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Stuffy doesn’t even describe it.
This week, more than one-third of the U.S. population Under Overheat Warning and High Temperature Advisory.Dozens of major cities and states have New temperature records set in recent weeksincluding Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hottest June on record.
Less than an hour from downtown, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as the Angola Penitentiary, the state A makeshift juvenile prison was set up last fallin a building that once housed adults awaiting execution.
Young people in Angola face inhumane conditions in large part because they Regular storage in non-air-conditioned cells for up to 72 hours. In a statement filed with the court, medical expert Dr. Susi U. Vassallo called the practice “reckless and dangerous” and said: “I dare not put my dog in this situation because I fear my dog will die.”
In prison this June and July, The heat index often exceeds 125 degreeswhich the National Weather Service classifies as ‘Extreme risk’ of heat-related illness and death.
2021, Louisiana $2.8 million spent Study the cost of cooling all prisons with air conditioners, but still waiting for results. Meanwhile, adults in Angola — the country’s largest facility — are fighting for relief. “It was over 100 degrees in there. I was laying on the floor. I could barely breathe. Oh my god, it felt like I was suffocating!” an unidentified person told The Advocate.
This isn’t just a Louisiana problem.texas is a state Most often associated with prison heatbecause it is both largest state prison system in the country, and one average hottest state, second only to Florida.More than two-thirds of Texas prisons Their residences are not air-conditioned. in May, State senators veto a bill The bill, which has passed the state legislature, would spend $500 million over the next eight years on building air-conditioned prisons.
Texas Death due to heat has not yet been officially announced Imprisoned since 2012, but JAMA November Study It concluded that 271 deaths in Texas prisons between 2001 and 2019 were “probably attributable to extremely hot weather.”Separately set up nationwide Research published this week The study found that for every 10-degree rise in average summer temperatures, prison deaths increased by 5.2 percent.
The Texas prison system does have a program that screens out those most sensitive to heat and transfers them to so-called “cooling beds” in air-conditioned prisons, largely because of the lawsuit.those who stay described the conditions as torture.
The New York Times interviewed more than a dozen current and former incarcerated people about the incident last month “Struggling to survive” in prison in extreme heat. Some reported their cells were flooded and sought relief by lying on wet concrete, while others screamed or lit fires to get the attention of guards. In last summer’s newsletter about prison heat, we covered more desperate and creative ways people are surviving the heat.
In a powerful piece for Prism earlier this month, Kwaneta Harris, who is serving time in a Texas state prison, wrote: Women in her unit often self-harm Only to be transferred to an air-conditioned psychiatric facility, guards tried to dissuade with tear gas threats.she also pointed out The cost of bottled water has risen sharply Inside the prison store in the depths of the heat wave. “I think price gouging is legal when the state is the price gouger and the prisoners are the customers. It all adds to the desperation,” Harris wrote.
Correctional officers don’t spend as much time in jail as incarcerated people, but many still face the harsh conditions of the heat. It’s not uncommon for guards to work 12- or 14-hour shifts in bulky stab-proof vests, The president of the Texas military officers’ union told KXAN-TV. “It’s like you go and buy the heaviest coat you can, put that coat on, and go to Texas Memorial Stadium and run up and down the stairs constantly,” executive director Jeff Ormsby told the station.
Correctional officials and legislators the whole south Citing non-air-conditioned prisons as Major Barriers to Recruiting Officers.As my colleague Maurice Chammah said recently told the pbs news hour“, “Partly because they don’t want to put up with the heat, but partly because correctional officers don’t want to put up with increased violence, suicides and other problems in prisons during the hottest summer months.” “
In turn, the shortage of staff will exacerbate the hot weather.Inmates at the Dauphin County Jail in central Pennsylvania Lockdown for most of July due to staffing issuesAccording to county officials. That means people spend 23 hours a day in cells without ventilation, air conditioning or windows.Lack of staff also hinders the “heat mitigation” strategies adopted by most prison systems, which include use ice, extra showers, and fans.
When these systems fail, even air-conditioned facilities can be exposed to dangerously high temperatures. That was the case Tuesday at the Perryville Women’s Prison in Arizona, where some evaporative coolers failed. The indoor temperature quickly climbed to 98 degreeswomen there told KPNX that the cells were like “concrete coffins.”