By Marina Fang, Guest Blogger on Jul 19, 2013 at 9:00 am
Source: Shutterstock
Prisons in Ohio are restricting electricity use this week as
temperatures skyrocket, due to a monetary agreement between the state and a top
power company.
According to the Columbus
Dispatch, 24 Ohio prisons have agreed to shut off electricity
for periods of three to four hours between 2 and 6 p.m. and have resorted to
backup generators because of a cost agreement between the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction and KOREnergy Ltd., the company that provides
power to the prisons. In exchange for agreeing to shut off the power on two
hours’ notice, the company makes annual payments to the prison system. Since
2010, the agreement has earned the state $1.3 million.
As a result, electricity
for fans, lights, and televisions has been limited, even as Ohio, like much of
the country, is suffering through a major heat wave, with temperatures soaring
into the 90s all week. According to JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the
department, prisoner cells are not air-conditioned. She said temperatures at
London Correctional Institute in Madison County have ranged between 82 and 89 degrees.
Smith said the prisoners are being given cold water and ice, and they can
still use ceiling fans, floor fans, and outdoor sprinklers.
But shutting off power can
endanger safety and security because it frustrates inmates. Ellen Kitchens, a
member of CURE, an advocacy group for prison inmates and their families, told
the Dispatch that shutting off power can trigger tension. “Tempers will be flaring
because they’re so mad about what’s going on,” she said. She reported that
prisoners at London Correctional Institution in Madison County could not take
showers because they were not functioning due to the power outage.
And as the ACLU warned in a
statement, government agencies should not resort to these types of measures to
earn revenue because “it compromises safety and security, not only for the
incarcerated, but for the people who staff these facilities,” said director of
communications and public policy Mike Bricker.
While this agreement is
limited in scope, the instinct to use prisons as a revenue source can have
dangerous consequences. Studies of private prisons have shown that profit
creates perverse incentives to lobby for incarceration and prioritize revenue over the rehabilitation of prisoners.
Given Ohio’s massive prison
population, however, profit from the agreement is likely going to defray the costs
of mass incarceration.
With 49,710 inmates in its adult prison system, Ohio has the sixth highest
prison population in the country. In 2012, to incarcerate an inmate in an Ohio
prison cost $24,870 per year, or $68.14 per day. The bulk of these costs went
to security, involving “the supervision and control of inmates.”
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