A new report filed in a class-action lawsuit shows that conditions inside a South Florida men’s prison were far more extreme than the sweltering summer temperatures outside — with the heat index peaking at a scorching 119 degrees.
The Florida Justice Institute, a Miami-based nonprofit that advocates for incarcerated, homeless, and disabled people, filed the lawsuit last year aiming to protect prisoners at the Dade Correctional Institution from what it calls “deadly” temperatures.
The suit seeks to keep the prison’s indoor heat index — a feels-like measure combining temperature and humidity — below 88 degrees, which is a threshold experts say is critical to prevent heat-related illness and death. A new filing argues the facility is no where close, citing a study that recorded an average heat index of 98 degrees between May and October, topping out at 119 degrees…