This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, and The Guardian, an independent global investigative journalism organization. You can sign up here for The Marshall Project’s newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. You can subscribe to The Guardian's newsletters here.
After a summer of record-breaking temperatures, scientists predict that 2024 could end up being the hottest year on record. For people in U.S. prisons and jails — who often lack access to even the most basic cooling measures — conditions behind bars exacerbate the risks of dangerously high temperatures.
Several courts have ruled that extreme temperatures in prison violate the Eighth Amendment’s provision against “cruel and unusual” punishment. But these rulings have not led to a widespread adoption of air-conditioning or other methods to cool prison facilities or prevent heat-related deaths. Public health researchers at Brown University estimate that just one day of above average summer temperatures is associated with a nearly 4% increase in prison deaths. Suicides spike 23% in the three days following a heat wave. And for every 10 degrees above the average summer temperature, prison deaths increase 5%.
As summer temperatures shattered records across the country, Prison Journalism Project and The Marshall Project asked several incarcerated reporters to document the impact of extreme heat on their facilities. Below, we’ve published stories from 42 writers across 27 states. Their stories reveal the brutal reality: frequent medical emergencies, increased tension among the incarcerated, and little respite from the heat.
Stories By State
Alabama
Richard Fox
William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility
Bessmer, Alabama
55-year-old man
I know it’s hot in my prison when pretty much everyone is looking for a fan to sit near and some water to drink, officers included.
We have nowhere to go to cool off. There is no shade outside, and it’s so stuffy inside that it’s hard to breathe. It feels that way 24-7 for the whole summer, and summer is long in the South.
Generally the prison lets the older and sick people ride out the heat with the rest of us, but there are exceptions. We have a 105-year-old man who is in the infirmary, which has air conditioning. But for the most part everyone is treated the same. One man’s blood sugar levels dropped recently and he was sent to the infirmary for a couple days, but then he was sent right back into the prison population.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen at my prison was in the summer of 2007. It was a string of close to 20 days when the heat index was 100 degrees or higher — the state tracked 13 heat-related deaths that summer across Alabama. I remember it because my father died in a roofing accident on Aug. 3, 2007, in that extreme heat.
Arizona
Chad Weinstein
Arizona State Prison Complex, Eyman, Rynning Unit
Florence, Arizona
28-year-old man
We are always under excessive heat advisories. To help me beat the hot weather, I purchase sodas from the commissary, and I use the ice that guards hand out to every inmate.
I live in what the state calls a “hot cell,” an upstairs corner cell surrounded by three walls that the sun constantly bombards. At 9 a.m., the sun hits the east wall in the cell. At noon, the sun hits our roof and starts hitting our north wall. By 5 p.m., that wall gets warm and by 9 at night, it’s up to 92 degrees Fahrenheit. Guards check our cells with thermometers and, at times, our cell reaches 85 degrees. From 1 to 8 p.m., our cell door is allowed to remain open.
I know it’s too hot when inmates feel dizzy or pass out from heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Working out and playing basketball can also bring on symptoms of heat exhaustion. All you can do is stay out of the sun and its ultraviolet rays. The hardest part for me in the summer is that I can’t shower whenever I want because we live on a Level 4 (high security) yard and we reside in two-man cells. Sometimes we are offered an extra shower when a heat advisory is in place.
Frederick Mason
U.S. Penitentiary, Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
56-year-old man
I am writing from Arizona, where average temps this summer have been over 100 degrees, and as high as 110 degrees. I have been amazed at the guys who have played soccer and basketball in the rec yard during these blazing months.
In the Tucson area, we see monsoons in the summer. On Aug. 2, we were slammed with a heavy thunderstorm that tore the roofs off two of the prison towers.
Having said all this, when it comes to dealing with summer in the dorms, we have very few problems. That’s because a couple of years ago they fixed the air conditioning. So instead of the dorms being hot, it is actually very cool — sometimes even too cool.
It can be 105 degrees outside and 40 degrees cooler inside the dorm. Sometimes it is so cold at night during summer that we have to block the vents to keep the cold air from coming into our cell.
This wasn’t always the case. Before COVID-19, we had air conditioning but it was less frigid. The only times it was uncomfortable was when the power everywhere in the facility tripped off — then, we might have gone a day or two without air conditioning. It was miserable.
On the August morning I wrote this, I took the vent cover off and allowed cold air to enter my room. My cellie always complains that it is “snowing” in our cell; to me, it is fine, but it can still get pretty cold. I often wear a hat to keep my head warm.
California
Carnell Wingfield Jr.
North Kern State Prison
Delano, California
37-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when my cell reaches 90 degrees.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when the staff come to work and turn three fans in their direction. They sit there all day trying to move as little as possible. I stay in my boxers all day. Any more clothes would be too hot.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is that my bedsheets are filthy. I sweat a lot — even when I get out of the shower. There are also tiny bugs that appear during the hot months, and they make me itchy. I constantly feel miserable. Mercifully, air conditioning does come on at night, and the water is cold. I drink all the water I can.
Jamie Rozelle Harrison
Central California Women’s Facility
Chowchilla, California
40-year-old woman
Sometimes during a heat wave the prison gives us ice water, but only two times a day. I can also buy lukewarm water, Hawaiian Punch and Tampico flavor packets in the canteen for less than $2 each. The hottest temperature I have seen recorded in my facility was 114 degrees the week of July 4, 2024. I know this because I was working the Fourth of July event all day, face-painting and serving barbecue to my community. Everyone was sunburned and tired that day.
