Heat contributed to 4 deaths and sickened many in Miami-Dade jail without AC, lawsuits claim

Temperatures in South Florida soared to record highs in recent summers — and so did the toll on more than 1,300 people locked up in a sweltering state prison for men not far from Everglades National Park, according to a new lawsuit.

Many men at the Miami-Dade Correctional Institute, an aging, non-air-conditioned residential complex, suffered from heat rash, there were reports of fainting and at least four deaths that attorneys with the Florida Justice Institute said were likely due to the heat. .

“People are cooking in this prison and instead of addressing these conditions, the Florida Department of Corrections is allowing people to suffocate,” said Andrew Udelsman, the attorney in a case filed Thursday morning in Miami federal court. “These men did not receive death sentences.”

The Miami-based nonprofit, which advocates reforms for incarcerated people, the homeless, the disabled and other disenfranchised groups, says it filed the lawsuit with the intention of protecting prison residents from extreme heat. The most important demand: that the prison keep temperatures inside the facility below 88 degrees.

The Florida Department of Corrections said they do not comment on pending litigation. The Florida Justice Institute provided The Herald with a copy of the lawsuit before it was formally filed.

Warmer inside than outside

The lawsuit details several deaths that attorneys believe are heat-related. On July 3, 2023, Miami’s heat index outside was a dangerous 92 degrees, according to the suit, and it was even hotter inside the cement prison without working vents to suck out the stale air. A 74-year-old with hypertension – identified in the lawsuit only as CG – slept in a room full of 80 other men in bunk beds.

That morning he was described to Udelsman by inmates as “sweating profusely and confused.”

When the sun came up, CG got worse. Some of his last words that morning, the lawyer said, were, “Man, it’s so hot in here.” He died around 8am that day. At age 74, CG was one of the older incarcerated men at Dade Correctional. More than half of the prisoners are over 50 and 24% of them are over 65.

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The plaintiffs in the case, Dwayne Wilson, 66, Tyrone Harris, 54, and Gary Wheeler, 65, also all take medications for conditions such as high blood pressure, depression and epilepsy, which experts say make them more sensitive to the heat.

The lawsuit describes the circumstances of the sweatbox:

In the 80-person dorms, there are a few fans near the walls that recycle the air in the dorms. The fans don’t reach the center of the room where there are many beds, and when temperatures rise above 90 degrees, the EPA says fans are ineffective and can do more harm than good. The ductwork is filled with dust and dirt and has rusted into disrepair in places, and many vents are boarded up with wood and metal.

According to the complaint, prisoners have few options to escape the brutal heat. Although most men get access to the shower a few times a week, there is no button to change the temperature, which is set to warm or hot.

According to the complaint, prisoners have few options to escape the brutal heat. Although most men get access to the shower a few times a week, there is no button to change the temperature, which is set to warm or hot.

One man said he found respite by giving himself a “bird bath” by splashing himself with toilet water, Udelsman said. Some prisoners also described wetting their sheets with water to sleep on the concrete floor at night. Another man, whose initials are GM, said being locked in a cell during the hottest times of the day felt like “being locked in a sardine can with no air to breathe.”

The main form of relief comes from cups of ice brought into a cooler by guards, but it is not always offered and there is not enough for everyone, according to the lawsuit.

If there is a rain shower, it gets even worse. The drains on the floor of the two-person cells become clogged and spew out a combination of sewage and rainwater. The water eventually evaporates because it is so hot and as a result, the lawsuit says the rooms are covered in black mold.

The ‘hell dormitory’

Conditions are even worse in what residents call the “hell dormitory.” Sheets of solid metal cover the gaps in the windows, and on a sweltering hot day this summer, the lawsuit said the vents didn’t work.

According to the lawsuit, on September 24, 2024, an 81-year-old man identified as JB, who was staying in the dormitory, had trouble breathing. Because he used a wheelchair, he had to be alone in the cell. A heat advisory was in effect and the heat index was above 104 degrees.

After screaming for help, he was taken to the air-conditioned infirmary for breathing treatment, but then returned to his hot cell. That morning JB was not at breakfast. Prisoners entered his suffocating cell and said they found him dead with his mouth open, as if he were breathing his last.

The FDC does not track heat deaths. Instead, deaths are recorded as homicide, suicide, accident or natural causes. Heat stroke would most likely be categorized by the FDC as a “natural” death, Udelsman said.

The Herald reviewed the autopsies and medical reports of the men named in the lawsuit. No one explicitly mentioned the heat, although it was a regular complaint from prisoners.

Udelsman said incarcerated people at Dade Correctional have filed dozens, if not hundreds, of official, written grievances with the Florida Department of Corrections about broken ventilation starting in 2019, one of the last of which was after June 2024. The response they always receive, Udelsman said, is that the ventilation systems are working properly and that they were last tested in December 2022.

There are some air-conditioned areas in the prison. The guards’ offices, library, infirmary, legal center, visiting room, and inpatient health care are air-conditioned, but inmates are fortunate to have access to any of these areas for a few hours a week.

Modeling after Texas’ success

This won’t be the first time incarcerated men in Florida have tried to get protection from extreme heat. Death row inmates in Raiford filed a lawsuit against Florida prison officials in 2000, citing cruel and unusual punishment.

The lawsuit failed and the court ultimately ruled that the prison was “operating within the range of its design parameters.” The decision essentially explained that mere discomfort in high temperatures did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Udelsman believes the evidence they have against Dade Correctional goes beyond inconvenience.

“We’re not saying this heat is uncomfortable, we’re saying the heat is killing,” Udelsman said.

In October 2023, Republican Senator Jennifer Bradley said during a Florida Senate appropriations meeting: “If you are in the facility and you visit a dormitory that does not have air conditioning, and you look at the guards who are charged with maintaining security in those places, it’s absolutely oppressive.”

She said Florida needed to tone down the heat or they would “end up with a lawsuit and it will be a lot more expensive” and that it was “concerning” that the FDC was tracking temperatures in the prison.

And it’s not just South Florida. Statewide, 75% of prisons do not have air conditioning. Ricky Dixon, the FDC secretary, said at the same Senate meeting that his main concern was the impact of the heat on staff who prefer to work in cool conditions. He said the heat exacerbates bad behavior from both staff and inmates.

There have been successful suits for cooler conditions in other states. In 2018, a judge ruled that sweltering conditions at a Texas prison amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The Texas Tribune reported that after a $7 million legal battle, the state prison system settled to have one residential area at the Wallace Pack prison southeast of College Station that would be no hotter than the 88-degree heat index.

“This is what we want,” Udelsman said. “You can’t keep people in South Florida with these kinds of heat indexes that we’re seeing on a regular basis now without climate control.”

Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald, funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.