. 

The winter affects my body and mood in different ways. For example, my body feels damaged, my knees hurt, my feet can’t determine what temperature my body is. I stay sick because even the smallest methods for staying warm tend to be discarded by officers.

The best way I have found to warm up is by filling plastic pop bottles with hot water, placing them under my covers by my feet and next to my body. 

The most creative way I’ve heard of others warming up is by lighting a fire in their cell underneath the stainless steel toilet-sink combo, something I heard reported on the news a while back.  

Some items that make the winter more bearable include raincoats at $8.60 or $34.95; up to two long-sleeved shirts costing between $13.95 and $17.95; and hats for $5.15 or $17.95. These items are extremely expensive considering we make as little as $1 an hour for work with up to 25% deductions for medical, dental, hygiene, medications and crime victim compensation. 

During the winter, my most valued possession is my hair dryer because I can dry my shoes and coat when I come back from the yard. And when the heat goes out in my unit I turn it into a makeshift ceiling fan to heat my cell. Thanks to the LGBTQ community, hair dryers have been allowed in Washington state men’s prisons since 2023.

In Wisconsin, we are used to cold winters. People here understand that the best thing you can do is dress in layers and stay under a pile of blankets. But in prison, this is hard to do.

It gets coldest in January here. I remember January 2023 well because of how bitterly frigid it got. Even after bundling up in inadequate winter gear provided by the prison, as well as some self-bought items, I was still chilled to the bone by the time I got to my prison job. 

The prison does provide us with a set of thermal underwear. And when it gets too cold, they can provide us with a third blanket. We also have access to hot showers, though those have a bad habit of breaking down in winter.

I am lucky in that I was able to buy myself a sweatshirt, which keeps me comfy and warm through the winter months. This is a luxury not available to many due to costs ranging from $13.75 to $34.95, depending on size and brand. I do wish, however, that I had a proper winter jacket so I could go outside and fully enjoy the cold.