A woman incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla died Saturday amid the heat wave, raising concerns over extreme heat conditions in regional correctional facilities.
Adrienne Boulware’s family said that they were informed by prison staff that she had died from a heat stroke. In a statement, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation public information officer Mary Xjimenez said that the cause of death appears to be related to pre-existing health conditions, not the heat. The coroner’s office is still determining an official cause of death.
Boulware’s daughter Michela Nelson said her mother had complained of exhaustion and physical tolls from summertime extreme heat for years. The prison is not equipped with air conditioning or other cooling systems in residential areas needed to adequately preserve the health of its incarcerated residents, according to Nelson.
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