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Writer's pictureShidonna Raven

As climate change worsens, deadly prison heat is increasingly an everywhere problem


By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg,

August 29, 2024

Source: The Appeal

Photo Source: Unsplash,

This story was produced by The Appeal and co-published with Grist.







With heat waves sweeping across the country, incarcerated people in states with traditionally milder climates are facing brutal conditions that have long plagued the South and Southwest. A survey by The Appeal reveals that many of the hottest states house prisoners in units without air-conditioning.


On June 19, Michael Broadway struggled to breathe inside his cell at Stateville Correctional Center, a dilapidated Illinois state prison about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. 


Outside, temperatures hovered in the 90s, with a heat index — what the temperature feels like — of nearly 100. Just days earlier, a punishing heat wave had brought a string of days topping out in the mid-90s. With no air conditioning or ventilation, Broadway’s unit on the fifth floor of the prison had become a furnace.


“We live on the highest gallery in the cellhouse,” Mark, who lived next door to Broadway, told The Appeal over the prison’s messaging service. “It never cools off. Personal fans blow hot air. You have to sit still. Move and you are sweaty.”

(We are using an alias to protect Mark from retaliation.)




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