It’s 115 degrees outside, add 7 degrees more for urban heat syndrome, caused by nothing but cement and asphalt in PeeVille. This is a killer heat wave for all the women incarcerated in medium and closed custody.

I survived 11 summers on Lumley, Cruz and Maria with NO air conditioning. I know how to wrap myself in a soaked sheet and pant all day and night. One summer in 2013 I passed out and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

So, here I am on San Carlos as cool as a cucumber while my medium friends are being tortured. It weighs on me. I hope the 3 ladies on tour from the legislature, ask to stand for a moment in a concrete cell and imagine being there for life. There are “lifers” who will never get out of prison, and that is their fate.