The Danger of Record Heat in Prison

The summer of 2022 proved to be a scorcher. June 2022 saw the warmest temperatures on record over the world’s land areas, and record-breaking heat waves swept across the northern hemisphere, particularly continental Europe, the UK, China and parts of the US. 2022 is still on track to likely be the fifth warmest year on record in most datasets, though it could be as high as the second or as low as the eighth depending on how temperatures develop in the remaining six months of the year.

With scientists and studies chronicling the impact of climate change on increasing temperatures across the country, advocates for incarcerated people are sounding the alarm about sweltering conditions in U.S. prisons, where current infrastructure is ill-equipped for a problem on track to worsen with climate change and global warming creating warmer and sustained heat waves.

At least 44 U.S. states, including those with some of the highest temperatures nationally, don't have universal air conditioning in their prisons, according to a USA TODAY analysis (subscriber only) of media reports and information from state corrections departments. The analysis is the most comprehensive data available about cooling systems in U.S. state prisons, as the information isn't tracked. Only one state - Tennessee - said its prisons were fully air conditioned. A handful of other states had nearly universal air conditioning or used other cooling methods to control the temperature in all areas of their facilities.

Advocates say hot conditions in prison may constitute "cruel and unusual punishment," prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. David Fathi, Director of the ACLU's National Prison Project, said people should view this worsening crisis through the lens of values. "Do we as a society find it acceptable to torture incarcerated people and expose them to conditions we know are going to fill at least a few of them and are going to cause serious injury to some additional people?"

Dying from heat is a common fear among inmates, according to a report released in July by the Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and Texas Prisons Community Activists. "It's torture. The level of the heat inside of these facilities is such that it's difficult to breathe, it's difficult to move," said Texas state Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat and longtime advocate for cooling prisons.

"I feel like I'm going to die right here in this cell or have one hell of a heat stroke...They don't care if I die in here or not," one survey respondent wrote.

To read the Texas A&M July 2022 report, visit this link.