Mark Daigre
Mule Creek State Prison
Ione, California
58-year-old man
I am currently housed in the D Facility at the Mule Creek Infill Complex and we have actual real and very effective air conditioning. My housing unit and workspace are kept at about 70 degrees year-round, so we don’t have issues with old or sick people and heat. I can remember being at the old Mule Creek Prison. The A, B and C yards were “cooled” via swamp coolers, and I can remember being in a cell with the temperature over 100 degrees and being given nothing to deal with it. The prison does not provide fans for people in their cells, but we are allowed to buy them. When the cell is open, I can buy ice cream and soda if I have money. The hottest I’ve ever experienced here was in the summer of 2006, when it was 127 degrees on the blacktop in front of the program office and 120 degrees in the middle of the sports field. We were playing softball. I can tell the heat is getting to people when they don’t go to yard or meals because it’s too hot to go outside.
Brandon J. Baker
California State Prison, Los Angeles County
Los Angeles, California
42-year-old man
There’s nothing at the commissary to help us beat the heat. Aquafina water is 85 cents and ice cream is pretty popular at $2.75 for a half-pint. It’s $1.45 for an ice cream sandwich and 50 cents for an ice pop. The hottest temperature was 117 degrees in July. My prison is located in Lancaster, Calif., in the high desert of Los Angeles County, and it’s been triple digits every day since the end of July. It’s unbearable standing outside in the sun. It makes me believe in global warming. It has definitely changed my perception of the ecosystem.
Colorado
Cassie Rieb
Denver Women’s Correctional Facility
Denver, Colorado
28-year-old woman
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the staff stops yelling at people for wearing their state-issued yellow pajama shorts outside of their cells. This is ordinarily not allowed.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when they do whatever they can to get outside in the evenings.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is not being able to take a cool shower or get cold water. The shower is set to a hot temperature. The water from the sink or drinking fountains is lukewarm at best.
In a heat wave, the prison lets older people and sick people receive more ice because they are vulnerable to extreme heat.
Sometimes, during a heat wave, the prison gives us permission to open the fire exits at night to allow cool air into the building. But that only happens in the incentive unit, which has less restrictions. I can also buy a fan in the canteen for $26 to help me beat the heat.
The hottest temperature I can remember inside my facility was 97 degrees, in 2020. I was worried for the dogs that we housed inside the prison for a training program. I remember the heat because the facility made a whole wing move to another unit until the air-conditioning system was fixed. This was during COVID-19 lockdowns. The heat, mixed with the potential for the spread of infection with people moving to different units, created chaos.
Daniel K. Talburt
Englewood Federal Correctional Institution
Littleton, Colorado
55-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when I start sweating uncontrollably, even though I’m not doing anything. My uniform and clothes get drenched, my mouth goes dry, and I must drink a lot of cold fluids — usually iced tea or coffee — even though both dehydrate your body to some degree.
People are more irritable and lethargic. I am active in cooler mornings and seek shade during the hot part of the day. I nap in the afternoons. Luckily, I’m on the north side of the building, which doesn’t get direct sunlight all day.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is the smell. Not everyone showers daily or uses deodorant. The air is stuffy and heavy, even with the lower humidity out West. Plus, you become sweaty again minutes after a shower.
I can buy sodas or dry drink mixes. A 12-pack of soda costs $6.70.
One thing that beats the heat is placing a cold cloth on my head.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was 102 degrees, in July. But these concrete buildings store heat all day and only slowly release it all at night, making sleep difficult. It doesn’t cool off until 3 a.m.
Connecticut
David Morales-Zenquis
Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury
Danbury, Connecticut
27-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the outside feels better than the inside.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when they get dizzy easily or avoid moving.
The prison staff here lets the older and sick people suffer the same as us through the heat. Last year, I saw a man who was older than 50 faint and fall flat on his face. The staff just asked him if he was on drugs and did nothing else.
Starting this year, the prison is allowing us to buy small fans for $33. Otherwise they don’t give us much to beat the heat.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded at my facility was 101 degrees, in 2022. I remember it because I’m from Puerto Rico, where I was used to the heat. But the temperatures that summer particularly got on my nerves.
Delaware
James
Howard R. Young Correctional Institution
Wilmington, Delaware
51-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the floor is weeping. The walkways are glistening in their own version of sweat upon which we slip, slide and fall.
I can tell the heat is getting to people because they are very easily annoyed and tempers pique.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is like any other time: We completely lack control of our surroundings. We can make no attempt at comfort and we have no outlet to voice concern.
In a heat wave, the prison just lets older people and sick people sweat it out. Even during a heat wave, the prison gives us nothing extra. I can buy soda and bottled water at the commissary for $1.67 to help me beat the heat while hoping that the ice makes it onto the evening’s food cart.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was in early June, when our vinyl mattresses formed their own sweat. It was impossible to sleep.
Florida
Justin Slavinski
Everglades Correctional Institution
Miami, Florida
44-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the earliest I can fall asleep is 2 a.m.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when they crowd into the education building, game room and medical waiting room, all of which are air-conditioned.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is having limited ways to cool off. Many institutions don’t allow their residents to shower whenever they want, and most don’t have game rooms.
During the entirety of summer, the prison provides 10-gallon coolers and ice multiple times per day. I can also buy water for 85 cents, Powerade for $2.19, two types of ice cream for $2.27 or $2.76, seven types of soda for $1.51, and three types of freezer pops, ranging from 75 cents to $1.10.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded at my facility was in the upper 90s during May. Worse, though, in Florida, is a heat index in the range of 105 degrees to 110 degrees most summer days because the humidity is so high. Most of these days run together in sweat- and heat-induced hallucinations.
Hawaii
Edward J. Martin
Waiawa Correctional Facility
Pearl City, Hawaii
46-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the same guys who file grievances about not getting to go outside every day start holding back. Rumor has it the devil went north!
