A federal lawsuit is claiming that an inmate was literally baked to death inside his prison cell in Bessemer, Alabama, according to AI.com. Thomas Lee Rutledge died in December of 2020 at the William Donaldson Correctional Facility.
The lawsuit contends that the 44-year-old was found unresponsive in his cell with his face pressed to his window trying to breathe cold air as the heat rose to extreme levels in the mental health dorm, where Rutledge was housed.
“He was literally baked to death in his cell.”
The federal lawsuit claimed that prison guards did nothing on the night of Rutledge’s death even though they knew the heating system in the T-unit wasn’t working properly and other inmates had died from the extreme heat. It also alleged that inmates taking psychotropic medications who were “especially vulnerable” to the heat were left in the over-heated cells.
“Prison officials, including Warden Phyllis Morgan and Warden Kenneth Peters, had long been aware of problems with the boiler that posed a substantial risk of serious harm to incarcerated persons,” the lawsuit stated.
The complaint was updated two weeks ago with the U.S. District Court and claimed when corrections investigator Clark Hopper opened another inmate’s tray door on the night Rutledge died, he said it was like, “opening an oven and when you are getting something out of the oven it hits your face.”
“When he dropped his meal door, it was, it was just, pardon the language, but it was hotter than three hells when it dropped.”
When Rutledge was found on Dec. 7, his temperature was 109 degrees. The lawsuit alleges “cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment” and is seeking damages. On the night Rutledge was found, the system’s heating loop allegedly exceeded 130 degrees, and evidence logs from the boiler room have been destroyed. A prison official claimed that the records were destroyed in a flood due to a broken water pipe.