When Jason Wilson was transferred in June to the Coffield Unit, a men’s prison in Texas, to serve his sentence for unlawful possession of a firearm, he was initially pleased by the change of scenery. He was aware that the lock-up could be challenging in summer, given its lack of air conditioning and the intense heat in the cells, but his previous institution had been depressing.
“It’s better here for sure,” he wrote in an email to an outside advocate.
Over the next few weeks, the tone of Wilson’s emails darkened. By late June the heat was rising, and he reckoned it felt like 115F (46C) in his cell. “I can withstand the heat,” he said, “but passing out water only once a day as it gets hotter isn’t cool.”
One day Wilson, a 47-year-old who went by the name “Blue”, wrote at 5.53pm: “They haven’t passed out any cold water today at all. This is ridiculous, doesn’t make sense.”
One of his last emails came on 1 July. “Pretty warm today … no cold water at all … it’s 5.45pm … we need cold water like now.”
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