As the heat gets to people, they no longer complain that the food and coffee in the chow hall is cold. In fact, I heard just the other day how nice the still-frozen vegetables felt smeared across the forehead.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is the constant stench of dirty, sweat-stained farm clothes. My facility is a minimum security camp, dorm-style, and work is mandated. I’m on the farm. We grow weeds around here. Our boss definitely is not a farmer, or even a gardener.
We are not the only people affected by extreme heat. The guards get overheated as well, which agitates them. They don’t want to be messed with as they sleep off the previous night’s shots and beers. Because they are hungover, they are more vulnerable to extreme heat than us. Sometimes, during a heat wave, the prison issues a lockdown in the wing because the guards are resting up.
I can buy two bags of non-dairy powdered creamer, at $4 per bag, once a month to make ice cream to help beat the heat. My favorite is made with coconut cookies, a cinnamon Pop-Tart, and a very ripe banana smuggled back from chow.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recently in my facility was 94 degrees, on Aug. 18. I remember because it’s usually consistently 88 degrees around here on the island. I also remembered it because when I saw the temperature I was listening to my psychedelic Saturday night “Fresh Jam Revival” show on KKCR-FM.
Idaho
James Mancuso
Idaho State Correctional Institution
Boise, Idaho
40-year-old man
When I was incarcerated in a private prison in Arizona back in 2023, the temperature reached 118 degrees one summer. I remember because the prison canceled recreation, but they made everyone stand in an outdoor line under a canopy for medication handouts for about 45 minutes. It felt like we were in an oven. Even the breeze was hot.
In my current prison, older and sick people can have in-house meals so they don’t have to walk across the breezeways that are open to the sun and sky. People in some units have to walk a quarter mile to cross the compound.
During a heatwave we still have to wear our prison uniform: blue jeans and a blue button-up short- or long-sleeved shirt. Thankfully, the prison allows us to wear our commissary-purchased shorts and T-shirts to pick up our meals from the kitchen or go to recreation. But policy requires that we be dressed in our facility uniform for most other activities, including classes and work.
This year, the prison started giving us Gatorade when it gets hot. It can get up to 111 degrees here in Kuna, Idaho. I know because I saw the temperature on the news.
The manager of public affairs for CoreCivic, which operates the Arizona prison referenced, stated that the facility allows “heat-sensitive individuals” to receive their medications in air-conditioned medical unit waiting rooms.
Dennis “Abbadunamis” Mintun
Idaho State Correctional Institution
Boise, Idaho
63-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when my fan is on high, and I still sweat.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when fewer are willing to walk to the education building or the chapel from their units. The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is that people’s tempers are very short. The smallest thing can set someone off. In a heat wave, no special treatment is provided to the elderly or sick.
Sometimes during a heat wave, the prison gives us a canister of chilled Gatorade. It’s just enough for each person to have one cup. The liquid, which is orange or blue, has no actual flavor.
Other than that, the prison provides a bowl of ice in the evening from July through August. There is nothing available at the commissary to help beat the heat. No cold items are sold. If you have the money, you can pay $2.50 for a soda to pour over your ice.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in the facility was 101 degrees on July 23, 2024. I remember because it was a temperature reading taken by a guard in my own cell.
Patrick Irving
Idaho State Correctional Institution
Boise, Idaho
44-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when prison administrators wheel portable swamp coolers that look and sound like Boeing engines into each housing unit and run them around the clock.
The number of conflicts during mealtime movements to the cafeteria building begins to spike. The crowded crawl across our prison campus becomes more dangerous when the temperature climbs.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is trying to keep a positive attitude when everyone else is grumpy.
In a heat wave, prison employees tasked with supervising outside movements allow older people and sick people to rest. There’s an awning by one of the gun towers that offers those towing oxygen tanks a break from the sun.
Sometimes, during a heat wave, the prison gives us one cup of iced Gatorade in the evenings. We’re told by prison staff that this is supposed to happen daily. But often the drink doesn’t show up; they tell us their stock ran out. I can also buy fans at commissary for $26.58 after tax to help me beat the heat.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my housing unit was 99.1 degrees at 7 a.m. July 27, 2024, and it was taken in the dayroom where the airflow from two powerful fans intersect. It feels much hotter in our cells, especially for those without a fan.
I remember the temperature because I wrote it down after asking the guard who performed the reading to show me the results on his digital handheld temperature gauge. I was adamant in viewing the results firsthand because I didn’t believe the unit sergeant who days before told me that the average afternoon temperature in our dayroom was 87 degrees.
Illinois
Aaron
Centralia Correctional Center
Centralia, Illinois
43-year-old man
I know it’s hot in my prison when the walls and floors are sweating.
I can tell the heat is getting to people when tempers are short, and fights happen for no reason.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is the high humidity. When I go to bed, I feel like a fly stuck to fly-trap tape.
In a heat wave, the prison does not do much for older and sick people. If you say you are hot or pass out, they take you to health care and let you sit in the air conditioning for a couple of hours. Then they send you back to your uncooled cell.
During heat waves, our prison will cancel our recreation yard time, gym time and non-air-conditioned classes, but we still have to walk to chow hall for our meals and sit in the hot cafeteria. Other prisons sell cooling towels for $7, but I’ve seen this prison take those from people when they arrive here.
The hottest temperature this year was close to 100 degrees, with a heat index near 110 degrees. It was in July. I remember it because they canceled yard time for an entire week.
Kentucky
Derek R. Trumbo Sr.
Northpoint Training Center
Burgin, Kentucky
46-year-old man
The heat affects everyone in prison.
One day in late July, the temperature outside got up to around 100 degrees. The very hot days tend to run together, melting and merging in the heat. But I remember this particular day because during a routine training session of the prison’s Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT) a correctional officer collapsed and died.
