Extreme temperatures are raising heat index in un-air conditioned prison units

Amid temperatures that’s hit triple digits, many people who are incarcerated at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution are without air conditioning – heat relief the Department of Corrections has added to other prisons in recent years. 

Since mid June, outdoor temperatures in Leakesville, where the 3,082-bed facility is located, remained above 80 degrees – often reaching the 90s and even  into the 100s. With humidity and the prison’s metal and steel construction factored in, temperature indoors can feel over 100 degrees even in the mid-80s.. 

While parts of the Greene County prison are air conditioned, officials say money is the reason why it hasn’t been installed both throughout the facility and the state prison system. The department estimates it would cost $45.5 million to complete the project – a years-long objective of Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain. 

“The department welcomes any funding that the Legislature would provide the agency for air installation,” MDOC said Wednesday in an emailed response to Mississippi Today, 

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That answer wasn’t reassuring for Tammy Knesel, whose loved one at SMCI often goes to sleep early in the night and wakes up in the early morning to shower to escape the heat. 

Two weeks ago, she said she remembers seeing a story about how the Hattiesburg Zoo – located about an hour east from the prison – took steps during a heat wave to make sure its animals and staff had access to air conditioning, fans, misters and pools of water. 

But she said similar care did not happen for the people incarcerated at SMCI. 

“They did nothing for them, nothing,” Knesel said about the prison’s response during the heat wave. “ … All they do is sit there and drip with sweat.”

Fans are used in prison areas without air conditioning, and inmates receive ice and Gatorade along with water, MDOC said in its statement. 

Knesel said her loved one’s dormitory housing unit doesn’t have air conditioning or a fan. Knesel said he told her that some prisoners buy personal fans from the commissary and clip them to their beds. She said he did not want to be identified for safety concerns.

Her loved one has been in different housing units at SMCI that are air conditioned. Knesel said he also has access to it in a classroom. 

Extreme heat can lead to potentially fatal conditions, such as dehydration and heat stroke. Those with chronic conditions, such as heart disease, mental illness and poor blood circulation, are vulnerable to extreme heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some medications and old age can also affect a person’s ability to regulate body temperature.

Air conditioning not only can help prevent heat illness, but it also potentially can decrease incidents of violence in prisons, which research has suggested increases with heat.

No federal mandate requires state prisons to have air conditioning, leaving states to decide whether to offer it. At least a dozen Southern states remain without it, and most state prison systems aren’t fully air conditioned.

Ongoing lawsuits have argued that extreme heat in prison is a constitutional violation amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.

Mississippi prison advocate Mitzi Magleby said the fact SMCI and parts of other state prisons remain without air conditioning is inexcusable. 

“I think that promise was gone with the wind,” she said, referring to Cain’s air-conditioning objective. 

In 2022, Cain secured funding to start adding air conditioning to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. He expected the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and other prisons to follow. 

“It just takes a good while to get it all done,” he said in an April 2023 interview with Missisisppi Today. “That’s just the way the funding is.”

Cain said he was motivated to add air conditioning as a way to address constitutional violations noted in a 2022 U.S. Department of Justice report, which included problems with extreme heat inside Parchman. A later report based on the DOJ’s investigation of SMCI, CMCF and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility found similar issues with heat. 

The Justice Department recommended proper temperature regulation and sanitary conditions in solitary confinement. 

To date, air conditioning has come to all of the state’s prisons, but not throughout entire facilities, the department said in its email. 

Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, the Mississippi Correctional Institute for Women at CMCF and Delta Correctional Facility are air conditioned. The Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs has all but one of its building air conditioning. All of Parchman is air conditioned, with the exception of Unit 29, a maximum security unit where the worst of the worst are housed.

Management & Training Corp., a private contractor, operates two other prisons for the state. East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian has air conditioning in each housing unit and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville has it everywhere except in the gymnasium, said Emily Lawhead, a spokesperson for MTC. 

Similar to the state-run facilities, EMCF and Wilkinson Correctional provide fans, water and ice inside the prisons for prisoners and staff, Lawhead said.

Although Knesel’s loved one has moments where he can feel air conditioning at SMCI, she said most of his days are spent in bed in the dorm. 

“I don’t know how he’s kept himself sane,” Knesel said about staying in the heat.