On December 7, 2020, 44-year-old Thomas Rutledge was found unresponsive in the mental health ward of William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. His body temperature was 109°F, ten degrees above normal body temperature. He died soon afterward from severe hyperthermia.
So how does someone die from hyperthermia in December?
According to an investigation, the heating system in the prison’s mental health ward was malfunctioning. In fact, an investigator who arrived on the scene shortly after Rutledge’s death reported that the mental health ward was “hotter than three hells.” The prison staff, the lawsuit alleges, knew about the faulty heating but did nothing to stop it. (Buncombe, 2022; CBS News, 2022).
Heat-related deaths in the correctional environment occur far more frequently than you might think. Last year, Dr. Julianne Skarha, PhD, an epidemiologist from Brown University (2022), headed a study investigating a link between air conditioning and heat-related deaths in Texas prisons. After an analysis of over 3,000 deaths, the study found that Texas prisons without air conditioning had an average of 14 heat-related deaths per year from 2001 to 2019. Prisons with air conditioning had no heat related deaths at all during that time.
Just this year, Skarha (2023) expanded this study, analyzing prison deaths throughout U.S. prisons from 2001 to 2019. Just as with Texas prisons, deaths—including suicides—were highly correlated with spikes in heat and heat waves, joining a large body of studies showing how deadly extreme heat can be (Anderson & Bell, 2011; Kim et al., 2019; Thompson et al., 2018). Air conditioning in prisons is no luxury; it can be lifesaving in locations where heat waves occur.
The Department of Justice has been in an ongoing suit with the Alabama state government over deaths like Rutledge’s, stating that the unsafe conditions in the state’s prisons break people’s 8th Amendment rights to be protected against cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama, on the other hand, has vehemently denied the charge, while admitting that their prisons do have problems. The fight goes on, and Rutledge is just one more casualty of stagnant prison policy.
References
Anderson, G. B., & Bell, M. L. (2011). Heat Waves in the United States: Mortality Risk during Heat Waves and Effect Modification by Heat Wave Characteristics in 43 U.S. Communities | Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 119, No. 2 (nih.gov)
Buncombe, A. (2022, December 20). Alabama inmate ‘baked to death’ in prison cell, says lawsuit. Alabama inmate ‘baked to death’ in prison cell, says lawsuit | The Independent. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
Kim, Y., Kim, H., Gasparrini, A., Armstrong, B., Honda, Y., Chung, T., Ng, C. F. S., Tobias, A., Íñiguez, C., Lavigne, E., Sera, F., Vicedo-Cabrera, A., Ragettli, M. S., Scovronick, N., Acquaotta, F., Chen, B. Guo, Y. L., Seposo, X., Dang, T. N., Coelho, M. S. Z. S. . . . Hashizume, M. (2019). Suicide and Ambient Temperature: A Multi-Country Multi-City Study | Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 127, No. 11 (nih.gov).
Skarha, J., Dominick, A., Spangler, K., Dosa, D., Rich, J. D., Savitz, D. A., & Zanobetti, A. (2022). Provision of Air Conditioning and Heat-Related Mortality in Texas Prisons | Environmental Health | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network JAMA Network Open, 5(11), e2239849.
Skarha, J., Spangler, K., Dosa, D., Rich, J. D., Savitz, D. A., & Zanobetti, A. (2023). Heat-related mortality in U.S. state and private prisons: A case-crossover analysis | PLOS ONE PLOS ONE, 18(3), e0281389.
Thompson, R., Hornigold, R., Page, L., & Waite, T. (2018). Associations between high ambient temperatures and heat waves with mental health outcomes: a systematic review – ScienceDirect Public Health, 161, 171-191.