A state which is willing to invest money in air conditioning to keep its prison inmates cool will probably have fewer prison riots than a state which lets them fry!

Most Iowa convicts staying cool with AC

                    Jul 9, 2012 | by William Petroski 

Most of the 8,343 inmates in Iowa’s prison system stayed cool during last week’s heat wave with air conditioning, although not every  state correctional facility has a cooling system, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections.

In Texas, two lawsuits have been filed that challenge the lack of air conditioning in that state’s prisons. Only 21 of the 111 Texas prisons are air conditioned. According to news reports, four Texas inmates died last summer from heat stroke or hyperthermia, and inmate rights advocates believe at least five others died last summer from heat-related causes.  Inmates and advocates in Texas say the overheated conditions violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Iowa operates nine state prisons, and most are air conditioned, said Lettie Prell, the state agency’s research director.  Two state prisons under construction – in Fort Madison and Mitchellville – will both be air conditioned, she said.  A new maximum-security  prison is being built at a cost of $116.9 million in Fort Madison, while the Mitchellville prison is being expanded and modernized at a cost of $52 million.

However, some Iowa prisons don’t have any air conditioning or are only partially air conditioned, Prell said.

The entire Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility – which held 926 inmates on Monday, has no air conditioning, while the Anamosa State Penitentiary has about 800 inmates in housing units without cooling systems. The Iowa Correctional Institution at Mitchellville, which has 547 inmates, has no air conditioning in its older units. In additon, the Clarinda Correctional Facility has 138 prisoners in a minimum-security facility known as the “lodge” which has no cooling system.