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Saying the “Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons,” Florida corrections officials want a federal judge to toss out a potential class-action lawsuit alleging the state has violated inmates’ rights because of hot conditions at a Miami-Dade County prison.
Lawyers for the Florida Department of Corrections, Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon and Dade Correctional Institution Warden Francisco Acosta filed a motion seeking dismissal of the lawsuit filed in October.
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The lawsuit, which names three Dade Correctional Institution inmates as plaintiffs, alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and another disabilities-related law known as the Rehabilitation Act.
The allegations focus, in part, on the effects of heat on older inmates with medical conditions. Dormitories at the prison do not have air conditioning, and the lawsuit said the Department of Corrections has “chosen to detain hundreds of elderly and disabled people at Dade Correctional Institution without taking any meaningful action to abate the risk caused by these extreme conditions.”
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The motion to dismiss the case, however, said the Eighth Amendment argument “fails because the facts do not give rise to a substantial risk of serious harm to plaintiffs, nor demonstrate that Secretary Dixon or Warden Acosta has been deliberately indifferent to the conditions and risks faced by these (named) plaintiffs in particular.”
“By itself, the lack of air conditioning does not pose a substantial risk of serious harm. The deprivation required to allege an Eighth Amendment claim must be objectively ‘extreme’ enough to deny an inmate ‘the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities.’ The allegations of the complaint (the lawsuit) have not ‘cleared this high bar.’” the motion said, partially quoting legal precedents.
The motion also said Dixon and Acosta “are responding reasonably to the heat-related risks within Dade CI and prisons throughout Florida.”
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“Regarding Dade CI in particular, prison officials have placed educational posters throughout the staffing area warning about the dangers of excessive heat and informing staff of the signs of heat-related illness,” the motion said. “Warden Acosta even directed his staff during the summer of 2023 to provide cool water in the dorms and to contact the duty warden if an exhaust fan/system stops working. Officers sometimes bring coolers full of ice in the summer, too. And plaintiffs acknowledge that the prison has repaired exhaust fans.”
But the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Corrections subjects inmates to “unbearable heat and abysmal air quality.”
“Defendants are aware that extreme heat in their facilities’ housing areas poses a substantial risk of serious injury to prisoners, including plaintiffs and the class (of inmates),” the lawsuit said. “Defendants’ knowledge is demonstrated by FDC’s (the Department of Corrections’) policies, practices, and statements. Defendants remain indifferent to the risk, failing to take reasonable steps to mitigate it.”
The named plaintiffs are Dwayne Wilson, a 66-year-old inmate who has hypertension, an enlarged prostate and a burn scar over much of his body that impairs his ability to sweat; Tyrone Harris, a 54-year-old inmate who has conditions such as hypertension and asthma; and Gary Wheeler, a 65-year-old inmate who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from the Florida Justice Institute. The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would require corrections officials to “develop and execute a plan that remedies and abates plaintiffs’ and the class members’ serious risk of harm due to the heat index and lack of ventilation; this plan could include (but not be limited to) the installation of air conditioning or other measures that maintain the heat index in the Dade CI dormitories at safe levels.”
The lawsuit, which has been assigned to South Florida-based U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. came after heat in prisons drew attention this year, including from state lawmakers.
Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican whose sprawling North Florida district includes a number of prisons, told The News Service of Florida this summer that she had worked with Dixon to find ways to mitigate the effects of what had been record-breaking heat in some areas of the state.
“This is something that has been an issue for many, many years. But this summer has been really unprecedented, unrelenting. I hear from (inmates’) loved ones, but more importantly, I visit prisons and when I go and visit, it is just oppressive,” said Bradley, who at the time was chairwoman of the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee.
