Alabama Prison in the Cold (Part One)
Through January and February, Prisoners in Bullock Prison Discuss Life in the Cold and Other Topics
(Photo from Montgomery Advertiser)
(I)
Throughout January and February, the cold temperatures persist in Alabama, unusually low for the region, and there’s been snowfall throughout the state. The heat in Bullock Prison in Union Springs continues not to work properly. I’ve continued interviewing prisoners throughout that time.
“We’ve been asking them to turn the heat up, but I don’t even know if they can,” says the prisoner referred to as “Zach” in these articles.
Multiple shouting voices erupt behind him soon after we begin the interview. From what he can gather, it’s a dispute over whether or not something should have been microwaved. Eventually, the conflict quiets down, and no one is hurt.
The officers “came through to do the count,” says Zach, returning to the subject of the cold, “and there were a bunch of us yelling, ‘Hey, turn the heat up. Turn the heat up,’ and they didn’t really respond.”
I’m surprised the officers aren’t more bothered by the cold themselves, I reply.
“Yeah, well, they’ve got these big old windbreaker coats with fur around the collar,” says Zach.
It snowed the week of our interview. “Everybody is kind of on edge, fiending out for cigarettes and coffee, because the store was supposed to run Tuesday and they’re talking about not running the store until Thursday because of the weather or whatever. It messes up the truck and stuff,” he says.
He estimates there are about four inches on the ground, and it’s the “first time I’ve ever seen snow this far south…. I’m from Huntsville, Alabama, and if it looks like it’s about to snow, the schools shut down and everything.”
Zach had previously been working on a soap carving art project for a friend but hasn’t been able to complete the project due to the difficulty focusing in the cold. “I haven’t really gotten out of bed to do it, because I’ve been hiding under the covers for the past three or four days because of the cold. I’m starting to shiver right now,” he says.
Asked if he knows when it’s supposed to warm back up, “I don’t,” he answers. “I honestly don’t pay attention to the TV or the news or anything. That stuff kind of depresses me.”
(II)
“They used to usually give out extra blankets in real bad winters, when it’s really cold,” but they haven’t done that this year in Bullock, at least not for cold weather, says the prisoner referred to as “Derek” in these articles.
“They had gave us all the extra blankets already to soak up the water when the water was running really bad,” he elaborates, referring to the chronic plumbing disasters flooding the prison throughout late December and January, which unpaid prisoners had to attempt to clean and fix themselves without proper supplies, instead using their blankets and their hands, and which, according to prisoners, still smells. The “extra” blankets, to the extent there were any, were used for that, says Derek.1
Prisoners “were talking about starting to set fires in here the other day,” he says, “and running around with torches and stuff, because it got so cold in here, but they remembered when [prisoners] done that before.”2
“And if they think it’s smokey in here when we’re smoking a cigarette,” Derek continues, “shit, well, set them damn blankets and stuff on fire and see how smokey it is. Everybody will be on the floor.”
Derek is considering a different course of action: “I’ve thought about just writing a request to the warden about the heat,” he says. “I’m going to maybe try to get everybody in here to write a request to that warden about the heat, try to get a god damn pile of them on his desk by next week. I’m going to try to get everybody to write him a damn request. They’ll have requests coming out of their ass.”
He elaborates, “That’s what [the officer] said. Everybody heard him… When they came in to do the count, a couple of the fellas went over there, asking them, ‘What about the heat? There’s no heat in here. It’s freezing in here.’ ‘Write a fucking request.’ Come on, man.”
Further, he adds, “It had to have been below freezing in here. It had to have been. And it ain’t nothing but concrete and steel in here, so everything is cold.”
Side note: Before the end of our call, I ask Derek if he believes the plumbing issues are related to the insufficient amount of toilet paper provided to the prisoners. Like the other prisoners I’ve asked, he believes it is.
“Sometimes these guys flush blankets and sheets and stuff down the toilet. If they don’t have enough toilet paper to wipe their ass with, they’re going to cut up stuff to wipe their butt. So, yes, that has made plumbing disasters in this place,” he says.
(III)
“The last couple of days have been kind of rough, Mr. Matthew,” says the source referred to as “Oliver” in these stories when I interview him again in late January.
“We don’t have any heat, man. It’s bad. No heat, air coming through the windows, the doors. We’ve been freezing,” he says.
Asked what kind of impact that has on himself and other prisoners, “Ain’t nothing we can do but just stay in bed, man, stay warm. It makes us not even want to get up and walk around,” he says, adding, “The best thing to do is just stay in bed, stay covered up, stay wrapped up.”
At least one night, “Officers had to spend the night in the prison. They couldn’t even go home. It was so bad. It was so bad, they had to work a double shift until the snow melted, because the other people couldn’t get here,” says Oliver.
“I ain’t ever been so cold in my life. I got worried the last couple of days. You could lay in your bed, Mr. Matthew, just be laying there, and you see steam come up out of your mouth, man. It’s that cold,” he adds.
This interview is from weeks ago. I’ve since gotten multiple reports that prisoners in at least one dorm in Bullock have started fires in the past couple of weeks. I’ve also been interviewing prisoners who we present for and/or participated in riots over the years, and will have stories about that out the coming weeks.