{"id":510090,"date":"2022-02-12T14:12:33","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T14:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=385572"},"modified":"2022-02-12T14:12:33","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T14:12:33","slug":"as-wildfires-threaten-more-prisons-the-incarcerated-ask-who-will-save-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/02\/12\/as-wildfires-threaten-more-prisons-the-incarcerated-ask-who-will-save-their-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"As Wildfires Threaten More Prisons, the Incarcerated Ask Who Will Save Their Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"
With flames bearing<\/u> down on the remote California town of Susanville in August 2021, residents were getting ready to evacuate. The Dixie Fire, the state\u2019s second-largest blaze ever, had already been wreaking havoc on the main business in town: the two state prisons, each with capacities in the thousands, that call Susanville home. The wildfire had taken out power lines supplying the prisons, with the California Correctional Center\u2019s C-Yard hit particularly hard: The facility\u2019s backup generator had failed, and the people incarcerated there had been without lights for nearly a month.<\/p>\n
No power meant no cooking, no televisions to furnish a distraction. Time in the communal day room was scrapped. Prisoners could only rarely call their loved ones. Toilets stopped working for hours at a time, and the ventilation systems would go down as smoke wafted into the facility, according to two people incarcerated there at the time. (A California prisons official said the\u00a0facility was \u201crunning full-power operations.\u201d)<\/p>\n