Thousands of Pa. prisoners endure summer heat without air conditioning

As extreme heat stifles Pennsylvania for a fourth week, thousands of people incarcerated in state prisons have little opportunity for relief because more than a third of the facilities lack universal air conditioning.

Of the 24 Pennsylvania state prisons, four have limited or no air conditioning in areas where incarcerated people live, work and gather. Five more have only partial coverage, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The agency is working to expand air conditioning availability in prisons when state funds and resources are available, said spokesperson Maria Bivens.

But until that happens, many incarcerated individuals are stuck in sweltering conditions.

Ralph Bolden is incarcerated at Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania’s prison for people who are older or have complicated health needs, which does not have air conditioning in all of its housing units. Bolden described his block as a “sauna” in an email to Spotlight PA.

“Besides it being difficult to get in and out of bed, use the bathroom, etc., the heat is rougher on me and those also disabled,” wrote Bolden, who uses a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis.

The National Weather Service has placed much of Pennsylvania under either a heat advisory or excessive heat warning for nearly a month, cautioning that the combined air temperature and humidity pose a significant health risk.

The high heat this year broke records in many parts of the state, and experts warn climate change will make future summers hotter.

In such conditions, the NWS recommends people stay indoors, seek air-conditioned spaces, drink plenty of water, and check on relatives and neighbors, especially those whose age or health makes them particularly vulnerable to the heat.

While 91% of Pennsylvania households use some kind of air conditioning equipment to stay cool in the oppressive heat, a large portion of the incarcerated population doesn’t have that option.

In prisons, everything — from a person’s movements, to their access to water, to the kind of clothing they can wear — is tightly regulated. Opportunities to cool down may be infrequent, if not impossible, said experts who spoke with Spotlight PA.

“I have the resources to sit in front of the air conditioner,” said Celeste Trusty, deputy director of state policy for Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the former secretary of the state Board of Pardons.

“I have the ability to regulate my body temperature. But when you look at the prison population, they don’t.”

When prisons don’t have air conditioning, other means of cooling can also be scarce, Trusty said. Even the opportunities for fresh air that are available may not provide relief, she said, because many prison recreation yards have limited shade.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections constantly monitors temperatures inside the prisons, Bivens said, and “any deterioration of interior conditions is taken very seriously.” The agency has not recorded any heat-related deaths in the past three years, according to medical staff.

Per policy, staff try to keep cells with no windows or outside access between 68 and 74 degrees, Bivens said. To do this in facilities without air conditioning, the department provides staff and incarcerated people with extra water and ice and brings in fans to keep air circulating.

“Inmates have sinks in their cells as well as access to drinking water which can help keep them hydrated and cooler,” Bivens said. “Also, our staff have been educated about the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses.”

Older facilities, unique challenges

At least eight prisons, including Frackville and Waymart, have plans for upgrades to current air conditioning systems or expanded air conditioning coverage included in the department’s current five-year capital plan. Coverage at Cambridge Springs was upgraded in several buildings in recent years.

But the other facilities with partial to very limited coverage — Dallas, Huntingdon, Laurel Highlands, Muncy, Quehanna Boot Camp, and Rockview — do not have expansions planned.

The nine facilities with partial to very limited air conditioning include buildings that are decades, or in some cases, more than a century old.

In those buildings, air conditioning can only be provided by window or standing floor units, Bivens said.

This includes Laurel Highlands and Waymart, the state’s two facilities for people with serious medical or mental health conditions, which both originated as state-run hospitals under the Department of Human Services before the state converted them to prisons.

The special needs and medical units of these facilities are air-conditioned, and projects are underway to add air conditioning to housing and update the cooling system in the medical building at Waymart, Bivens said.

But expansions are limited by available funds and resources, Bivens said. Each year, all prisons submit requests for building and maintenance items they would like completed, including upgrades to air conditioning, but expensive capital projects are subject to approval during the state budget process.

High heat worse for at-risk populations

Higher temperatures can also exacerbate underlying health conditions for incarcerated people, who age at a more advanced rate than those living outside.

