Author(s):
Brian Osgood
‘Like being inside an oven’: Extreme weather batters imprisoned people
Source(s):
Al Jazeera Satellite Network
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A 2023 study examining mortality at US prisons and jails found that an increase of 10 degrees Fahrenheit over a location’s mean summer temperature heightened an imprisoned person’s risk of dying by five percent.
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The study noted that, in the southern US, two-day heatwaves coincided with a 1.3-percent bump in prison deaths. But in regions like the west and northeast, where people are not as accustomed to higher temperatures, deaths jumped 8.6 percent and 21 percent respectively.
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Facilities constructed with materials such as concrete and metal can retain more heat, elevating the temperatures inside a prison above those on the outside.
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