Prisoners plead for air conditioning in lawsuit against Florida corrections department

TALAHASSEE, Fla. — It was the hottest September in more than a century in parts of South Florida, and Dwayne Wilson heard his 81-year-old fellow inmate gasping for breath and screaming for help at Dade Correctional Institution, 45 miles southwest of coastal Miami. edge of the Florida Everglades.

The elderly man was confined to a wheelchair and had complained for weeks of severe chest pain and difficulty breathing in the unventilated dormitory where he served his sentence, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed this week on behalf of Wilson and two other inmates. at the prison.

Early in the morning of Sept. 24, the wheelchair-bound inmate, identified in the lawsuit as JB, was heard pleading for help again, the lawsuit said. An inmate took him to the infirmary, where medical staff ordered him back to his cell within 15 minutes, according to legal documents.

Shortly afterwards, JB was found unconscious with his mouth open, the lawsuit said.

Lawyers said that on the day the 81-year-old died, the exhaust fans in his dorm were not working and the heat index had risen to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Life in the prison’s non-air-conditioned cells could feel like “being locked in a sardine can with no air to breathe,” one inmate identified in the lawsuit as GM said, and the heat had taken its toll.

The lawsuit filed this week by prison reform advocacy group Florida Justice Institute says the prison’s heat contributed to the deaths of four people there and that prison officials failed to take “meaningful action” to reduce the risks for the elderly and people to limit. disabled detainees under their care.

The lawsuit, which names the Florida Department of Corrections, the department’s secretary and the director of DCI as defendants, argues that the conditions violate the protections of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as well as Americans with a disability. Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

“We had to file this lawsuit because they have so far ignored the concerns of incarcerated people and their lawyers. And so it seems like they need a court to order them to do what they should have done on their own,” said Andrew Udelsman, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute.

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said the department does not comment on pending litigation and stated the agency has no record of the lawsuit.

According to the World Health Organization, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths. While deadly heat is not new, scientists say it has increased in magnitude, frequency and duration due to climate change. Last year, the United States saw the most recorded heat deaths in more than 80 years, according to a US newspaper Associated Press analysis from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet the majority of inmates in sweltering Florida are serving their sentences in cells without air conditioning, even as temperatures continue to soar in the state. breaking records. The risk is even greater for the elderly and those with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to heat-related illnesses.

According to testimony Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon gave to state lawmakers last year, 75% of the state’s prison housing is not air-conditioned. Bills introduced last year that would have directed the department to install air conditioning in state prisons died in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“When you’re in the institution and you visit a dorm that doesn’t have air conditioning, you look at the security guards that are charged with maintaining security in those spaces, it’s absolutely oppressive,” Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley said at a hearing. last October.

“There are things we can do in our system to alleviate the heat. Otherwise, Florida will find itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit,” she warned. “And it will be a lot more expensive.”

Florida isn’t alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Files have also been submitted Texas, Louisiana And New Mexico. One submitted Georgia In July it was claimed that a 27-year-old prisoner died after being left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.

Udelsman said he hopes the Florida lawsuit will help courts establish consistent safety standards for incarcerated individuals at risk of exposure to deadly heat at a time when climate change is increasing the threat to the country. aging And invalid prison population.

“Courts are increasingly confirming that these types of conditions are not constitutional,” Udelsman said. “We hope that this lawsuit will be another lawsuit along those lines… that these dominoes will continue to fall.”

___ Kate Payne is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.