"Texas officials claimed that no prisoners have been killed by heat. A new report shows they're wrong." "In the dozens of Texas prisons that don’t have air conditioning, new research shows that 13 percent of deaths during the six hottest months every year from 2001 through 2019 were likely due to extreme heat."
The U.S. has the world's largest population of prisoners, and Texas holds more incarcerated people than any other state. As climate change continues to increase the severity, frequency and duration of heat waves, the approximately 160,000 individuals in Texas prisons -; as well as the people who work in these settings -; come under intense physical duress in prisons without climate controls, according to a new study led by researchers at Brown University's School of Public Health.
A research team led by scholars from Brown University found higher death rates among people in prisons without air conditioning compared to those in climate-controlled institutions.