He suffered a heart condition. Nurses attempted to resuscitate him, but he passed away at the hospital. The entire prison mourned the 24-year-old man’s passing. Local news stations reported on it, and officers wore black rings around their badges to show solidarity and compassion.
Even though the heat can be deadly, the prison offers little respite. Our windows are riveted shut, and there are no trees in the yard to offer a single lick of shade. In the sweltering blister of summer, the prison’s pastoral landscape — with its amazing sunrises and sunsets — only magnifies the sun’s intensity.
Inside the prison, the dingy white linoleum floors become slick and damp with the brown water oozing from the overhead water pipes that sweat with condensation. The puddles sit as if a small child had spilled ice cream on hot asphalt in the desert.
If the air-conditioning goes out, as it often does during a heatwave, the prison will roll out large industrial fans that circulate the hot air like a convection oven.
The communications director for the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet stated that prison leadership equips facilities with free “cooling stations, industrial fans, water bottles, extra blankets and clothing.” They would not comment on specific maintenance issues but added that their leadership “act[s] swiftly and work[s] through the state procurement system to quickly fix.” Regarding details about the facility, they added that the “Department of Corrections does not confirm or deny facility layout and structure.”
Maryland
Jachin Walls Sr.
Roxbury Correctional Institution
Hagerstown, Maryland
48-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the toilet and floor sweat. I can tell the heat is getting to people because I notice that they get very irritable. The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is finding a way to stay cool. Sometimes during a heat wave, the prison gives us ice. The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was more than 100 degrees from July 14 to July 19. I remember it because the night sweats were unbearable.
Jamil Ruffin
Patuxent Institution
Jessup, Maryland
41-year-old man
I know it’s hot in my prison when the prison offers extra ice outside the allotted times; when the walls are sweating (seriously); and when people can’t sleep on their beds and instead lie on the floor by their doors to catch any type of breeze.
When the temperatures rise, there’s more complaining and fighting. The showers are occupied more, and the laundry schedules are packed with more loads of clothes to wash.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is being in a small cell with another person with whom you are not compatible. This increases the mental and emotional discomfort of being in prison.
Sometimes, during a heat wave, the prison gives us extra ice. I can also buy artificially flavored drink mix at commissary for between $2.13 and $2.35 to help me beat the heat.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was over 100 degrees in July.
I remember one extremely hot day in another prison where it was so hot I was moved to write a poem about it. I called it “Cell Block Summer,” and it goes like this:
Itz hot.
Last night the fan was blowin’
but the humidity in the cell absorbed the breeze before it could reach my body.
I wondered,
Iz it broken?
Iz there something on the grill
obstructing the air that blows so freely in the spring?
Only to find that there waz —
The Heat!!!
Unrelenting heat.
The type of heat that leaves your skin with coatings of sweat.
The type of heat that keeps you awake
wondering how long until the morning comes.
Hoping the temperature drop
or wind blow
through the small holes in the window.
Sitting with periodic memories
of what it was like with AC.
Interchanging with vivid thoughts
of how heat gets trapped in concrete.
I feel sorry for those who are in a cell without a fan
cuz even though I’m hot they are experiencing heat on another level I don’t understand.
Or at least it has been a while since I’ve been in that situation.
When it was so hot I slept on the floor, by the door for ventilation.
Summertime is here.
When summertime begins
it usually has prisoners wishing summertime
ends.
Leyleen Lilith Aquino
Maryland Correctional Training Center
Hagerstown, Maryland
38-year-old woman
This summer, I was moved from Eastern Correctional Institution, on Maryland’s eastern shore, to the Correctional Training Center in northern Maryland, near the Pennsylvania border. Neither prison has air conditioning in its housing units.
I know it’s too hot in my prison when prisoners start checking into suicide-watch cells in our medical area. People employ various excuses, but most know they do it because the infirmaries have air conditioning.
It’s very humid in our cells. Even guards complain about the temperature of our cells when they pass by to take count.
At Maryland Correctional Training Center, we were only given a half-cooler of ice to share among 93 people.
There are more fights than during the colder seasons, and people suffer from heat exhaustion.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is that there’s basically nowhere to find relief.
During heat waves, I didn’t see my past prison accommodate older sick people, despite the fact that they are more vulnerable to extreme heat. Sometimes the prison gave us small fans. We could also order a fan via catalog for about $25 to help us beat the heat. It helps a tiny bit.
The hottest temperature I saw recorded was 110 degrees. It happened in July 2023. I remember it because that day families of a number of prisoners contacted a local health department with complaints about the temperatures in the cells of their loved ones.
Michigan
Ashleigh Smith
Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility
Ypsilanti, Michigan
39-year-old woman
The first sign of extreme heat in my prison is a smell that comes from the walls, which hold in the heat until they sweat. The stench reminds me of the rolled up floor mats the wrestling team used for practice in high school.
The next signal is when my peers and I change into tank tops or white T-shirts during count instead of the stifling navy blue uniform — even though we risk getting written up. And the final sign is when the prison cancels medical appointments because the administration doesn’t want people overexerting themselves by walking long distances to get to an appointment.
Once, during an exceptionally warm week in August last year, I was supposed to push a friend in a wheelchair a little under a quarter mile to one of the health care areas for a routine treatment, but the unit officers had locked the wheelchairs away to make sure nobody left the unit. It was 103 degrees.
Not having control over the water temperature in the shower is the hardest part of being in prison during a heatwave. When I come back to my housing unit after being called out, and I’m sweaty, I just want to take a cool shower to rinse off. But instead I have to get in a scalding hot shower.
