Summary Of The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison?

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In the United States, a citizen has rights granted to them under documents such as the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, which gives citizens certain freedoms as long as they obey the law. When someone commits a crime, they are then entitled to aspects such as a speedy trial, a fair jury, an attorney if they wish, and other things, under the sixth amendment. Even if the person is found guilty, as a U.S. citizen they have rights under the eighth amendment which include protection against excessive bail or fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. Since the framers enacted the amendment, the exact definition of cruel and unusual punishment has been difficult to pin down, changing with the times and everyone’s interpretations. Pete Earley’s novel, The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, depicts the conditions in the United States’ toughest prison, where some prisoner recounts, as well as Earley’s …show more content…

Earley notes that, “The design of the cellhouse contributes to the misery” acting as a greenhouse almost, this is how Leavenworth earned itself the nickname of the Hot House. According to an article published in Grist Magazine in 2014, federal judge Brian A Jackson ruled that the inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola had been subject to cruel and unusual punishment when nothing was done to save them from the heat, which reached 195 degrees in their cells. Kansas is also known for some exceedingly hot summers, and while Earley does not mention the exact temperature C cellblock could reach, if the entire place is known as the Hot House then it is likely just as harsh on these prisoners in the 90’s as it was for those in

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