‘Trapped in a fiery kennel’: Lawsuit against Missouri Department of Corrections alleges extreme heat at one prison is a constitutional violation
Throughout the summer of 2024, six people in prison at Missouri’s Algoa Correctional Center experienced temperatures and humidity levels that violated their constitutional rights, a new lawsuit alleges.
Inmates described conditions at Algoa Correctional Center, a nearly 100-year-old building without air conditioning, as a “coffin with a heat lamp.” Even through the nights, when temperatures drop, inmates would “pray to survive to the next day.”
Heat indexes, which account for temperature and humidity levels, reached 120 degrees outside the minimum-security Jefferson City facility during 2024, the lawsuit states. It was the hottest recorded year in the United States, and climate scientists aren’t predicting the high temperatures will decline any time soon.