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections’ public information office, incarcerated people “do not risk getting written up if they wear their white [T]-shirt during count.” They also stated that “medical appointments are not canceled due to heat, but some restrictions in movement may be made because of the heat index.” They did not respond to questions about locking away wheelchairs.
Donald Dorosheff
Federal Correctional Institution, Milan
Milan, Michigan
77-year-old man
Our ice machine was out for the month of July. It was repaired the first week of August. Then, 12 days later, it was out of service again. We had to drink warm Coke.
I live in Unit A, one of the nicer units at my prison, which houses about 200 people. There is no air conditioning here or in any other unit in the facility.
The chaplain and guards’ offices have air conditioning. Many inmates have small fans, which can be purchased from the commissary for $34.50.
I have difficulty sleeping with the whir of the fan all night. My roommate, who has a fan, kindly uses it only when it is very hot.
Recently, we have had some sweaty nights, but I bathe myself in the morning to cool down and manage OK. Most of us adapt. It’s our only alternative.
Minnesota
Elsa Segura
Hennepin County Jail
Minneapolis, Minnesota
32-year-old woman
I know it’s too hot in my jail when all the women are wearing altered short-shorts and T-shirts. Their skin glistens from cocoa butter moisturizer, which mixes with sweat and drips down their faces, staining their state-issued gray attire.
I notice their desperation. It feels like a sauna in here. Not even a shower will cool them off.
The hardest part is staying hydrated. You have to run the water for a long time just to get it a little cold. We also don’t have an ice machine, but sometimes the prison will turn on a huge fan in the dayroom in an attempt to cool the air. I can also buy a small fan at the commissary for $25, but a small fan doesn’t help much in extreme heat.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in a prison was when I was at Minnesota Correctional Facility, Shakopee, in June 2021. The temperature was over 100 degrees.
I remember it because I didn’t have a job, so I wasn’t allowed to leave my room. I felt like I was trapped in an oven. After many pleas to open my cell door, the guard finally agreed. I poked my head out to breathe, and took in the stale, musty air.
Mississippi
J. Patri
Mississippi State Penitentiary
Parchman, Mississippi
55-year-old man
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is sweating my ass off trying to prevent my wet boxers from sticking. I adjust my boxers with one hand, while I use my other hand to fan myself with a cardboard checkers set.
To beat the heat, our prison allows us to grab ice from a cooler about three times per day. They also allow us to buy a 13-inch fan for about $30 from the commissary.
This summer, the temperature around our prison reached 100 degrees four times, according to weather reports.
Nevada
Erin Kuhn-Brown
Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
55-year-old woman
I know it’s too hot in my prison when I hear staff snickering to each other in earshot of us. If you are in restricted housing when the air conditioning goes out, they say, “Oh well, you should have stayed out of trouble.”
It’s normally above 110 degrees on our prison campus in Las Vegas. Recently, I was left in a transport van during count time, and the van had no air conditioning. Even the guard left the van to cool off.
Because FOX5 News (KVVU-TV) and other news outlets have reported on air-conditioning breakdowns at state prisons this summer, the Nevada Department of Corrections has done more to correct issues. In some cases, it has moved entire units to cooler parts of the prison if the AC breaks down. And broken air conditioners are fixed to pacify our families and news outlets.
But we still don’t get much else from the prison to cool off. Every other week, we can buy our own bag of ice for 75 cents, if they’re available.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen out here was 120 degrees the second week of July. That was national news.
New Mexico
L.T. Henning
Western New Mexico Correctional Facility
Grants, New Mexico
70-year-old woman
At times, I’ve had to cut off all my hair to beat the extreme heat. Sometimes I’ve worked in 85-degree temperatures or higher during the summer.
I can tell the heat is getting to people because they’re short-tempered and the guards are meaner than usual.
During heat waves, the prison does not do much, but my current housing unit does have air conditioning. My previous two did not.
At my current prison, we can only purchase cold items from the soda machines. My prison does not record temps. Nor do they not put a red flag in the recreation yard to signal dangerously hot temperatures. Worse, there’s no shade on the yard.
New Jersey
Derek Jason LeCompte
South Woods State Prison
Bridgeton, New Jersey
44-year-old man
Most of the time we never know how hot it is in our prison, but there are small digital thermometers in certain areas. Regularly, prison staff will go to units and measure the temps, but they don’t go into the cells, and results aren’t posted for us to see.
During very hot periods, the prison administration will send out memos about taking care in the heat. The prison offers a green “cooling towel,” which you wet with cold water and place on your head or the back of your neck. The towels stay cool for an extended period of time. But we have to buy that from the commissary. Because the commissary always has an issue with keeping high-demand things in stock it can take up to two weeks from order to delivery.
During the summer months, the prison rents what are called “chillers,” which are basically mobile, industrial air-conditioning units that look like a semi-trailer and run on diesel fuel. These chillers are hooked up to the prison’s ventilation system and, in theory, pump cool air into the prison. But the system often doesn’t cool down the prison much or frequently breaks down. The actual air-conditioning system has been broken for over 10 years and the administration has yet to fix it.
Most hot days, we are practically basting and cooking in our cells as if we’re in a brick oven. All the air is hot and recycled through our ventilation system. We can’t even open the windows when it gets cooler at night.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Corrections stated that there have been “occasions when one of the two chillers have required maintenance, but never both at once.” He said that when one chiller breaks down, the other maintains “a comfortable temperature” and “the vendor is contacted to fix the equipment.” He also added that the department is “aware of the issues with the current chillers at [the prison] and [has] been seeking funding to replace both systems.”
Lucretia Stone
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women
Clinton, New Jersey
51-year-old woman
When it’s hot, the air is hazy. I will be glad to see summer end.
