CCA Calls For Urgent Action As Incarcerated New Yorkers Endure Life-Threatening Heat Condition
NEW YORK, NY — Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) is sounding the alarm about the life-threatening and inhumane conditions inside New York’s prisons following the dangerous heat wave across the state. While Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency in 32 counties, people incarcerated in New York’s prisons were subjected to extreme temperatures. CCA has heard reports from incarcerated people and their loved ones at Auburn, Sing Sing, Albion, Midstate, St. Vincent, Mohawk, Five Points, Coxsackie, Ulster, Elmira, and Groveland Correctional Facilities. While the heat wave has broken for now, more extreme temperatures are expected and urgent action is needed from Governor Hochul and the DOCCS Commissioner. Thomas Gant, Community Organizer with CCA, released the following statement:
“New York prisons are boiling and we need action now. While the current heat wave has started to break, more extreme tem peratures are expected, and the conditions inside New York State prisons are not just inhumane, they are deadly.
Incarcerated people are report ing temperatures in excess of 110 degrees, little or no access to showers, ice, cold water, fans or ventilation. At Albion, the heat was reportedly still turned on. Many people inside are aging, taking medications, or have chronic health conditions that make them highly vulnerable to extreme heat. Denying them basic relief like water, fans, or cool air is willful negligence and life-threatening abuse. This comes on top of already dete riorating conditions. Since the illegal correctional officer strike earlier this year, programming remains shut down in many facilities. Visits are limited to weekends, with hours-long waits and no guarantee of entry.
New York State has already recognized the danger of extreme heat in New York’s prisons. Last year, the Legislature passed a law to mandate annual heat mitigation plans in prisons, including guaranteed access to fans, water, ice, and cooling stations. It’s clear those protections are not being enforced in any meaningful way across the system.
We demand immediate emergency action from Governor Hochul and DOCCS Commissioner Martuscello to prevent suffering and death due to the heat across all of New York State’s prisons. That means rapid deployment of fans, guaranteed access to cold water and show ers, shaded outdoor areas, well ness checks, and honest report ing on what’s happening inside. This is not a luxury. This is basic human decency. If the state refuses to act, then it is complicit in the suffering and potential deaths of the people it holds in its custody. Lives are on the line.”
REPORTS FROM CURRENTLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE
A person incarcerated at Albi on wrote: ““L block in Albion has the HEAT ON. Yes, the actual heat is on, and from what I’m hearing, it’s not just in my dorm. It was 97 degrees and humid today, and you could feel the hot air blowing out of the vents. An officer heard me talking about it and said, ‘Good, I hope they keep the heat on so it knocks you guys out.’ This is so inhumane. The heat has everyone so agitated. Someone in my dorm just cracked open another girl’s head in a fight over ice because our dorm has no ice machine, and we’re lucky if we get a small cooler of ice after dinner a day. She needed four staples. The officers just do not care. No pro grams are running. It’s always ‘no movement,’ so we’re always stuck inside. They don’t even run yard every day.”
A person incarcerated at Sing Sing wrote: “Sing Sing is still on a soft lockdown 23 hours out of the day. The only “out of cell” activi ty running is hospital and mental health call outs during the day. Bathhouse is not being run. Many are going multiple days without a shower and it’s 100 degrees. Today there is a heat index of 110. There is no heat mitigation tak ing place in the blocks. There are no fans in B Block on the upper level, and the windows are only half open throughout the block. Ice is limited to every other day, and only a small scoop per person.”
Another person incarcerated at Sing Sing wrote: “There are 5 floors in B-block and the temperature increases dramatically as you go up. Think of an attic in the summer! There is no air movement at all on any gallery. The windows aren’t even open all the way! They are half way open, so even if there was a breeze, it would be limited. There are no industrial fans, stationary or wall mounted anywhere in B-block except where the C.O.’s sit. They have a smaller industrial fan pointed right at them and at the mess hall entrance where the C.O.’s stand when we enter. There are fans in the mess hall. Ice delivery is every other day and the scoop is the size of your hand. If you happen to be at a medication run, which occurs around the time ice comes, you’re out of luck.”
A third incarcerated person at Sing Sing wrote of the heat in the context of the ongoing humanitarian crisis inside: “The heat on the blocks is extremely unbearable. We only receive ice once a day, and there is no ventilation in the cells. There aren’t any windows or vents in the cells in A or B Block, and the vents in 5 Building cells are inoperable. The bathhouse has not been opened in weeks. This is depriving the population of the mandated three-showers-per week entitlement. The extended wait times for our visitors coming into the facility have caused family members to faint in the heat over the weekend. We are subjected to the old segregated confinement restrictions. We are locked in 23 hours a day. We are only receiving minutes for recreation, and we go to the mess hall to pick up a “to-go” meal and eat in our cells. We have almost zero interaction and mingling time. We are being denied all legal services with no remedy in sight. Programs have constantly been closed due to the malicious staffing crisis and post assignments within the facility. We have not had our religious services or holy worship days provided due to the chapel being closed. Our relationships with our loved ones are being severely strained due to the hardships placed on visitation after the illegal strike. The cost of living is expensive in NYC, and many families can’t afford to miss a day’s work to come visit during the weekend.”
A person whose loved one is incarcerated at Five Points wrote: “My loved one told me they haven’t been allowed in the main yard since before the strike. On Tuesday, they finally opened it for just two hours, from 2 to 4 p.m., the hottest part of the day. I’m also hearing from my loved ones and from others with loved ones inside other prisons that when fans are available on com missary, they cost between $22 and $30. For someone who earns just $0.33 an hour in prison, that’s more than 90 hours of labor just to buy a fan. That means choos ing between basic survival needs like food or hygiene supplies. Meanwhile, there’s no ice or water being provided. People are sticking their feet in the toilet or soaking socks to wrap around their necks just to try to stay cool.