WESTOVER, Md. — Michele Kennedy Kouadio feels guilty turning on her air conditioning in this heat. She knows her son doesn't get the chance to feel that relief.
"It's hard to go to sleep at night knowing that my son is suffering the way he is," she told WMAR-2 News.
He's incarcerated at Eastern Correctional Institution (ECI), Maryland's largest prison. Like all prisons in our state, there's no central air.
"Imagine today that somebody said to you, hey Elizabeth, guess what, you have no air conditioning. And you're gonna have to stay in your room all day long. Oh, and by the way, you're gonna have to do that for the next week. And the temperatures like over 100 degrees," she told WMAR-2 News' Elizabeth Worthington.
WMAR-2 News spoke to Michele last summer about her concerns and her efforts to engage with state lawmakers and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS).
She says nearly a year later, the only thing that's changed is that the inmates are spending more time locked in their hot cells.
"I think the thing that's concerning us most is to be on lockdown 23 hours out of 24 hours," Kennedy Kouadio said. "That's what's probably the most difficult.
She recently sent a letter to Phil Morgan, the DPSCS Commissioner of Correction. The letter was co-signed by other mothers who have sons behind the walls at ECI. They're part of a Maryland-based coalition that's been around since 2000 called A Mother's Cry.
They're asking for their sons to be given fresh air - a chance to be outside for a few hours a day.
Commissioner Phillip Morgan wrote them back, saying "DPSCS makes every possible effort to provide consistent recreation access to individuals in our custody. However the ability to do so must be balanced with our paramount responsibility: maintaining a safe and secure environment for both incarcerated individuals and staff. Staffing shortages, emergency incidents, and other operational challenges can unfortunately impact this access."
You can read the full letter below.
"What we're asking is let DPSCS engage with us further by finding the funding now, whether it's at the prison's level or whatever to alleviate this extreme heat and to get our folks out of the cells," Kennedy Kouadio said.
Commissioner Morgan also said the department has been "making significant strides to address staffing challenges, particularly at ECI, including the assignment of dedicated recruitment and onboarding personnel to the region and are actively working to fill critical vacancies."
He said these challenges cannot be resolved overnight, but DPSCS is committed to making progress. That includes restoring consistency to programs like religious and recovery services, which have been getting canceled due to the same staffing and safety concerns.
Kennedy Kouadio and the mothers she works with to advocate for better treatment are hoping they can be part of these solutions.
"We don't want to be at odds with you. We want to work with you," she said. "Most folks that are in Maryland prisons are not relegated to a life sentence. So they hope to serve their time. And be able to get out whole, not serve their time and get out in worse conditions so that they can't work and contribute."
