Media Contact: Kathryn Hamoudah or 404/688-1202

Amid extreme temperatures hitting much of the United Sates, the Southern Center for Human Rights is deeply concerned about the well-being of people incarcerated in the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC), who are being held in dangerously hot cells with little to no access to air conditioning or other cooling options.

Prolonged exposure to extreme heat is dangerous—even fatal—particularly if a person is elderly and/or has medical conditions. Exposure to such heat can cause dehydration and heat stroke, and it can damage people’s organs, which can lead to renal failure, heart attack, stroke, and death. These conditions are exacerbated for incarcerated people who are in prisons that lack AC and who have no control over their access to other heat-mitigating tools, such as cold water, cooling or moisture-wicking clothes, personal fans, ice, and cooling washcloths.  Older incarcerated people, those who are taking medications for chronic and autoimmune conditions, and those taking psychotropic medications are particularly at risk.

As temperatures reach unsafe levels, officials across the country are urging people to use air conditioning if they have it.  Meanwhile, communities are setting up cooling centers for residents to escape the heat.  Short of these options, people in the community can grab a cold drink, walk in the shade, or take a cool shower to avoid overheating.  But incarcerated people do not have the freedom to make such choices.  Even access to air conditioning is the exception to the rule in prisons, particularly those in the Deep South. In fact, air conditioning is not a universal feature of most prisons in notoriously hot states, including Georgia and Alabama, despite being present in 95% of households in the South, including 90% of those earning below $20,000 per year.

According to documents obtained from the GDC, there have been 67 deaths in prisons across the state from March to May 2025. Twenty of those individuals were aged 40 or younger at the time of their deaths. Additionally, GDC documents from February 2024 show that out of 35 prisons, only three (3) have air conditioning throughout the entirety of the prison. Disturbingly, most of the prisons located in the hottest parts of Georgia, in the Southwest and Southeast, not only do not have universal air conditioning but have broken units. Of the 11 prisons in the Southwest region of the state, nine (9) have dorms with broken air conditioning units.  It would be incorrect to assume that air conditioning is too difficult to maintain in prisons.  Indeed, the administrative offices in many Georgia prisons are air conditioned; but the cool air typically stops once you leave these areas and enter the units where incarcerated people are held.

The GDC has a history of deliberate indifference to the health and safety of people in their custody, as evidenced by numerous lawsuits challenging conditions of confinement. One commonly proposed — but inadequate — temporary fix by the GDC is the practice of “ice calls.” Yet with staffing at “emergency levels” in 60% of Georgia’s prisons, incarcerated people often do not receive adequate food or medicine, to say nothing of regular access to ice. Further, studies have shown that when temperatures average 80F and above, there is an increase in violence precisely because people on the inside are deprived of air conditioning and other meaningful cooling options. This puts everyone—incarcerated people and staff—at risk.

“Georgia’s prisons reached a crisis point years ago, with people dying at previously unheard-of rates.  The last thing the State should do as we see (and feel) temperatures rise is ignore the devastating effects of heat exposure on people’s health and safety,” said Atteeyah Hollie, SCHR’s Deputy Director.  “The GDC must take immediate measures to prevent needless heat-related illnesses and deaths by expanding AC access beyond prison administrative offices to the thousands of people held just steps away in prison cells.  Anything short of this remedy will only pour gasoline on an already blazing fire.”

Since 1976, SCHR has had a measurable impact on transforming the criminal legal system by challenging unconstitutional and unconscionable practices across the Deep South. SCHR has argued and won five death penalty cases at the United States Supreme Court, four of which challenged profound race discrimination in capital trials. SCHR won a decision from the Georgia Supreme Court outlawing the use of the electric chair and deeming it “cruel and unusual punishment.”