Florida prison without air conditioning sued over extreme summer heat

Suffocating heat in a concrete Miami jail without air conditioning led to four deaths and subjected inmates to cruel and unusual punishment, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

three Dade Correctional Institution prisoners, represented by Florida Institute of Justice, The class-action lawsuit states that the temperature at the state facility exceeds 100 degrees in the summer. Inmates are “routinely treated” in the infirmary for rashes, heat exhaustion and related illnesses, the lawsuit says, before being returned to “dangerously hot conditions” that made them sick.

Florida Institute for Justice attorney Andrew Udelsman told USA TODAY that the nonprofit law firm has been receiving an increasing number of complaints about the prison’s heat over the past decade.

“In Miami-Dade County, it is considered animal cruelty to leave a dog in a parked car during the summer,” Udelsman said. concrete boxes all summer, and largely ignoring their pleas for help.”

Dade Correctional Institution and the Florida Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment.

The lawsuit was filed at a time when meteorologists are warning of abnormally high temperatures around the world. in the hottest summer in history This year, researchers say that people in prisons are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illness or death in confined spaces, often without air conditioning.

A recent study in Found Massachusetts Institute of Technology more than 98% of prisons in the United States experienced at least ten days hotter than any previous summer, with the worst heat-affected prisons concentrated in the Southwest.

The lawsuit refers to the grueling conditions of detention in the summer heat

Most of the men at the 28-year-old prison suffer from at least one form of heat-related illness during the summer, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

“Some died from heatstroke or cardiovascular disease exacerbated by prolonged exposure to extreme heat,” the complaint said.

The only air conditioning is in the officers’ control rooms, and the plaintiffs said guards stationed in the cafeteria would rush inmates to eat so they could return to the cooled quarters.

In a desperate attempt to escape the heat, the lawsuit says many inmates wet the sheets and sleep on the concrete floor.

According to the complaint, people in solitary confinement spend about 23 hours a day in hot, poorly ventilated cells that are smaller than an average parking space, where they sleep, eat and use the toilet. They are allowed a limited number of showers per week.

One person who spent months in prison bathed in toilet water at night because it was colder than the water in the sink, the complaint said.

A lawsuit is filed after a disappointing legislative session in Florida for prison reform advocates. State legislators refused to consider several bills aimed at improving prison conditions, including legislation that would require air conditioning in every housing unit in all Florida correctional facilities.

The intense heat led to the deaths at the prison, the lawsuit says

The lawsuit alleges heat played a role in the four deaths, and the death toll could rise as more information becomes available, Udelsman told USA TODAY.

One inmate, identified in the lawsuit as “JB,” had been complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing for weeks, the lawsuit said. The 81-year-old man was in a wheelchair, so he was placed in a single cell with poor ventilation.

On Sept. 20, plaintiff Dwayne Wilson said he heard JB yelling for help from the cell. Wilson found him lying on the floor and struggling to breathe, so he alerted a security guard to 911 and JB received respiratory treatment before being ordered back to his cell.

“The medical staff accused JB of coming to the air-conditioned infirmary simply to escape the heat,” the complaint states. “Inmates tried to defend JB, telling medical staff and officers that he was very ill.”

JB was found dead in his cell on September 24th. Court documents say the heat index reached 104 degrees that day — during National Weather Service “dangerous” zone – and the exhaust fans in his cell were not working.

“It is likely that prolonged exposure to the hot, unventilated air at (Dade Correctional Facility) contributed to JB’s death,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs say they got sick from the heat

The three plaintiffs named in Thursday’s lawsuit said they became ill from the heat at the prison this summer and had “exhausted all available administrative remedies.”

According to the complaint, Wilson, 66, passed out in his dorm in August on a day when the heat index reached 100 degrees. He was taken to the medical ward and put on a drip, and the doctor told him to “remain as calm as possible.”

Another plaintiff, Tyrone Harris, 54, said in the lawsuit that he was brought to the medical unit for a one-hour breathing procedure two to three times a week this summer. Harris has asthma and takes medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol, which makes him more susceptible to heat illness, the lawsuit says. He often has heat cramps, rash and dizziness.

Court documents state that the population at Dade Correctional Institution is particularly vulnerable to heat exhaustion, with more than half over the age of 50 and nearly 25% over the age of 65. Many inmates have medical conditions or disabilities that increase susceptibility to heat illness.

Most US prisons do not have universal air conditioning

AND Analysis by USA TODAY in 2022, it was found that at least 44 states did not air-condition their prisons across the board, and only one – Tennessee – said they were fully air-conditioned.

In Florida, about 24 percent of the state’s prison units are air-conditioned, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Molly Best previously told USA TODAY. Fans and exhaust systems are used instead of air conditioners.

People in prisons often face particularly dire conditions when it’s extremely hot, as the facilities are ill-equipped to handle the incredible temperatures. And while some states aren’t usually known for sweltering heat, experts say they should be prepared for the realities of a changing climate.

“Many of these prisons were not built to be comfortable or humane.” said Ufuoma Owienmhada, lead author of an MIT study on prison heat. “Climate change only reinforces the fact that prisons are not designed to allow inmates to mitigate their own exposure to environmental risk factors such as extreme heat.”

Contributed by Jeanine Santucci, Javier Zarrachina, Jennifer Borresen, USA TODAY; By Elena Barrera, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida