Journal Article

Spatiotemporal Facility‐Level Patterns of Summer Heat Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk in United States Prison Landscapes

Diongue, Ahmed T., Hines‐Shanks, Mia, Minchew, Brent, Krisch, Michael, Ovienmhada, Ufuoma, Wood, Danielle R.

2024

Overview

Heat is associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. People who are incarcerated are especially vulnerable to heat exposure due to demographic characteristics and their conditions of confinement. Evaluating heat exposure in prisons, and the characteristics of exposed populations and prisons, can elucidate prison‐level risk to heat exposure. We leveraged a high‐resolution air temperature data set to evaluate short and long‐term patterns of heat metrics for 1,614 prisons in the United States from 1990 to 2023. We found that the most heat‐exposed facilities and states were mostly in the Southwestern United States, while the prisons with the highest temperature anomalies from the historical record were in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, Texas, and parts of the Midwest. Prisons in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, and upper Midwest had the highest occurrences of days associated with an increased risk of heat‐related mortality. We also estimated differences in heat exposure at prisons by facility and individual‐level characteristics. We found higher proportions of non‐white and Hispanic populations in the prisons with higher heat exposure. Lastly, we found that heat exposure was higher in prisons with any of nine facility‐level characteristics that may modify risk to heat. This study brings together distinct measures of exposure, vulnerability, and risk, which would each inform unique strategies for heat‐interventions. Community leaders and policymakers should carefully consider which measures they want to apply, and include the voices of directly impacted people, as the differing metrics and perspectives will have implications for who is included in fights for environmental justice. Plain Language Summary Heat is a direct and increasing threat to human health. People in prison are especially vulnerable to heat as an increasingly older and disabled population with limited agency over their conditions of confinement, healthcare, or access to resources to decrease heat exposure. We use an air temperature data set to measure short and long‐term patterns of various heat metrics for 1,614 prisons in the United States from 1990 to 2023. We find that the patterns of highs and lows greatly differ based on the metric of choice. We also estimated differences in heat exposure at prisons by facility and individual‐level characteristics. We found higher proportions of non‐white and Hispanic populations in prisons with higher heat exposure. We also found higher temperatures are in prisons that have characteristics that can modify exposure or vulnerability to increase overall risk. Distinct measures of exposure, vulnerability, and risk can each inform unique strategies for heat‐interventions in United States prisons. Community leaders and policymakers should carefully consider which measures they want to apply, and include the voices of directly impacted people, as the differing metrics and perspectives will have implications for which populations and prisons are included in efforts to reduce heat risk. Key Points Prisons, incarcerated populations, and staff are exposed to heat and changing climates as measured through a variety of metrics Higher temperatures are found in prison landscapes that have characteristics that can modify exposure or vulnerability, increasing overall risk Distinct measures of exposure, vulnerability, and risk, can each inform unique strategies for heat‐interventions in US prisons

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc,American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Subject: Abrupt/Rapid Climate Change / Air conditioning / Air temperature / Air/Sea Constituent Fluxes / Air/Sea Interactions / Atmospheric / Atmospheric Composition and Structure / Atmospheric Effects / Atmospheric Processes / Avalanches / Benefit‐cost Analysis / Biogeosciences / carceral ecology / Climate and Interannual Variability / Climate Change and Variability / Climate Dynamics / Climate Impact / Climate Impacts / Climate Variability / Climatology / Computational Geophysics / Correctional institutions / Cryosphere / Datasets / Decadal Ocean Variability / Demographics / Disaster Risk Analysis and Assessment / Earth System Modeling / Earthquake Ground Motions and Engineering Seismology / Effusive Volcanism / Environmental justice / Ethnicity / Explosive Volcanism / Exposure / extreme heat / General Circulation / Geodesy and Gravity / Geohealth / Geological / geospatial data / Geospatial Data Applications for Environmental Justice / GIS science / Global Change / Global Change from Geodesy / Gravity and Isostasy / Heat / heat risk / Hydrological Cycles and Budgets / Hydrology / Impacts of Climate Change: Human Health / Impacts of Global Change / Imprisonment / Informatics / Infrastructure / Jurisdiction / Land/Atmosphere Interactions / Marine Geology and Geophysics / Mass Balance / Modeling / Mortality / Mud Volcanism / National security / Natural Hazards / Numerical Modeling / Numerical Solutions / Ocean influence of Earth rotation / Ocean Monitoring with Geodetic Techniques / Ocean/Atmosphere Interactions / Ocean/Earth/atmosphere/hydrosphere/cryosphere interactions / Oceanic / Oceanography: General / Oceanography: Physical / Oceans / Paleoceanography / Physical Modeling / Policy Sciences / Population / Prisons / Radio Oceanography / Radio Science / Regional Climate Change / Regional Modeling / Risk / Sea Level Change / Sea Level: Variations and Mean / Seismology / Solid Earth / Surface Waves and Tides / Temperature / Theoretical Modeling / toxic prisons / Tsunamis and Storm Surges / Volcanic Effects / Volcanic Hazards and Risks / Volcano Monitoring / Volcano Seismology / Volcano/Climate Interactions / Volcanology / Vulnerability / Water Cycles