From The Appeal:
In states across the South and Southwest, the summer has brought shocking headlines of prison cells reaching as high as 115 degrees, children being kept in stifling hot solitary confinement cells for nearly 24 hours a day, and incarcerated people reporting being “cooked” alive. A heat dome last week brought punishing temperatures across the Midwest, Central, and Southern U.S., resulting in triple-digit highs in many areas.
As brutal heat waves continue to engulf large sections of the country, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are being forced to endure deadly temperatures inside heat-retaining steel or concrete facilities that offer little, if any, access to air conditioning or circulation. With these conditions likely to worsen due to climate change, advocates are fighting to provide relief to incarcerated people who are now among the earliest and most vulnerable victims of this crisis.
Though the U.S. Constitution protects against “cruel and unusual punishment,” there is no federal mandate for prisons or jails to provide air conditioning or keep indoor temperatures below a certain level. As a result, facilities nationwide operate under an inconsistent patchwork of policies and practices that fails to protect the incarcerated. In some states, prison officials have resisted simpler measures to help prisoners combat the heat, including denying them access to ice, breathable clothing, cold water, and cool showers. Continue reading>>>>
|
|
|
|
