Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024
Do some Arizona prison facilities lack HVAC systems?
In 2023, Arizona’s Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry launched a plan to convert housing units in all nine state-run prisons from evaporative cooling to HVAC systems, but the conversions will take through at least 2026 to complete. Arizona also has six privately operated prisons, two of which appear on the conversion plan.
This year, ADCRR implemented an extreme heat “safety strategy” that includes providing free ice for all people in prison, offering misting stations and other “cooling areas,” and relaxing rules about inmate wardrobes.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Arizona’s Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry Facilities HVAC Conversion Plan (2024)
- Arizona’s Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry Extreme Heat Safety and Relief Strategy
- Arizona’s Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry Extreme Heat Safety and Relief Strategy Update 06.13.24
- Arizona’s Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry ADCRR Prisons
- PLOS ONE Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis
- Mother Jones Arizona Officials Allegedly Covered Up How Hot It Got in Some State Prisons – Mother Jones
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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