In recent weeks, in central Alabama, we’ve been struggling with summer heat that has risen over 100 degrees day after day. It makes a walk through the parking lot unpleasant, and it is parching the grass in our yards. Another issue for parents like me is that our children, who are athletes at their schools, have been practicing for the upcoming seasons in this heat. That has worried me. “Drink lots of water,” I tell mine, and I accompany that reminder with another: “You have to speak up, if you feel like you’re getting too hot.” Those concerns are real when the temp is over 100 and the heat indexes hover in the 110s.  

Yet, two things comfort me about my children’s situation: they’re surrounded by people who care about them, and they have a choice about being out there. By contrast, when we think about our discomfort or our worries, we must also consider the inmates in the South’s many prisons – including juveniles – who don’t have either of those comforting factors in their favor as they struggle to survive the same heat. I say “survive,” because many of the South’s prisons lack any kind of air conditioning, which can make oppressive heat turn deadly. Last summer, some attention was paid to the effects of the summer heat in Alabama’s unconstitutionally harsh prisons, some of which lack even proper ventilation or cool water. More recently, PBS NewHour did a story about Louisiana’s juvenile inmates who live in this same situation. 

These conditions can be created by a three common beliefs that I hear expressed often. First, that people who commit crimes deserve to live in harsh conditions as part of their punishment. Second, that incarceration should be harsh and should not be a “vacation.” Third, that the states should not spend money on making prisoners comfortable. Add those up, and we see the results. Presenting it in a less particular, more philosophical way, one or both of two narratives would have to be present to hold these beliefs. One narrative would say that a sense of justice tells us that inmates have caused suffering and thus deserve to suffer. Another narrative would say that inmates have committed offenses against society, and thus, are no longer equally human after their criminal convictions. The former would endorse their suffering, and the latter would be indifferent to it.

Another interesting combination of beliefs, myths, and narratives is involved here. That one is the compartmentalization of the idiom “pro-life” as being related only to abortion rights. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, more than half of Southerners consider themselves “pro-life.” One aspect of the “pro-life” political agenda is the idea of protecting those who cannot protect themselves, i.e. the unborn. But neither this sympathy nor its accompanying fervor carry over to prison inmates, not even to juvenile inmates – children – who also lack the capacity to protect themselves. A person incarcerated in a facility with overcrowded conditions, no air-conditioning, inadequate ventilation, no cool water, and no access to ice will inevitably face the reality of the South’s summer heat within those conditions. That person will also have no recourse and no outlet but the passing of summer into fall. It is notable that the fervent “pro-life” milieu in the modern South, which identifies heavily with the Christian faith, does not acknowledge the helplessness of prisoners or express concern for their welfare within its areas of interest. The consequent effects on legislative outcomes is notable, as well. 

Southern summers are hot enough, but in the years when extreme and prolonged heat come and stay, the severity of the situation is remarked upon everywhere we go— Hot enough for ya’, somebody will inevitably ask. I have been fortunate, as a Southerner, to live in this region since the invention of air-conditioning, which is a luxury in most contexts but might be a human right in others. The ability to escape the heat can be a matter of life or death. Common narratives in the South may say that criminals deserve to suffer, but I don’t see how anyone could endorse what is being perpetrated on the much of the South’s prison population in this summer heat. 

If the words of the apostle Paul aren’t enough to make more of us care about incarcerated people, then maybe the words of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky should incite some reflection: “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” When we see these news reports and learn of these conditions in our prisons, turning our heads and our backs says that we at least accept or at most endorse this. I’d like to see this aspect of our culture change, and soon.  

Further Reading: “After lawsuit, Texas plans to install air-conditioning in a stifling prison” from The Texas Tribune (February 2, 2018)

“The state of Texas plans to install air conditioning in a notoriously hot prison after reaching a settlement with inmates in a federal class action lawsuit, an attorney for the inmates said Friday. [ . . . ] Inmates argued in court that allowing prison temperatures to rise above 88 degrees amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.”