Guard towers look over the prison courtyard at Marion Correctional Institution on April 27, 2020. - A massive wave of coronavirus infections is blasting through the world's largest prison population in the United States even as officials begin opening up their economies, saying the disease has plateaued. One prison in Marion, Ohio has become the most intensely infected institution across the country, with more than 80 percent of its nearly 2,500 inmates, and 175 staff on top of that, testing positive for COVID-19. (Photo by MEGAN JELINGER / AFP) (Photo by MEGAN JELINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Climate and Punishment

The Intercept mapped climate risks for 6,500 detention facilities. In some already miserable places, the suffering is set to intensify.

TENNESSEE COLONY, TEXAS - JUNE: A prisoner on the administrative wing is handcuffed before he is escorted to the showers in June, 2000 at the Coffield Unit, a Texas state prison built in rural Anderson County, Texas. Prisoners in administrative segregation are locked in their individual cells for at least 23 hours a day and forbidden to mix with the general population. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/ Corbis via Getty Images)

In Sweltering Texas, Prisons Without Air Conditioning Are About to Get a Lot Hotter

Alleen Brown

- Feb. 12, 2022

In sweltering Texas, dozens of prisons lack air conditioning. With the climate crisis causing temperatures to rise, the ill effects of dangerous heat in detention are spreading across the country.

People incarcerated at the California Correctional Center were left in smoky cells as the Dixie wildfire approached.

As Wildfires Threaten More Prisons, the Incarcerated Ask Who Will Save Their Lives

Alleen Brown

- Feb. 12, 2022

At a California prison threatened by wildfire, guards mocked detainees who asked about a plan for evacuation. Larger and more intense fires are wreaking havoc on carceral institutions — and it’s only getting worse.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison surrounded by floodwaters near Lochridge, Texas, on June 4, 2016.

With Floodwaters Rising, Prisoners Wait for Help in Floating Feces

Alleen Brown

- Feb. 12, 2022

Fiercer hurricanes, dangerously higher seas, and deteriorating prisons: Rising waters are already hitting incarcerated people — and the climate crisis is going to worsen flooding.