43.Heat.Columbia.Open Record
43.heat_.mention- Log of emails from IWOC members and others helping: All forwarded to T.Cook, PR
C. Responses of DOC people during day 12/11/18 regarding heating issues:
From: Cook To: Novak 12/11/18 1037am Re: Heat “Could you give me a quick call?”
First recorded response from a DOC person
From: Cook to Novak 12/11/18 237 pm Summary of weekend heating issues saying issues were minor and temps were not outside acceptable parameters. Cc to Clare Hendricks
From: Clare Hendricks to T. Cook 12/11/18 239 pm asking if acceptable parameters are defined somewhere
From Novak to Hendricks 12/11/18 422 pm thinks there is a policy but not certain; searched for policy but couldn’t find one; building and grounds person assured her temps are kept above what is required tho there appears there is no policy that specifies what is required p17
From Hendricks to Novak 12/11/18 425 pm recommends specific policy to reinforce practice and actions p17
D. Mentions from prison personnel about heat issues
12/5/18 Service Request HVAC “adjust temps offices are cold per Superintendent Thompson 12/7/19 Service Request HVAC “main laundry boiler not heating or firing”
12/11/19 Service Request HVAC “mail room system is too hot need to repair valve”; repaired valve, air pressure was low
E. Daily Report CCI Security Shift Report 12/8/2019; at 0015 “Sgt.Schneider reports no heat on the B side. Messages left with building and grounds,& Superint. Thompson “
No further mention of lack of heat in survey of Operations Centers or Housing Units for this day
Daily Report 12/8/19 above report was for 3 shifts and with more detail; this report was more of a summary with same information; NO MENTION OF HEATING ISSUES
From Healey,Erica DOC
To: DOC DL DAI CCI staff
Sent Mon 12/10/18
Subject : Safety Newsletter Headline: Preventing Cold Stress
OBSERVATIONS
12 people recorded in open record sending emails; does not account for phone calls
6 sent late, in evening, presumably after people get home from work and check alerts
for the zap
6 sent late am and early afternoon
4 open record requests recorded
Earliest email from us was 1022am; first response from DOC person was 1037 from Cook to Novak asking for a phone call. Making an assumption it was about heat issue
Heating issues were first reported from 12/5/18 with a service request for cold temps in offices
(date range for open record was 12/1 – 12/11/18)
Problems on 12/7 and 12/8 with most notable on 12/8 from 3rd shift guard that there was “no heat” on B side; (12/8 and 12/9/18 were a weekend)
Nothing on heat issues till 12/11/18 with our emails and phone calls (12/22/18 was a Tuesday)
Email from T.Cook to S. Novak 12/11/18 237 pm regarding weekend issues about heat. One issue referred to a housing unit (B Side?) where inmates reported being cold. Staff reportedly took temp and said it was 70 degrees and temps did not fall below “acceptable parameters”.
The other incident where inmates reported being cold was traced to other inmates opening windows and chilling temp of entire unit. Again temps did not fall below “acceptable parameters” according to this email. Maintenance staff responded to these incidents.
CONCLUSIONS/IDEAS
Some indication that this action spurred a policy review:
- To check if there was a policy; seems there was not a specific one
- Recommendation for a more specific policy regarding acceptable parameters for ambient temp range
- Covering their butts
Some action was seen and back and forth among DOC people – warden Novak, T.Cook and C.Hendricks, after our emails started coming in and presumably some phone calls
Emails of this nature are probably forwarded to Public Relations and handled from there.
Maybe Cook saw more emails and calls coming in and requested a call with Novak to talk about what might be happening and how to respond.
Interesting to know:
When did our people get response emails from T.Cook? I don’t remember; maybe 11/12/18? And then it was sent out to all who sent emails.
Did incarcerated person writing to us give dates for the 5 days they said it was too cold?
Say anything about other inmates opening windows?
Don’t know what times phone calls were made, but a lot of activity seems to take place later in the day for emails. People responding late probably send emails rather than make calls. Exploit this and accommodate day working hours by asking for an evening zap which fills inboxes for the next morning. Drawback: Might put a bigger amount of time between when we hear of a problem and when we start complaining to DOC with emails and phone calls. Possibility of a bigger response tho?
What might be accomplished with this type of action:
- Alerts DOC that they are being watched with a fair amount of consistency
- Prompts policy reviews which hopefully help inmates; but DOC also does this to cover their own weak spots if issues are brought in the future.
- We do them a favor by calling attention to deficiencies!
- Probably won’t bring about deep change
Started 1/18/19, finished 1/27/19