Really not sure what you are getting at.

Yes, I heard that. After Hillary and her lot are defeated in November, ( we can hope ) Kerry needs to be exiled to south Florida in the summer time without AC.

If you are arguing that the penal system has moved away from the purpose of reforming inmates to merely incarcerating them, I won't disagree. I think that it is criminal - pun intended - but a product of a system which is straying ever closer to that of a politicized system than a true justice system.

While I do not believe that criminals should be made comfortable while incarcerated, I do believe that we have a duty to protect their lives, while incarcerated. Maybe AC with the thermostat set at 90 in the summer and 60 in the winter.

why if they can't keep these people cool, they should
release them, like BHO has with the tens of thousands
of illegal aliens! -- j

p.s. for clarity, this is sarcasm, Alex.
.

Didn’t you all hear that Kerry (aka Al Gore) just stated AC is more dangerous than ISIS. God help all of us if Hitlery gets elected.

I agree comfort is not a human right, but we should not kill a prisoner with heat stroke. However, I'd also point out that there are always going to be issues, and one guy dying is not an epidemic.

An individual has no right to a commodity. AC is a commodity. An individual has no more of a right to AC or health care as an individual has a right to a cookie. Reading and listening to statists trumpet their nonsense regarding human rights reminds of of a phrase "life is tough ... but it's even more tough when you're stupid." A lot of these entitlement pushers are worse than stupid, they are mentally-retarded insolent toddlers... and in the context of the ones with political power, they are also wielding a gun.

Comfort is something that the user should have to buy for himself, on that much you are right. But the quoted material is about prisoners, some of whom die every year because prison authorities won't provide AC. In that context I believe at some point they are right -- allowing them to bake like that is torture and only the law can intervene to stop it, so it needs to.

On the other hand I would like to see us try L. Neil Smith's proposal to ban AC in the Capitol -- thus making Congress shut down for at least part of the year.

I would submit that the recidivism rate is high by design.

Obama is evil; he knows exactly what he us doing. He is Ellsworth Tooey and Mr. Thompson rolled into one. Al Gore is simply insane and should always be accompanied by a keeper to prevent him from harming himself or anyone else.

Through the fraudulent theory of man-caused global warming, governments seek to gain complete control of the energy sectors of the world. Your rights to air conditioning and comfort will be controlled.

Thanks Michael.

Air conditioning as a human right is, of course, so silly that it is hard to deal with seriously. I can think of many things that make life more comfortable. If they were all deemed a human right, it would be lefty's delight. In order to provide those comforts the state would have to take over every aspect of a citizen's life. Air conditioning would be just a foot in the door.

Oh, memories to gag for the heat on!
For 21 years summer heat was something this now retired Alabama corrections officer never looked forward to.
In my state where air conditioning was located varied.from prison to prison and there are several.
I'll write of where I spent 21 years instead of the first 6 months at a less, less, less air conditioned old fossil for a prison. I transferred to a new one then being built in 1982.
In the midst of my 21-year career, a blowhard politician running for some state office complained of felons in comfy air conditioned prison cells.
Listening to his garbage, I glared at the TV, saying, "What the hell are you talking about, you stupid ignorant jerk?" (Instead of "jerk," I said something more colorful).
Officers assigned to be "rovers" were supposed to stay where inmates lived. Cell block day rooms had fans that only felt good when it was 99 degrees by standing directly in front of them and the cells had nada. Less dangerous inmates (and that's big time relatively speaking) lived in dorm with lined up bunks that were a tad more airy for ventilation.
Better off this time of year were the "cube officers" (who watched the rovers and the inmates) in air conditioned high places in between dorms and the day rooms of cell blocks. It did my heart good to see myself assigned in any cube on, say, a day like July 25, 1985.
There was no air conditioning for the six towers that were, during the late 90s reduced to the only two that operated a gate due to an electric fence being run through two fence perimeter.
After I left in 2003, I was told of people running out of the surrounding woods to toss drugs into the unguarded prison yards. Glad I never had to rove a prison yard with no one with a rifle and a hand radio watching over me.
The only air conditioned places at that prison were administration, the visiting room, the infirmary, the chapel, the maintenance station, the kitchen area of the cafeteria, the inmate law library assorted schools for obtaining a GED or learning a trade and the cubes or cubicles.
Even when you had to worry with someone on suicide watch (two special cells of that), it was always nice to catch an infirmary post during the summer save for two days in a row.
That's the problem for being known not to whine. For two days straight I caught the infirmary when the GAG! air conditioning was broke. Guess what post I caught after that? I was a GAG! freaking cell block rover.
Rovers were supposed to stay out of the cubes but we all at times snuck into one to cool off, rest our feet and/or to chat with the cube officer.
Such I was doing one hot and humid summer day when a fight broke out. As I rushed out to break it up, my glasses immediately fogged up.
I broke up the fight with help on the way, but it took me a little longer to get there.
I'll never forget the day I was assigned to the back gate during the mid-90s. Work was unusually busy out under a hot sun. Left with a migraine headache. Had to tell the carpooling driver to stop because I thought I going to throw up. Instead I had dry heaves. At home I took a cold shower and then took my aching head straight to bed.
I damn well earned my pay that hot summer day.

A free individual does not have a right to food, clothing or shelter, including air conditioning.

However a prisoner is not a free individual. When the state incarcerates someone, they assume the responsibility for providing for them since they have utilized force to prevent them from providing for themselves.

Does this include air conditioning? Probably only to the extent that life is threatened by the temperatures in the prison -- where the individual is being held against their will.

Comfort is not a human right, but life is. The issue here is housing prisoners in unsafe conditions. These people were not sentenced to death, but were restrained in an environment that caused their death. When a prisoner is sentenced to incarceration the state assumes all legal responsibility for their safety and welfare - simply because as a condition of incarceration, they lose the right to defend themselves from aggression and unsafe conditions. "Air conditioning" is not needed to prevent heat stroke, but intelligent building design and good ventilation is. Would anyone think it reasonable to lock prisoners in "sweat boxes" like was done less than a century ago? According to the article the heat index inside the buildings reached 123 degrees. Over long term exposure this is little different than a "sweat box". We have specific legal mechanisms to deny life to those who have committed the most grievous crimes. These prisoners were not legally denied life. Instead they died in conditions that any of us would be imprisoned for leaving a child in our care in.
(Texas citizen)

I know what you are saying, but we concede too much about rights (perhaps not human rights).

Yes you have a natural right to air conditioning, which means that if you can acquire it the government should not stop you from doing so. We also have a right to health care, which means the government has no right to interfere with our attempt to obtain health care. It does not mean someone else has to pay for it.

Sounds like a really good reason not to go to prison. ;)

On a serious note, however, I've been to prison to visit people there and I can see why the recidivism rate is so high.

One does not had that ability in a prison. ;-)