Cory Stephens has been here in Shitville for a couple of summers. Summers suck. In the cell blocks, the heat rises to well over a hundred degrees and there’s just no relief. On top of it, throughout his childhood, Cory had asthma. Now, in his twenties, his breathing only gets aggravated when it’s extremely hot or extremely humid. So, those blistering days locked in a steel cage carry the added, ominous threat that Cory may find himself wheezing and desperate for air.

He doesn’t have a lot of financial support and like most prisoners here, he lives month to month on a stipend of less than twenty bucks– funds he uses to buy soap and writing supplies, toothpaste and deodorant. So, an appliance like a fan is typically out of reach. Recently, however, he had a nice windfall of fifty bucks and immediately ordered a fan and an electrical power-strip to plug it in. No more wheezing and gasping for air. And, all things equal, he’d get his fan right before the hottest weekend of the year.
So, look: here’s how it works. We get our commissary order forms on Friday. We fill them out. Our orders get filled the following Wednesday. Anything not filled on Wednesday gets made up on the subsequent Friday. At least, that’s how it works on paper.
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