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The Central California Women’s Facility, the nation’s largest women’s prison, is in Chowchilla, where temperatures reached past 90 degrees by the second week of May. The prison lacks air conditioning or any facility-wide cooling system, turning cells into saunas.

“I dread going to my groups at night because we have to wait forever at the gates and we cannot bring water with us. We can’t take water bottles to the main yard and my groups are on the main yard, so I am SOL,” 45-year-old Tien Mo wrote on May 11, an afternoon when temperatures reached 96 degrees.

Dehydration is just one concern. People behind bars are particularly vulnerable to heat-related harm, including death. A 2019 study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that 13 states in the hottest parts of the U.S. lack universal air conditioning in their prisons, meaning that while some areas, such as the chapel, visiting room or administrative offices, might have air conditioning, others, such as housing units, do not. A 2023 study found that extreme heat was associated with higher overall mortality behind bars. Researchers found that, for every 10 degrees increase above the prison’s mean summer temperature, nearly five percent of deaths (from all causes) could be attributed to the heat.

Two years ago, on July 4, 2024, temperatures at Chowchilla reached 109 degrees. That day, 47-year-old Adrienne Boulware waited for her medications in the yard. Later that day, she became incoherent, dropped to the ground, and began shaking. She was transported to the hospital and died two days later.

She was one year from a parole hearing.

8 Prisons in Virginia Lack AC in 108-Degree Heat. I Am Stuck in One of Them.

Now, her family members are among those pushing for Adrienne’s Act, which would implement relief measures during extreme weather events, including the punishing heat and wildfire smoke that pummels California every year between May and October. It would require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to implement a plan ensuring that living quarters, work areas, and recreational spaces have cooling systems and shade structures. It would also require that officials monitor indoor temperatures, investigate and document heat-related incidents, and develop emergency response protocols during extreme weather events, which include extreme heat.

Adrienne’s Act also establishes the Climate Justice in Prisons Emergency Response Act, which directs the state prison agency to issue summer-appropriate clothing, such as shorts, identify additional shade structures in yards and exercise areas, and allow increased access to showers and personal fans during excessive heat or wildfire smoke. It would also require prison medical staff to conduct regular assessments to identify those at risk for heat-related illnesses (such as those who are elderly, on medications that increase their risk, or have preexisting health conditions), to monitor symptoms for heat-related illnesses and provide prompt medical attention, and to document heat-related illnesses, symptoms, and treatment, establishing relief measures such as access to cool drinking water and cooled indoor areas, and modifying work and program requirements for those with risk factors.

Had such measures been in place, Boulware would not have died, her daughter Tyresha Reed told Truthout.

In an email, CDCR spokesperson Mary Xjiminez stated that, “after a thorough autopsy including ancillary testing, the Madera County Coroner ruled Ms. Boulware’s cause of death as undetermined.” She directed Truthout to the coroner’s report which found it unlikely that Boulware was “significantly hyperthermic leading to her demise. It was possible that her increase in body temperature was secondary to seizure activity.”

“This Could Have Been........

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