JACKSONVILLE, Fla. _ For decades, it's been the same story every summer in Florida prisons. Despite being one of the hottest states in the country, the vast majority of dorms in public correctional facilities have no air conditioning and offer little relief from the heat.
Throughout Florida, the exhaust fan and cooling systems in state prisons are the subjects of frequent complaints. Sweltering prisons affect inmates and correctional officers alike, raising tensions and posing health risks.
This year, there is a glimmer of hope for a small, if incremental change, but it won't come anytime soon. The advocacy group Florida Cares is pushing the Florida Department of Corrections to consider allowing the loved ones of inmates to purchase personal, battery-powered fans. Secretary Mark Inch has signaled an openness to such a proposal.
"Thank you for your recommendation and research, and even your perseverance," Inch wrote in a recent email to Denise Rock, the CEO of Florida Cares.
Texas prisons similarly deal with excessive heat in the summer, but allow inmates to purchase personal fans. Those fans are corded, however, and Florida prisons typically don't have electrical outlets in housing areas, except for on death row, where inmates are already allowed to purchase fans through the commissary.
Inch, who had a prior obligation to meet with prison officials from Texas and other states this week, went on to tell Rock he would inquire with Texas officials about "their initiatives and lessons learned."
In Florida, the state's prisons have been entrenched in heat for the entirety of their existence. But in more recent years, newly constructed private facilities have emerged to draw a contrast with aging public prisons.
Even in the state's prison hospital, the Reception and Medical Center in Union County, cancer and kidney dialysis patients live in dorms without air conditioning, according to loved ones. A correctional officer at the hospital, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity due to his fear of retaliation, said that there are only two wings of the hospital with air conditioning, which he said does not work well and is often in need of repair.
The Florida Department of Corrections said that only the inpatient housing units at the Reception and Medical Center have air conditioning. The agency said the "most vulnerable inmate populations such as the infirmed, mentally ill and geriatric" live in air-conditioned housing units.
"Fans and exhaust systems are regularly maintained and inspected weekly to ensure all systems are operational," Michelle Glady, the department's director of communications, said in an email. "New institutions are designed with air conditioning, but many current FDC facilities were constructed prior to air conditioning being commonplace and were designed to facilitate airflow to provide natural cooling within them."
The department does not log daily temperatures in its prison dormitories.
The problem is not unique to Florida. A recent study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that 13 states in the hottest parts of the country didn't have air conditioning in all their prisons, even though 95% of households in the South use air conditioning, including 90% of households with incomes of less than $20,000 a year.
"The lack of air conditioning in Southern prisons creates unsafe _ even lethal _ conditions," Alexi Jones wrote for the policy initiative. "Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can cause dehydration and heat stroke, both of which can be fatal."
Jones found that the heat can also affect people's kidneys, liver, heart, brain and lungs, which can lead to renal failure, heart attack and stroke.
"Conditions such as diabetes and obesity can limit people's ability to regulate their body heat, as can high blood pressure medications and most psychotropic medications," Jones wrote in the report.
As for the personal fans, Rock, of Florida Cares, is proposing an outside vendor that requires a 90- to 120-day lead time, so the likelihood of relief for state inmates this summer remains low.
That hasn't slowed Rock's efforts.
"I think that it's just a no-brainer," Rock told the Florida Times-Union. "Excessive heat, it causes a rise in people's temperature, attitude."
She said allowing personal fans at the inmates' own expense would not require any taxpayer money and would alleviate working conditions for correctional officers while providing some relief for prisoners.
"You're basically just leaving them in there to suffer and die," Rock said. "This would reduce the overall agitation and aggression that comes from those hot temperatures."
