Fulton inmate describes ‘sickening’ living conditions in state prison
FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)
Like sitting in front of an oven.
That's how Fulton Diagnostic and Reception Center inmate Kenneth Goldman describes summer afternoons lately.
"Once you get to the morning time, it starts to get a little rough and then by lunch, the hottest point of the day, it's like sitting in front of an oven with no airflow through the cell at all," Goldman said.
Goldman said he's witnessed many of his fellow inmates fall sick from heat-related illnesses.
Goldman has been an inmate at the FRDC for two months now and calls the treatment of the inmates and their living conditions "sickening."
FRDC has air conditioning in its administrative, transitional care, infirmaries and segregated housing units.
However, the FRDC does not have air conditioning in its inmate housing. The Missouri General Assembly approved the funding for the installation during the 2023 legislative session and it is part of the state budget for fiscal 2024.
Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, previously told ABC 17 News that the installation is expected to be completed in January 2026.
Goldman said that during the summer months nighttime is sometimes the only relief inmates are able to find from the heat. This summer in particular has seen several stretches of temperatures over 90 degrees and the past week saw several days with the heat index over 100 degrees.
Pojmann said to accommodate inmates in the meantime, FRDC has placed giant fans in all buildings, is giving inmates ice three times a day and water throughout the day and restricts physical activity when it is too hot.
However, Goldman says the ice the inmates are given is kept in unsanitary coolers.
"They're falling apart full of mold, hair, bugs. When you got to wash them out in the shower where there's showers are full of mold and spiders and everything else," Goldman said.
ABC 17 News received a call on Sunday about sewage coming up from the showers at FRDC. They claimed inmates had to clean it up with their bare hands. Goldman said he was one of the inmates on cleanup detail.
"The walk men yeah, they have to clean it out of their hands me and one other guy, we’re the walk men in our wing," Goldman said. "We're not allowed to have gloves, and they give us a bottle of mixture of bleach and water to clean it with."
When asked about the relationship between the inmates and the corrections officers, Golden said some of them are understanding and try to help the inmates but others have bad intentions.
"We get some of them that come in and they sit up in the AC room that they have and pretty much taunting us about it, and then threatening to lock our ice chest up from us if we're not listening," Goldman said.
ABC 17 News reached out to the Missouri Department of Corrections with these claims. Karen Pojmann a spokesperson for the DOC said in an email "There have been no reports of any issues with water, sewage or other utilities at FRDC."