At Muncy, one of Pennsylvania’s prisons for women, Jessica Kenley described fellow incarcerated people who use wheelchairs, walkers, and canes walking “the equivalent of a city block” in the heat.

Kenley said the dining hall is air-conditioned, but the kitchen isn’t, so “the kitchen workers suffer the most.”

At Laurel Highlands, managing the heat can be difficult for people with complicated health issues.

“My block has a lot of dialysis patients,” Bolden wrote of his housing at Laurel Highlands.

“My friend who sleeps near me does dialysis three times a week and he says that — because of the heat — he's drinking too much water and putting on too much water weight which is causing him to bloat,” Bolden said. “This is very unhealthy for them.”

Bolden also wrote that the prison’s chapel lacks air conditioning. After religious services, he said, people “return to the block soaked.”

Erika Whisted, whose son is incarcerated at SCI Dallas, said the prison has experienced extremely high heat during the recent wave. Those inside are able to purchase a small handheld fan for personal use if they have family or friends who can send them money, Whisted said.

But the fans, which Bolden also described to Spotlight PA, are “weak,” “small,” and “barely evaporate your forehead sweat when it gets hot,” he said.

Whisted shared her concerns with staff at SCI Dallas, she said, but when she reached a sergeant and asked who could tell her more about how the department keeps people safe during high heat, he hung up on her.

“Our animal shelters have air conditioning,” she said. “And yet we treat human beings in Pennsylvania with such disregard.”

Rising temperatures create new problems

The temperatures in Pennsylvania aren’t as extreme as those in southern states such as Texas and Louisiana, which now face lawsuits over the deadly heat inside prisons. But temperatures are rising year over year, and dangerous heat inside prisons will only get worse, said Cascade Tuholske, a geographer at Montana State University who recently published a study on hazardous heat in United States prisons.

Tuholske and fellow researchers examined more than 4,000 carceral facilities — including prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers — and measured hazardous heat levels at those locations between 1982 and 2020. They found that prisons experience more days of hazardous heat annually than other areas in the country, and that figure has increased over the past 40 years.

The majority of facilities experiencing drastic increases are in the South, but Tuholske found increases in the Northeast and Midwest as well.

“Pennsylvania is actually emblematic of a place where attention really should be focused,” he said.

In cities like Houston, Miami, and Phoenix where extreme heat is common, local officials are more prepared to mitigate the worst heat waves when they arrive, Tuholske said. Both Miami and Phoenix have heat officers tasked with protecting residents from potentially deadly temperatures.

But in places not used to heat, like Pennsylvania, a bad wave can be devastating if facilities are not prepared.

“The same kind of temperature in Phoenix would still be a hazard, but they can deal with it. 115 degrees isn’t unusual,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous in places that aren’t used to it.”

Humidity also plays a role and can be deadly when combined with high heat. In Pennsylvania, an air temperature of 95 degrees could feel worse than the same number in Arizona, Tuholske said, because the humidity here interferes with the body’s ability to cool itself.

All of these factors compound in prisons, where the population is older, sicker, and more likely to be on medications that interfere with heat regulation, he said.

Several jails across the state also lack air conditioning, including the detention center in Philadelphia, and even prisons that do have air conditioning experience outages. SCI Phoenix, the state’s newest facility, built in 2018, experienced sporadic outages between July 5 and 6, the department confirmed.

High heat is a perennial problem that many incarcerated people and their loved ones have become resigned to, said Noah Barth of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, “especially as the summers keep getting worse and worse.”

But the problem is also distinctly solvable, Tuholske said. Air conditioning works, he said, and retrofitting older buildings now might ultimately be less expensive in the long run.

Exposure to extreme heat in prisons exacerbates the health conditions of people who are already likely to have higher instances of mental health issues and physical illnesses, he said. That means they need more expensive care both while they are incarcerated and when they’re released.

“It’s the humane thing to do, but it also seems more cost-effective,” he said.