What is it about?
New research from Brown University provides some of the first epidemiologic evidence that extreme heat is killing people in prisons across the United States. The study examined deaths in both state-run and privately run prisons during the hot summer months of June, July and August between 2001 and 2019.
Featured Image
Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash
Why is it important?
We found that a 10-degree temperature increase in temperature was correlated with a 5.2 percent increase in deaths — or a 6.7 percent increase among prisoners with heart disease. Also startling was the link between heat and suicide in prisons. In the three days following an extreme heat day, we found a 22.8 percent increase in suicides.
Perspectives
Working on this research gave me the opportunity to learn more about the physical conditions inside U.S. prisons - and the aspects of daily prison life which may be hidden away from the public eye. Specifically, I needed to think about the unique routes of exposure to heat that happen inside prisons and may not happen outside of that setting, such as access restrictions to water, fans, showers, air condition, types of clothing, and more. It made me think about the range of other health consequences that may be occurring (outside of death).
Julianne Skarha
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis, PLoS ONE, March 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281389.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
