The heat-related death toll this summer is likely to climb with unprecedented temperatures. California’s latest record-breaking heat wave apparently claimed a life Saturday in one of the state’s prisons, where temperatures were reportedly in the high 90s indoors.
Expect more “predictable and preventable” prisoner heat-deaths this summer, say UCLA medical anthropologists Bharat Venkat and Nicholas Shapiro. Shapiro studies carceral ecologies, and Venkat, director of the UCLA Heat Lab, studies extreme heat and inequality. With the state of California recently approving indoor heat protections that specifically exclude prisons, closing more prisons and jails is the humane solution, say Shapiro and Venkat:
- Venkat: “Incarcerated people in California are amongst the most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, injuries and deaths.”
- Shapiro: “A recent study found that California is in the top three states to pose heat risks to incarcerated people. These deaths are predictable and preventable, and the solution will save taxpayers money and free up money to invest in communities that have been historically marginalized.”
- Venkat: “Last summer was the hottest on record, and this one might prove even hotter. The danger of heat in California’s prisons and jails is undeniable. Incarcerated people are especially susceptible to extreme heat for several reasons, including the locations of jails and prisons, the way they’re built, their general lack of air conditioning and ventilation, the prevalence among prisoners of health conditions that heat can worsen, and the use of psychiatric drugs that exacerbate the consequences of heat.”
- Venkat: “Heat-related deaths definitely happen in California prisons, and I’d expect more to happen this summer. We don’t have great data on heat-related deaths in California prisons for a variety of reasons, including how deaths in prison are accounted for, as well as the way heat is often discounted as a cause or contributing factor when someone has a heart attack or stroke, for example. But recent work has shown that there is an association between increasing temperatures, multi-day heatwaves and an increase in mortality amongst incarcerated people.”
- Shapiro: “We’d prefer the known risks were mitigated rather than us having to count bodies to muster political action.”
Media are encouraged to quote from Shapiro and Venkat’s comments, or to reach out on these and other environmental topics for additional context, research and analysis from UCLA climate experts. Venkat and Shapiro also authored a piece on the need for inmate heat protections in Monday’s Los Angeles Times: Opinion: California will finally have indoor heat standards for workplaces — with a cruel exception.
Shapiro is a UCLA assistant professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics. He studies carceral ecologies, chemical contamination and climate change, and his recent research into so-called “forever chemicals” found that drinking water in U.S. prisons have dangerously high PFAS levels. In addition to directing the UCLA Heat Lab, Venkat is an associate professor at UCLA with joint appointments in the Institute for Society and Genetics, History and Anthropology. He can comment on the dangers of heat to the human body, whether in prisons, the Olympics, or food trucks.
Alison Hewitt
Senior Media Relations Officer
UCLA Strategic Communications | Office of Media Relations
ahewitt@stratcomm.ucla.edu | @ashewitt | @ahewitt.bsky
310-206-5461
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