Hayley Smith
July 13, 2024
The potential heat-related death of a prison inmate in California’s Central Valley this week is focusing renewed attention on conditions within correctional institutions as extreme heat, wildfire smoke and flooding pose increasing threats to incarcerated people.
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Though extreme heat endangers residents throughout the state, experts say California’s prisons are uniquely unprepared for climate change because of a variety of factors, including their remote locations, aging infrastructure and overcrowding.
Many facilities are not equipped with central air conditioning, updated ventilation, shade structures or backup generators to power fans and other cooling devices during outages, according to a 2023 report by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
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