US court revives lawsuit over Oklahoma prison conditions

STRINGTOWN, Okla. — 32-year-old Joseph Womble is serving an 11-year sentence for first-degree robbery.

Womble says conditions at a state prison violated his constitutional rights.

The inmate says that the ice machine and water fountain in his unit stopped working and that water from his cell sink was contaminated and made him sick.

He also alleges that temperatures in his cell at the Mack Alford Correctional Center, in Stringtown, exceeded 90 degrees 15 times in June 2016, causing him to become dehydrated.

A federal judge in Muskogee dismissed the lawsuit, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in a decision on Tuesday.