The temperatures in Clinton, New Jersey, have reached or exceeded 90 degrees more than 30 times this summer, and the humidity has been high as well. It is unbearable being locked inside a tiny room in a brick building without air conditioning.
Once these bricks heat up, they do not cool off until fall. Mercifully, there is a window we can open and close. However, at night, once the doors are locked, it feels as if I am sealed into the wall. No air comes in via the window. With back-to-back heat waves, the window is only good for looking out to see who’s coming and going.
The state provides “relief” from the heat by allowing us to purchase two 8-inch fans from the commissary. The fans only blow the hot air around the room.
We used to only be able to have one fan. But we are now allotted two battery-powered fans. I’m grateful for the addition. Still, in the wee hours of the morning, I wake up drenched in sweat from hot flashes and heat. Both fans just feel like a mirage.
I love to write, and in the midst of this historic election, there has been much to write about. However, with heat indexes reaching as high as 107 degrees, I have been too angry, hurt, drained and sweaty to write.
One day, I tried responding to a letter from a friend. Sitting in front of the two fans, beads of sweat formed rapidly on my hands while my arm stuck to the paper.
I became aggravated, which triggered a hot flash. I ended up just sitting there on my soggy state-issued sheets, holding the pen, staring straight ahead at nothing, as sweat trickled down my back and the crack of my behind. I was defeated.
The ladies who are housed in detention and administrative segregation have it worse. They are being punished for breaking institutional rules. They are doubled-bunked inside tiny cells. There is barely enough room for one individual. In some of these cells, the windows are broken and don’t open at all.
I keep thinking back to when my prison had a puppy program. The housing unit for the puppies was air-conditioned, but our housing units were not. We were sentenced to prison for rehabilitation, not exposure to harmful conditions. And when those who are responsible for our rehabilitation deem it appropriate to house puppies in better conditions than humans, it’s hurtful.
Recently the local newscasters, at the top of their broadcast, have urged those without air conditioning to get to the nearest cooling center.
Shakeil Price
New Jersey State Prison
Trenton, New Jersey
44-year-old man
During summer, it feels like I am being tortured in my cell. On the fourth tier, where the heat rises, it becomes stuffy and hard to breathe. This draconian prison doesn’t have air conditioning in the cells or on the unit. I believe it is a violation of the constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.
I know it’s too hot when the walls in my cell start sweating. The walls are made of tin, and condensation forms on the surface and runs like perspiration. The tin cell heats up like an electric oven. Due to the moisture in the air, all the paper and cardboard in my cell becomes damp and my TV begins to malfunction.
People become easily irritated. The horseplaying and joking around is eradicated because it is too hot for fun and games. People have zero tolerance and react violently due to the extreme heat.
The hardest part is the frequency of power outages. Without electricity we have no fans to stave off the oppressive heat. We are left to suffer, with no relief, as we lay exposed to the sweltering heat.
In a heat wave, the prison doesn’t give any special privileges to the older and sick population, even though they’re more vulnerable to extreme heat.
Sometimes during a heat wave the prison gives us a few scoops of ice. When the temperature outside is 90 degrees and it’s 100 degrees inside my cell, those scoops of ice only last for a few minutes.
Kory McClary
New Jersey State Prison
Trenton, New Jersey
38-year-old man
According to the Animal Welfare Act, the dogs we train here must never be exposed to temperatures below 45 degrees or above 85 degrees for more than four consecutive hours.
There are no laws regulating how cool or hot it should be for a human being in a prison cell.
When my New Jersey prison experiences extreme heat, it feels like an oven. I know it’s too hot when I wake up in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat.
You can tell the heat is getting to people when you start hearing more Code 33s, alerting guards to a fight. Guys are irritable and their tolerance for other people’s BS is low.
It’s hard being in prison during a heat wave because the only thing you can do is deal with it. It’s hard because there’s no air conditioning to turn on, or cool breeze to seek, or ice cream to buy on demand.
My prison was built in the 1830s and has no modern cooling. You would think the state would transfer seniors to a facility with air conditioning. But the seniors are treated like everyone else in Trenton, suffering alongside us.
When the temperature rises above 95 degrees, we are allowed to take five-minute cooldown showers. But as soon as you step out of the shower you’re hot again.
We’re allowed to purchase cooling towels for about $13. You can dip the towel in cold water and place it on your body. The towel may cool you down for five minutes each dip, but there’s 24 hours in a day. In a heat wave, it’s basically useless.
The most extreme heat I ever felt in my life came in prison. It was so hot that I was afraid to close my eyes and go to sleep. I had to focus on my breathing. I feared that if I fell asleep, the heat would take my breath away and I would die.
North Carolina
Ryan Green
Federal Correctional Institution, Butner Medium One
Durham County, North Carolina
33-year-old man
In a heat wave, the prison doesn’t do anything for the elderly, sick or more vulnerable, even though we are in a medical facility. Once, I had a cellie who had what I thought was a heart attack due to the heat and lack of hydration. He told me he was feeling dizzy, had pain in his chest and arm, and was short of breath. He said that when he went to the medical unit, the staff told him to drink more water and sent him back. But they don’t supply bottled water in a facility where the water quality is known to be bad.
I have no way of knowing how hot it is in the summer months. The one thermostat I’ve seen is in the UNICOR factory, where there is air-conditioning for the safety of the machines. But I know it’s too hot in my prison when I wake up soaked in sweat when the air-conditioning unit breaks in the living areas.
I’ve been in FCI Butner for nearly five years, and I have never seen my facility give us anything for a heat wave. Last spring, staff searched people’s cells, and wound up taking many people’s fans that they had purchased from the commissary. We can’t buy new ones because they no longer sell them.
