COLD WINTER AIR CONTINUES TO PERMEATE INMATE’S CELL DESPITE NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS; INMATE CLAIMS “INTENTIONAL”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jan. 6, 2018) — A letter received on Saturday from TDOC inmate Grenda Ray Harmer, #88710, reports that his cell in the “PC” unit at MCCX remains “like a deep freezer” but that Warden Shawn Phillips responded positively, in part, to a November 10, 2017 “Administrative Notice” Harmer sent him concerning the serving of cold food “daily.”
Harmer has also alleged that the food portions served to Protective Custody inmates, where he has been housed since late July, are substantially smaller than to the general population.
Since November, Harmer has been reporting that his cell temperature is extremely cold due to external air being “pumped in through the vents,” necessitating his wearing of multiple layers of clothing, coat and hats and his confinement to bed much of the time in an attempt to keep warm.
In a December 12 letter, Harmer said that other PC inmates “have complained as well.” In a letter dated December 8, Harmer wrote that “I talked to maintenance and they turned the heat on everywhere else…”
On December 18, The Post & Email relayed Harmer’s report to TDOC spokeswoman Neysa Taylor with a request for comment but received no response.
Harmer’s most recent letter, dated December 29, reads, in part:
Harmer’s good news was reported in the next paragraph:
Enclosed with Harmer’s letter was Phillips’s response to the November 10, 2017 Administrative Notice:
