Extreme Heat in Prisons Brings More Legal Challenges, Pressure on States

Summer heat is bearing down on U.S. prisons, where temperatures in uncooled cells can climb well into the triple digits.

Facing growing pressure from advocacy groups, lawsuits and climate projections that show hotter days ahead, some state prison systems are moving to install air conditioning and expand cooling measures — though many facilities remain years away from significant upgrades.

But in other states, such efforts have stalled or failed. That may lead to more lawsuits in the future, experts say, even as judges may raise the bar for such cases.

An emphasis on being “tough on crime” and prioritizing other public safety measures may have contributed to less attention on prison conditions in some states. In others, slowing revenue growth and pressure to rein in corrections spending could be making new investments a harder sell.

At least two states this year, Virginia and Texas, considered legislation addressing excessive heat in prisons but neither measure became law. The Texas bill would have required the state Department of Criminal Justice to purchase and install climate control systems in all of its facilities by the end of 2032. About two-thirds of the state’s correctional facilities have only partial or no air conditioning.

The measure passed the House but did not advance in the Senate before the legislature adjourned in June.

In Virginia, lawmakers approved a bill that would have required the state corrections department to install heat and air conditioning in its prisons and to ensure cell temperatures not exceed 80 degrees. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed it, citing the cost of installation and operational burdens. Youngkin also wrote that existing state corrections data “does not substantiate the claims of extreme temperatures or health risks.”

But in Delaware, the fiscal year 2026 capital budget approved last month includes $2 million in funding to install air conditioning at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.

These changes mark the latest actions in a long-running debate over how correctional systems respond to rising summer temperatures — an issue that affects both incarcerated people and staff. Some of the policy debates and facility updates this year follow years of advocacy and litigation over the health, safety and operational challenges posed by heat in correctional settings.

The problem of excessive heat in prisons has persisted for decades and has unfolded alongside other challenges, including chronic understaffing and overcrowding. In some cases, these problems have led to extended facility lockdowns, even during the summer months.

“There are people working in prisons and they have the right to work in climates that are comfortable,” said Nancy La Vigne, a criminal justice researcher and dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. “When they’re not, there’s retention issues, and it’s hard to replace staff. And when you don’t replace staff, then you have challenges in maintaining the safety and security of the facility.”

In New York, for example, correctional officers staged a three-week strike earlier this year and many didn’t return to work. Some facilities now are operating with 30%-60% fewer guards than needed, resulting in some incarcerated people getting only an hour or two outside of their cells each day.

A 2023 study published in the peer-reviewed PLOS One journal found that mortality in state and private prisons rose during periods of extreme heat, with deaths increasing 3.5% on extreme heat days and up to 7.4% during three-day heat waves. Between 2001 and 2019, nearly 13,000 people died in prison during the summer months, almost half of them in the South, though the study did not determine how many of those deaths were directly attributable to heat.

Climate change is fueling longer, more intense periods of extreme heat. Exposure to extreme heat can worsen conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and asthma, and has also been linked to worsening mental health and higher suicide rates among incarcerated people.

“Average temperatures are rising, and you’re going to have more and more states around the country where incarcerated people are held in conditions that are not livable because they’re too hot,” said Sharon Dolovich, a law professor and director of the Prison Law and Policy Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Some upgrades

At least 44 states lack universal air conditioning within their prison facilities, even in regions known for sweltering summer temperatures, according to a 2022 USA Today analysis. A recent Reuters investigation also found that nearly half of state prisons across 29 states have partial or no air conditioning in housing units.

But some states are investing millions to update their prison facilities.

In North Carolina, corrections officials are working toward their goal of installing air conditioning in all 54 state prisons by 2026. To date, 33 facilities are fully air-conditioned, 17 are partially air-conditioned, and four have no air conditioning, according to its dashboard.

In California, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which operates 31 adult prisons, has spent $246 million in the past five years on cooling improvements at five prisons, according to a department spokesperson.

Lawmakers this year also approved funding for the Air Cooling Pilot Program at three facilities, with $17.6 million allocated for fiscal years 2025-26 and $20 million for fiscal years 2026-27. It will evaluate the effectiveness of two alternatives prior to a statewide plan to address high indoor temperatures across the California prison system.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, as of Aug. 1, is building 12,827 “cool beds,” or prison cells in air-conditioned units, and is in the process of procuring an additional 7,162, according to its dashboard.

Texas is one of the states most closely associated with heat-related deaths in prison. A 2022 study estimated that, on average, 14 deaths per year in Texas prisons are associated with heat. And a Texas Tribune analysis found that at least 41 incarcerated people died during a record-breaking heat wave in 2023.

In March, a federal judge ruled the extreme heat in Texas prisons is “plainly unconstitutional,” but declined to order immediate air conditioning, saying the work could not be completed within the court order’s 90-day window and temporary systems might delay a permanent fix.

‘More miserable’

Sweltering summer heat can turn prisons into pressure cookers. People inside already may have health conditions, limited access to cooling, or take medications that make it harder for their bodies to handle the heat. And research suggests that high temperatures can heighten irritability and aggression, sometimes fueling more conflicts between incarcerated people or with staff.

“It makes you more miserable. … If you to the point of even thinking about suicide, that’s just going to add to it,” said Ronald McKeithen, who spent 37 years incarcerated in Alabama prisons and is now the director of second chances at the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. McKeithen recalls feeling “on edge” due to tension among other incarcerated people on hot days.

At the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, Devin Skrzypchak said the heat worsens his bladder condition, and he often can’t get the incontinence briefs he needs. The heat forces him to drink more water, and on days when ice isn’t available, he’s left drenched in sweat.

“At times, it’s a living hell. … It can be very excruciating,” Skrzypchak wrote in a message to Stateline through the facility’s messaging platform.

D’Angelo Lee Komanekin — who has spent about 25 years in and out of different Wisconsin corrections facilities — said prison architecture plays a major role in why temperatures inside climb so high.

“The planet is getting hotter and hotter,” said Komanekin, who relies on a small plastic fan to stay cool. Komanekin also is incarcerated at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution. “They’re doing nothing about the architecture. Some institutions’ windows open, some don’t, but most of the doors have steel doors with trap doors.”

Older prison designs that rely heavily on steel and concrete building materials often trap heat, making it difficult to keep temperatures down in the summer. Aging facilities also are less likely to be equipped for the installation of central air conditioning.

Some state prison systems, including Alabama’s and Wisconsin’s, are adding air-conditioning or air-tempering systems to new prison construction and major renovation projects.

Future legal battles

Legal experts say the issue of excessive heat in prisons is likely to become more pressing as climate change drives longer and hotter summers.

Extreme heat in correctional facilities has already been the subject of litigation in dozens of states, with plaintiffs arguing that high temperatures constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Court rulings in these cases have varied, but some experts say even more lawsuits are likely if facilities do not adapt.

“The conditions are going to worsen. [Incarcerated people are] going to be looking for every possible avenue for assistance they can,” Dolovich, the UCLA law professor, told Stateline.

One of the latest cases comes from Missouri, where the nonprofit law firm MacArthur Justice Center filed a class-action lawsuit in May on behalf of six incarcerated people at Algoa Correctional Center.

The lawsuit alleges that the conditions violate their constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment. It seeks to require the Missouri Department of Corrections to work with experts to develop a heat mitigation plan that keeps housing unit temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees. If the department cannot meet that standard, the plaintiffs are asking for the release of three of the incarcerated people who have less than a year remaining on their sentences.

Lawsuits such as the Missouri case often focus on claims that extreme heat worsens existing medical problems. To proceed, they must meet two legal requirements: proving the heat poses a serious health or safety risk, and showing prison officials knew about the danger but failed to address it, according to Dolovich, whose work has focused on the Eighth Amendment and prison conditions.

Courts may also raise the bar for proving such claims if judges echo decisions in cases with similar Eight Amendment arguments related to the death penalty and homelessness, Dolovich said. Judges have shifted, she said, toward a “superadding terror, pain and disgrace” standard under the Eighth Amendment — a higher threshold requiring proof that conditions were created with the intent to cause unnecessary suffering.

Dolovich added that some recent court decisions have provided only narrow remedies, such as ordering ice and fans instead of installing air conditioning.

“Prison officials have a moral and a constitutional responsibility to respond to changing conditions. In this case, it means air conditioning. … Anything less than that, to me, is indefensible.” she said.

Stateline reporter Amanda Hernández can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

by Amanda Hernandez, Virginia Mercury

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