The commissary sells water bottles for 50 cents, antifungal cream for $2.40, sunscreen for $4.80 and hats for $9.10. Many jobs here pay under 50 cents an hour, so buying supplies is expensive for us.
Citing privacy reasons, a representative of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Office of Public Affairs would not comment on the medical condition or treatment of Green’s cellmate. Regarding the water quality, the BOP stated that FCI Butner I, and the larger FCC Butner complex receive water from the same source as the local community and that it “meets community standards.” They also stated that “all housing units at FCI Butner I have functional HVAC air conditioners and ice machines” and that HVAC failures during inclement weather are promptly resolved. The BOP said it could not comment on the cell searches and fan confiscations for security reasons.
Ohio
Christopher Monihan
Madison Correctional Institution
London, Ohio
52-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the dogs I care for pant uncontrollably while resting. I am a dog handler in a special program providing training and care for dogs owned by the prison staff. On extreme-heat days I use high-speed floor fans and bowls of ice-cold water to cool the animals.
I can tell the heat is getting to people because I notice that they change up their daily routines. Prison is like “Groundhog Day” on steroids; but when the heat weighs heavy, activity in the unit slows. Fans drone on, shirts are tugged off and guys lay motionless on bunks, desperate for respite from the heat.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is breathing. I am asthmatic. In extreme heat and humidity I sometimes gasp because it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. In a heat wave the prison lets older people and sick people receive priority medical care because they are most vulnerable. The medical staff at my prison are attentive and caring, which helps a lot.
Sometimes during a heat wave, the prison delivers bags of ice to the housing units. I can also buy a fan for $20.91 and a pint of ice cream for $2.34 to help me beat the heat.
The hottest temperature I’ve ever seen recorded in my facility was 110 degrees in a cell on July 4, 1996. I remember because it was my cell and my atomic clock had a digital temperature gauge. We are no longer allowed clocks that tell the temperature.
Pennsylvania
Amy McBride
State Correctional Institution, Muncy
Muncy, Pennsylvania
61-year-old woman
In my previous prison, Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, it would get so hot during the summer that walls would sweat and reek of 85-year-old prison funk. The sweat would make all your belongings smell. It didn’t matter the number of showers you took — you still stunk.
The humidity of the Mid-Atlantic summer also made everything wet. I would think about my dad a lot during those hot summer days because, as a Vietnam vet, he had PTSD, and heat like that triggered him.
People were housed in cells that were so small you could touch the opposite walls at once in that prison. We did our best to keep the sun out — covering the windows with a robe — until a guard forced us to take it down. The heat was unbearable. I remember guards would hand out ice, but oftentimes it was melted by the time you got some.
Compared to my old prison in Maryland, SCI Muncy is like a Club Med resort. Now, on extremely hot days the air-conditioning in my unit is so cold I have to wear thermals, a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, pants and my winter headband over my ears. To keep my hands warm, I blow on my fingers or wear my garden gloves.
On hot Sundays, I can’t wear my hearing aids during church service because the fans sound like plane engines. I can’t hear the sermon and all I can do is pray.
The Maryland Department of Corrections said it takes “multiple steps to mitigate the heat and ensure the health and well-being of both incarcerated individuals and staff.” The department denied that condensation forms on cell walls during the summer months and could not confirm the dimensions of prisoners’ cells.(Back to the top)
Rhode Island
Seydina Ndoye
John J. Moran Medium Security Facility
Cranston, Rhode Island
29-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when sweat pours from the stainless steel toilet in my cell. The walls are slick, trailing beads of perspiration. Puddles of water blanket the floor. I can tell the heat is getting to people when they unconsciously invert their iron-forged scowl into a painful grimace. Even the toughest exteriors melt into a stream of muttered curses and relentless screams of exasperation.
The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is the brutal asphyxiation from the inescapable pungent smells compounded by the stale fumes of mold circulated by an antiquated, rusty ventilation system.
Sometimes during a heat wave, the prison sets up a standing water sprinkler made out of a PVC pipe that we can walk through in the recreational yard. It reminds me of the jimmied sidewalk fire hydrants that would spurt frigid water when I was a child. My body spins from the brief respite.
I can also buy an extra fan at the commissary for $20, though it does nothing but shift hot air from one area of the cell to another. The hottest temperature I’ve seen in my facility was almost 100 degrees on June 25, 2024. I remember it because the humidity choked my sputtering desktop fan into submission.
South Carolina
Gary K. Farlow
MacDougall Correctional Institution
Ridgeville, South Carolina
65-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when no one complains about not having outside recreational time and the yard cats lay lethargically under the shrubbery.
I can tell the heat is getting to people because they take multiple showers a day. In a heat wave the prison sometimes gives us ice. If you have funds, you can purchase cold drinks in the canteen for 79 cents when it’s open and you can bear standing in a long line in the heat.
In a heat wave the prison delivers meals to older people and sick people in their housing units. The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is there is no shade on the prison yard. The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was a heat index of 111 degrees on July 15, 2024. I remember it because my birthday was that same week.
Texas
Xandan
Dr. Lane Murray Unit
Gatesville, Texas
35-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison when the officers skip a security walk or count time walk because they’re sitting in the control picket where there’s air conditioning. I can tell the heat is getting to people because I notice that they are becoming irritable, missing meals, arguing, beating on the doors or crying. The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is not having access to cold water and no cool air or shade.
Older people and sick people get no special privileges here during heat advisories or heat waves. They suffer like everybody else. That’s why they die first. Sometimes during a heat wave the prison gives us cold water runs. I can also buy electrolyte drinks and a cooling towel at the commissary for less than $10 to help beat the heat. The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was summer 2023. I remember it because the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had to install temporary air-conditioning units because so many incarcerated people were dying heat-related deaths.
