Accusing the state of “deliberate indifference,” a federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that sweltering heat in a Miami-Dade County prison unconstitutionally violates inmates’ rights and amounts to “cruel and dangerous conditions in confinement.”
The Florida Justice Institute filed the lawsuit, which seeks certification as a class action, against the state Department of Corrections on behalf of inmates at Dade Correctional Institution in Homestead.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Southern District of Florida, in part accuses corrections officials of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal laws by failing to make “reasonable accommodations” for elderly inmates and sick inmates.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs pointed to data about rising temperatures in the Miami area.
“Temperature and heat index records are being broken every year, at an alarming rate,” the lawyers wrote, adding that there is “broad scientific consensus” that the heating trend will continue.