Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress
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Congress finds the following: In Helling v. McKinney, 509 U.S. 25 (1993), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects incarcerated people from current and future harm caused by a deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. Carceral facilities across the country expose incarcerated people, staff, and surrounding communities to hazardous environmental conditions. The environmental health impacts of incarceration disproportionately impact racial minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities, who are several times more likely to be incarcerated in the United States.
Every year of incarceration reduces a person's life expectancy by an average of 2 years. The environmental injustice of imprisonment extends to the siting of carceral facilities, as the majority of jails are located in communities of color and the majority of prisons are located in low-income rural communities. Almost 1/3 of State and Federal carceral facilities are located within 3 miles of Superfund sites contaminated with at least 1 hazardous substance. 44 percent of incarcerated people, compared to 31 percent of the general population, report currently having at least one chronic condition, such as hypertension, asthma, heart disease, and diabetes, which makes incarcerated people more susceptible to environmental stressors.
Of incarcerated people identifying as female, 65 percent report ever having a chronic condition, which is considerably more than the 50 percent of incarcerated people identifying as male who report ever having a chronic condition. Incarcerated people perform labor, such as electronic waste recycling, asbestos abatement, lead paint removal, and forest fire fighting, which exposes them to hazardous conditions without the same level of protection afforded to other non-incarcerated laborers, including protective gear and occupational health and safety protocols.
The number of incarcerated people in Federal and State carceral facilities aged 55 years or older has increased by more than 200 percent since 2000, and older people are more susceptible to environmental stressors. The majority of the 122 carceral facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons are located in flood-prone areas. There is currently no unified Federal plan to provide oversight or relief to incarcerated people during climate disaster events. As of 2022, the departments of corrections for 33 States did not have, or did not make publicly available on their websites, emergency management plans.
Following Hurricane Harvey in 2017, 8,000 incarcerated people were left for days in 4 flooded Texas State carceral facilities without adequate food, water, or sanitation. Carceral facilities are a source of air and water pollution for surrounding communities. Carceral facilities are among the most energy-intensive public infrastructure, consuming an average of 170,000 British thermal units per square foot. Heat indices, a metric that combines air temperature and relative humidity, have been logged at higher than 150 degrees Fahrenheit inside carceral facilities.
More than half of all Tribal carceral facilities could experience at least 50 days each year in temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century if climate change continues unabated. In the few decades preceding the date of enactment of this Act, locations in which carceral facilities are located were, on average, exposed to 5.5 more days per year of hazardous heat exposure than locations without carceral facilities. State-run carceral facilities in Texas and Florida account for 52 percent of total hazardous heat exposure in carceral facilities, accounting for carceral-level exposure and the number of people exposed, despite holding 12 percent of all incarcerated people. 118 carceral facilities, largely in southern California, Arizona, Texas, and inland Florida, experience on average 75 days or more per year of hazardous heat.
In 2020, more than 900,000 incarcerated people in the United States, or 45 percent of the estimated total incarcerated population, were housed in 1,739 carceral facilities that increasingly experienced hazardous heat relative to 1982. 13 States in the southern and midwestern United States lack universal air conditioning requirements in carceral facilities, namely Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. 22 States lack policies on temperature regulation in carceral facilities.
Only 17 States specify allowable temperature ranges in carceral facilities. There are no statutory requirements for allowable temperature ranges in Federal carceral facilities, but the Facilities Operations Manual of the Bureau of Prisons sets a target temperature of 76 degrees Fahrenheit during summer months and 68 degrees Fahrenheit during winter months. Incarcerated people and carceral facility staff often lack common and relatively low-cost options to regulate body temperature, including taking a cool shower, drinking cold water, moving into the shade or an air conditioned space, and operating a fan.
In some carceral facilities, fans cost the equivalent of several months of wages and are delivered months after being ordered. More than 60 percent of incarcerated people report taking prescription medication that could affect the ability to regulate body temperature and increase sensitivity to heat and cold. Many antipsychotic drugs, which are commonly prescribed to incarcerated people— can affect central thermoregulatory processes, causing the body to overheat by reducing cutaneous blood flow; and can have anticholinergic effects, reducing the body’s ability to produce sweat.