Robert Barnes
William R. Boyd Unit
Freestone County, Texas
39-year-old woman
I know it’s too hot in my prison when even the fans produce hot air, or when there’s a long line for the cold showers.
Since I am transitioning to be a woman, I can’t walk around my male prison with my shirt off. That makes it harder to beat the heat.
From 3 a.m. until about 11 a.m., the temperature in our prison is cool. And, fortunate for me, I go to school for my GED during the day, which means I’m not in a closed, hot cell.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was 103 degrees, on July 24 of this year.
In the Boyd Unit, where I reside, there used to be a policy that required all offenders to be placed in their cells during count, or roll call. Recently, on hotter days, they have allowed us to stay in the dayroom, which is cooler.
The heat attracts flies, which are annoying. While prisoners eat in the chow hall, they sweat and fight off flies.
On a recent summer day, I rushed to finish my food because I felt lightheaded. The local news reported temperatures at 100 degrees, but it felt hotter than that. If it’s 100 degrees or worse in our dorms, I can’t imagine how hot the chow hall is, with all the bodies packed in there and the heat from cooking. When I stood up to leave the chow hall, my head began to spin. I needed fresh, cooler air, but the fan near me was not working. Worse, I had to wait in line until officers opened the chow hall door to let us leave. When I finally got out, I still felt faint. I headed straight for the cold showers when I returned to the dorm.
The water felt great. If I had been in the heat for any longer, I would have passed out.
Brian Hindson
Federal Correctional Institution, Big Spring
Big Spring, Texas
52-year-old man
I know it’s too hot in my prison because of how the wildlife acts. Rabbits lay flat in the sand as if they have been run over. Cats stay in the shade, and birds don’t fly as much. You can see grackles, a type of bird, panting.
I also know it’s too hot when people decide not to go to outdoor recreation time.
In the heat, people are more easily irritated by small things.
The coolest it gets outside in a Texas summer is often 80 degrees. We can’t go outside when it’s dark, which is the cooler part of the day. Even the wind in Texas is hot.
Thankfully, our federal prison did get air conditioning this summer. That isn’t the case for many of the state prisons here.
When the AC stops working, we can only really use the limited supply of ice we get to cool down.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded at my facility was 110 degrees. In the summer, we go weeks with temperatures higher than 100.
Virginia
Gwendolyn Burton-Green
Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women
Troy, Virginia
51-year-old woman
I know it’s too hot in my prison when attitudes start to flare. People argue a lot more. The hardest part about being in prison during a heat wave is not being able to dress cooler. In a heat wave, the prison doesn’t do anything differently for older people and sick people. Even during a heat wave, the prison does nothing differently. The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded in my facility was 79 degrees on July 27, 2024. I remember because it just happened recently.
Washington
Jeffrey McKee
Washington State Penitentiary
Walla Walla, Washington
50-year-old man
The first signs of excessive heat at the penitentiary this year was the closure of the recreation yard when outside temperatures reached 100 degrees and the ice chips that started blowing out of the air vent in my cell. As the outside temperatures rose, my cell got colder and colder, to the point that I was bundled in sweatpants, shirt and a beanie.
You can tell when the heat is starting to get to people when some individuals sneak out of the living unit to fill up their pitchers with ice from the ice machine in the hall while others get irritated and complain when there is no ice in the machine.
Before, the hardest thing about being in prison during a heat wave was getting ice, to cool off after outdoor recreation. Now, with new rules implemented this year, the hardest thing is being stuck in your living unit because outside movement is no longer allowed when the temperature reaches 100 degrees.
From 2019, when I arrived, to July 2024, the penitentiary has made some other changes to their policy and practices during heat waves. In 2022, they allowed pitchers of water to be brought to the yard. In 2023, they provided all residents with a cooling towel (new arrivals still have to purchase the towel for $17.95).
My prison does not treat the elderly or those with health issues differently during a heat wave. They have to suffer alongside the rest of the population.
The hottest temperature recorded at my facility that I remember was 110 degrees the last week of June 2024, although I believe it was several degrees hotter last summer. I remember this because there was no outside movement allowed.
Aside from the freezing cells when the air conditioning is working and ice when the ice machine isn’t emptied by about 25 out of 109 people in the unit, the prison allows us to purchase various items to help stay cool.
Individuals or their friends and family can purchase items from Union Supply Direct, at wainmatepackage.com, the only vendor contracted with the prison to provide various property items.
There are visored hats ($17.95 fitted or $5.15 adjustable); three choices of UV-protected sunglasses ($63.95, $62.95 and $59.95) or non-UV-protected sunglasses for $7.95; pitchers and cups for ice for $7.95 and $3.95; an 8-inch fan for $36.95, or 6-inch for $28.95; and a cooling towel for $17.95.
Wisconsin
Nathan Gray
Oshkosh Correctional Institution
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
28-year-old man
When it gets too hot in my prison, I start to sweat at the slightest exertion. There are days when I wake up in a puddle. Then I’ll get in the food line for breakfast and, by the time I get my tray, I can already feel a layer of perspiration on my skin.
People are either easily irritable or lethargic. During the most recent heat wave, in June, there seemed to be a lot more arguments, though I heard of less fights. There were also people who practically disappeared from our public spaces and only reappeared after the temperatures cooled off.
The hottest temperature I’ve seen recorded at my facility was 91 degrees, on June 17. I remember it because the humidity was so thick that day. The cell felt like a steam oven, and my fan only blew around the hot air.
The hardest part of being in prison during a heat wave is not being able to do anything without overheating. I went to the phones during the most recent heat wave to call my mom for 20 minutes. By the end of it, my hair was dripping sweat and my shirt was more wet than dry.