With temperatures hovering near zero and windchills approaching minus 20 degrees, Spain Bady was ordered to leave his cell at Algoa Correctional Center on Saturday morning and clear snow from prison walkways.
He refused, telling the corrections officer directing him to go outside that he has been enrolled in education programs and is exempt from labor assignments. That is not what the prison records showed, was the response, and he had two options — go to work or go to administrative segregation.
“So they locked me up, cuffed me up, took me down to the hole, stripped me naked and left me there exposed to the elements in a building that is not heated,” Bady said Monday afternoon in an interview with The Independent.
The storm that covered most of Missouri in snow between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon left approximately 6 inches on the ground at Algoa in Jefferson City.
While the storm was still underway, prisoner activist Dena Notz, founder of the organization Collectively Changing Corrections, began fielding reports about prisoners being sent out to shovel snow at all hours of the day while small utility vehicles with snow plows and brushes remained idle.
Along with the report about Bady being punished for refusing, Notz fielded reports of people being rousted from their beds at Moberly Correctional Center for three-hour shifts ending at midnight, then being called out again before dawn to do the same job.
“I don’t think they should be able to force me to go out there and shovel snow at midnight, at negative 12 degrees, for hours,” Wesley Hays, who is in custody at the Moberly prison, said in an interview with The Independent. “I can’t argue with them, because I get in trouble, then I get disciplined for something that I don’t think we should be doing anyway.”
The air temperature was below 10 degrees and the wind-chill in central Missouri was minus 10 degrees or lower continuously from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.
“The officers have warm clothes to wear, and they have maintenance crews, and it’s like, ‘why are they having these guys go out and do this?’” Notz said in an interview. “I got reports this morning that they finally took the snow equipment out and started using it.”
Prison crews are put to work clearing snow while a storm is underway to keep walkways clear for medical crews and allow people in custody to reach dining halls and work assignments, Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email response to inquiries from The Independent.
“We do have UTVs equipped with snow removal gear, and they are used for snow removal, but they might not be appropriate for all walkways — and we don’t have enough of them for everyone involved in snow removal to use them,” Pojmann said.
Every inmate assigned to work on snow removal is provided coveralls, coats, gloves, boots and stocking caps, Pojmann wrote.
Indoor climate conditions at Algoa, a 93-year-old prison, are the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed last summer as temperatures were 100 degrees or higher inside because the prison lacks air conditioning.
The department monitors conditions regularly, Pojmann said,
“Inside the buildings, temperature checks are conducted in all wings of all housing units twice a day to ensure that indoor temperatures remain at appropriate levels,” she said.
Every person in state custody capable of working must either have a job inside the prison system or attend education programs, Pojmann said. Bady’s records show he is part of the Captain’s Team at Algoa, a work assignment for outdoor maintenance and groundskeeping, Pojmann said.
“His work assignment is not full-time student; it’s general laborer,” she said.
Each of the state’s 19 adult prisons has a Captain’s Team for those jobs, Pojmann said.
“Each facility has a resident snow crew,” she said. “It’s a paid job.”
Bady, however, said he signed up for the team last summer, then resigned to concentrate on his schooling.
Bady has been in custody since 2009 and believed he was likely to be released Jan. 10 after serving 85% of a 20-year sentence for robbery. He was told in September he would not be released this month and will be eligible for release in mid-2027.
He said he has not worked on the Captain’s Team since summer and the records of the department are not up-to-date.
“I tried to explain to the officer that I’m a full time student, that is my designated job, and I’m not required to go out and shovel no snow,” Bady said.”And so they were adamant that I was a part of the snow crew on the captain’s crew, and I needed to get out there and work because my name was in the system that’s registered to do this job.”
Kimberly Bady, his wife, said she was on the phone with her husband when he was ordered outside. She overheard him object and began trying to get him returned to his cell. He was in administrative segregation for about five hours.
“When he got out of the hole, they had men out there shoveling,” Kimberly Bady said. “He said, ‘as soon as the guy shoveled it, it would be covered over.’”
Kimberly Bady is a former corrections officer.
“Why are you having inmates who don’t have proper protection get out in a state of emergency, at risk for frostbite,” she said.
The department can’t wait for snow to end to clear walkways, Pojmann said.
“Sidewalks are cleared and salted regularly to keep them safe for all residents and staff passing through the facility, particularly ahead of the breakfast rush,” she said.
At Moberly, Hays is part of a “work on demand” detail and he knew he could not refuse, he said. The gloves available to prisoners are jersey gloves like those used by gardeners and the boots are not insulated, he said. If an incarcerated person wants warmer clothes than prison-issued garments, they must buy it through the canteen, he said.
The snow was very dry and easy to move with a broom. The broom given to him, Hays said, was broken and the sweeper head would not stay attached to the handle.
“Every time I had to bend down, pick up the broom, bring it back, and then sweep again,” he said.
The bitter cold was hard on anyone who didn’t have the money for warmer gear and the three-hour shifts were hard to endure, he said.
“They have a four wheel drive out there that could have done one sweep, one swipe could have been done,” he said. “And they have us guys on there with shovels and push brooms for hours doing something that takes that UTV could have done within one hour.”
Missouri has 19 adult prisons and there are facilities that had double the snow that fell at Algoa or Moberly. Madison Englert, Hays’ fiance, said she is a paramedic who has responded in winter on calls to the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron.
“Going out there, we have to just push our stretcher through the snow,” she said. “They don’t clear them in the middle of the night.”
The danger of hypothermia or frostbite in the bitter temperatures should have been mitigated by shorter work periods outdoors, Englert said.
The danger of refusing a work assignment is being punished, Pojmann said.
“At any facility,” she wrote, “anyone who fails to report for their regular designated paid work assignment may be found to be in violation of a rule (not being in the area where assigned or directed, for example) and therefore may be issued a conduct violation.”