Between 1980 and 2019, more than 1,200 cases were filed in State and Federal courts alleging unsafe conditions relating to the temperatures in carceral facilities, including the following: Temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Faulty ventilation systems. Limited cooling resources, such as water and access to fans. Broken heating systems. Temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice forming in toilets. Inadequate clothing and blankets. Conditions that caused frostbite.
The incarcerated population in 18 States and the Federal system exceeds the rated capacity of carceral facilities, causing the buildup of heat and a decrease in air quality. Despite the issues described in paragraph (32), there are no plans in place to decarcerate people or implement diversion programs. In 2023, high security Federal carceral facilities were 23 percent over their rated capacity. Between 2011 and 2021, more than 5,000 violations of standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act ( 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq. ) occurred among the 408 carceral facilities that have their own drinking water systems, leading to nearly 3,000 enforcement actions by Federal and State agencies.
A study published by researchers in the American Journal of Public Health found that 47 percent of carceral facilities in the United States housing at least 990,000 people and 12,900 juveniles have not less than 1 presumptive source of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substance contamination in the same watershed boundary at a higher elevation of the facility. Incarcerated people and carceral facility staff within carceral facilities with contaminated water have limited options to obtain alternative water sources or use water treatment technologies.
Bottled water from carceral facility commissaries can be prohibitively expensive. The cost of 64 fluid ounces of bottled water from carceral facility commissaries, which is the recommended daily volumetric intake, is typically 30 percent greater than the average daily wage of an incarcerated person. More than a quarter of community water systems exclusively serving carceral facilities in the southwestern United States have average arsenic levels exceeding the maximum contaminant level standards of the Environmental Protection Agency of 10 micrograms per liter.
Average 6-year arsenic concentrations in community water systems exclusively serving carceral facilities in the southwestern United States were more than twice the concentrations of other community water systems in the same geographic areas. 43 percent of all water samples collected at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk between 2011 and 2018 had hazardous levels of manganese. Poor ventilation in carceral facilities can lead to the spread of infectious respiratory diseases, allergies, other respiratory illnesses, and psychological stress.
In 2020, the COVID–19 case rate was 5.5 times higher in carceral facilities than in the rest of the population, due in part to poor ventilation. More than 155 carceral facilities in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania experienced hazardous air quality from wildfire smog events during the summer of 2023. 54 carceral facilities in the United States are located in areas that are above the 95th percentile for wildfire risk. During the 2020 Dixie Fire in California, 2 California State carceral facilities within the designated mandatory evacuation zone were not evacuated, forcing incarcerated people and carceral facility staff to breathe hazardous air.
Testing at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2014 revealed— radon levels at or above the standard levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency; and that air at one location in the facility had more than 23 picocuries of radiation per liter of air, which can cause as much lung damage as smoking 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes per day. A tire landfill adjacent to the Laborde Correctional Center in Louisiana burned for 4 days before the facility was evacuated, exposing incarcerated people and carceral facility staff to hazardous air pollutants.
Incarcerated people and carceral facility staff at Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution, a facility located near a toxic coal waste site, report high rates of respiratory problems and cancer. Poor air quality has been shown to make the behavior of incarcerated people and carceral facility staff more volatile, resulting in a threat to safety within the facility. Incarcerated people— are often served meals that are high in fat, salt, sugar, and carbohydrates; and have little access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other foods that are requisite for good health.
Diets of incarcerated people are regularly below dietary reference intakes for vitamin D, magnesium, and omega 3s, which are nutrients that play a part in bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression. Incarcerated people with access to green space are less likely to engage in self-harming or violent behavior. Incarcerated people and carceral facility staff with little access to natural light are more likely to exhibit signs of depression. It is the sense of Congress that— many of the specific examples of environmental injustice detailed in subsection
(a)are widespread at carceral facilities throughout the United States; many of the examples of environmental injustice detailed in subsection
(a)are also commonly encountered within communities with higher than average incarceration rates, thereby perpetuating systemic patterns of environmental harm; racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be incarcerated and therefore bear a disproportionate burden of the environmental health impacts of mass incarceration; and incarcerated people and carceral facility staff should— have the right to a healthy living environment; have access to reasonable alternatives and options during environmental health emergencies; and have access to comprehensible information regarding environmental health variables, rights, and mitigation and adaptation measures to overcome environmental health threats.
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