USA: weathering a hurricane in prison

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have prompted mass evacuations in Texas and Florida. But many Americans have been unable to flee, including huge numbers of prison inmates. The two states together are home to a quarter million incarcerated people. Texas has the largest prison population in the country, and Florida has the third-largest.

During Hurricane Harvey, many Texas prisoners were locked in their cells with limited access to water and electricity. After officials decided not to evacuate a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, hundreds of guards struggled to show up for work. Inmates said that they lost access to medication, and one prisoner told his wife that cells flooded up to calf-height. These reports came six weeks after a federal judge ordered the state to improve prison conditions during the intense summer heat, which has killed twenty-three inmates since 1998.

Sherrard Williams, who is serving a life sentence for being party to a murder when he was seventeen, weathered the storm in a two-person cell in Connally Unit, a maximum-security prison in Kenedy, Texas. He is thirty-eight. His account has been edited and condensed.

“It all began on Friday. You could hear the wind out there, powerful wind, and a lot of thunder. I guess the rain caused a lot of damage that affected the unit. They placed us in our cells on Friday evening because of security reasons. When the storm actually came through, we went through the experience of the power being shut off, to where everything was completely in disarray. No lights, no electricity. The generators couldn’t even function where I was at. After that, hours later, the water was cut off. I don’t know how, I don’t know why.

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