The state wants to end the heat lawsuit against Miami-Dade prison

Florida – Corrections officials in Florida want a federal judge to dismiss a possible class-action lawsuit that claims the state has violated inmates’ rights due to overheated circumstances at a jail in Miami-Dade County, arguing that the “Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons.”
A move to dismiss the October case was filed by attorneys for the Florida Department of Corrections, Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon, and Warden Francisco Acosta of Dade Correctional Institution.

Three inmates of Dade Correctional Institution are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which claims violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The claims partially center on how heat affects elderly prisoners who have health issues.
According to the lawsuit, 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.” The prison’s dormitories lack air conditioning.

The Eighth Amendment argument, however, “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,” according to the motion to dismiss the case.

“The absence of air conditioning does not by itself present a significant danger of serious injury. For an inmate to be denied “the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities,” the deprivation must be objectively “extreme” enough to qualify as an Eighth Amendment claim. The motion, which largely cited court decisions, stated that the lawsuit’s assertions had not “cleared this high bar.”

Acosta and Dixon “are responding reasonably to the heat-related risks within Dade CI and prisons throughout Florida,” according to the request.

“Educative posters have been placed throughout the staffing area by prison officials to warn about the dangers of excessive heat and to inform staff of the signs of heat-related illness, specifically with regard to Dade CI,” the motion stated. In the summer of 2023, Warden Acosta even instructed his employees to supply cool water in the dorms and to get in touch with the duty warden in the event that an exhaust fan or system failed. In the heat, officers also occasionally bring coolers filled with ice. The plaintiffs also admit that exhaust fans have been fixed in the facility.

However, the lawsuit claims that the Department of Corrections exposes prisoners to “abysmal air quality and unbearable heat.”

According to the lawsuit, “Defendants are aware that extreme heat in the housing areas of their facilities poses a substantial risk of serious injury to prisoners, including plaintiffs and the class (of inmates).” The Department of Corrections (FDC) regulations, procedures, and declarations serve as evidence of the defendant’s understanding. The defendants do not take reasonable measures to reduce the risk, demonstrating their continued indifference to it.

According to the lawsuit, the named plaintiffs are Gary Wheeler, a 65-year-old inmate with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Tyrone Harris, a 54-year-old inmate with conditions like hypertension and asthma; and Dwayne Wilson, a 66-year-old inmate with hypertension, an enlarged prostate, and a burn scar over much of his body that hinders his ability to sweat.

Lawyers from the Florida Justice Institute are defending the plaintiffs. Corrections officials are being ordered 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,” according to the lawsuit, which is seeking an injunction.

The complaint was filed when jail heat garnered attention this year, particularly from state lawmakers, and was assigned to U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of South Florida.

This summer, Sen. Jennifer Bradley, a Republican from Fleming Island whose district in North Florida is so large that it contains several jails, told The News Service of Florida that she had collaborated with Dixon to find solutions to lessen the impact of the heat that had been breaking records in various parts of the state.

This is a problem that has existed for a very long time. However, this summer has been relentless and truly unprecedented. In addition to hearing from the loved ones of the convicts, Bradley, who was chairwoman of the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee at the time, remarked, “I visit prisons and when I go and visit, it is just oppressive.”