A project to address extreme heat in California prisons has been stopped after its EPA grant was canceled last month.
The $1.7 million grant was being used to train people in seven prisons on how to advocate for themselves when they’re exposed to dangerous conditions like extreme heat. Two of the prisons house older and infirm inmates. The funding, which was awarded to the nonprofit Land Together, was also supposed to be used to create an “environmental advisory board” that would have recommended how the state could improve prison conditions.
EPA’s move follows the death of a woman who was incarcerated in a Chowchilla, California, facility during a heat wave last summer.
“The cancellation of Land Together’s EPA grant puts lives at risk,” Andrew Winn, the group’s executive director, wrote in an email to the affected communities. “Incarcerated people have very little agency over most aspects of their lives, including their exposure to harmful and even potentially lethal conditions.”
