By Jeff Brandes
“I was in prison, and you came to visit me.” — Matthew 25:36
The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. You’d think that would settle the question of whether a person should be left to endure 100-degree heat in a locked dormitory with no air conditioning, no airflow, and no escape. But in Florida, the state argues that this kind of heat doesn’t rise to the level of cruelty. It’s just part of the sentence.
That was the argument made by state attorneys defending conditions at Dade Correctional Institution, a Miami-Dade prison that houses more than 1,500 men — many elderly or medically fragile. A federal lawsuit details unrelenting heat, broken fans, and failed ventilation systems. Since 2021, at least four men have died from heat-related causes at that one facility alone. The judge allowed the case to proceed.
The state’s defense? The suffering isn’t cruel enough to be unconstitutional.
This isn’t just legal hair-splitting. It’s a moral collapse.
I’ve been inside that prison. I’ve stood in those dorms in the middle of summer. One summer, while walking prisons with Sen. Jason Pizzo, I remember the sweat clinging to our skin as the air stood still. Inside was hotter than outside. The showers felt like steam chambers. Inmates shuffled by with walkers and canes. In another prison, the kitchen had cockroaches moving in waves. What shocked me most wasn’t how bad the conditions were — it was how routine they’d become.
In 2023, the state commissioned a report from KPMG to assess the Florida prison system. The results were damning. Over one-third of Florida’s correctional institutions were in “critical” or “poor” condition. More than 500 housing units — about one in five statewide — lacked air conditioning entirely. The report called for $2.2 billion in immediate repairs, including $582 million just for HVAC systems.
What happened after that?
Nothing.
No surge in funding. No emergency legislative session. No site visits from the state’s highest office. Just silence.
In hopes of spurring action, the Florida Policy Project prepared a brief summarizing the KPMG report’s reasonable recommendations. I am writing today to urge legislators to review this report again and take action. (See the brief report here.)
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in office for over six years. In that time, he’s visited Ukraine, the southern border, and the headquarters of nearly every culture war. He has not toured a single Florida state prison. He’s not alone. Most lawmakers haven’t either. It’s a blind spot made not of malice, but of convenience. Because it’s easier to ignore a system that’s out of view — easier still if you can rationalize it as “tough on crime.”
If you never enter the building, you never smell the mildew, never feel the 102-degree air pressing against your skin, never look into the eyes of someone whose sentence has become a slow dehydration.
But this negligence isn’t contained inside prison walls. Would you work a 12-hour shift in a concrete box with no airflow and no relief? Our refusal to fix the conditions inside our prisons is directly fueling a staffing crisis.
It’s not just inhumane — it’s unsustainable.
And this is where it gets darkest: the heat isn’t a failure of policy. It is the policy. When the state shrugs at sweltering cells, sees insect infestations and aging men collapsing from heat exhaustion, and does nothing, it sends a message — this is what they deserve.
That’s not justice. That’s cruelty by design.
Matthew 25 doesn’t ask if the incarcerated are likable. It doesn’t ask if they’re innocent. It asks whether we showed up. Whether we were willing to see. Whether we recognized their humanity in the middle of our indifference.
Florida’s prisons are functioning exactly as our neglect allows them to. The heat isn’t just atmospheric. It’s institutional. And every day we delay fixing it, we make a quiet, but deadly, choice.
The next time someone says the punishment isn’t cruel enough, ask: how hot does it have to get?
As the Legislature begins to negotiate the budget this week, leadership needs to ask:
Will we finally invest in dignity and safety — or keep letting the Summer do our punishment for us?
Jeff Brandes, a Republican state senator from 2010 to 2022, is the founder and president of the Florida Policy Project.
See no evil? says
People seem to think the USA isn’t a dead former nation. We are now Murikkka and we are fascist and evil! Cruelty knows no bounds with these leaders! Read the 14th and tell me how an orange terrorist is now the “president” tell me what the constitution says and how it defines treason and what the punishment is! Imprison people without trials, check! Concentration camps, check! Guess people were so stupid they didn’t realize they have been and are still being robbed of semblance of freedum they thought they had! Just pay no attention to all the evil things the orange stain and his cult are doing to people and children all over the world!
Dusty says
It’s prison it isn’t supposed to be cozy and comfy. Rong back the chain gangs it was the only program that succeeded in cutting the number of repeats offenders.
Eighty six forty seven says
I mean at this point it gets close to torture without adding in a heat element. They already feed you less than dog food and allow people to be raped often. You see the guy that died of heart attack after he told the guards his chest was hurting, the prison doctor said it was heartburn gave him a tums and sent back to his cell where he died an hour later. I get some people deserve prison for their crimes but not to be tortured. However we elected pro torture pedos so expect it to increase! Pray for those people and families that have been and will be killed and disrupted by the orange terror and his cult.
Florida Girl says
Earned sentencing, many of them. However, or offenders have been reoffending because reform is not reform. You have to ask why is it tolerated or allowed …? Because reform needs to start in the arena of the corruption in the penal system first, and all that govern them. Factoring in of course who profits in the penal system running exactly the way it is… Who owns commissary, or to food companies that supplies them? Uniform companies and all that encompasses the penal system and the demands it brings – who feeds those needs, exactly? Who benefits from this cruelty at its finest? They can’t keep prison guards, the good ones quit, over worked, under paid, AND the conditions being what they are it often creates a field of predators who prey on these people unchecked. Google Keith Turner, Lowel Correction Facility. Thats one of how many in the State of Florida. Is that what we as a people have become? Have we become something like the ones we are containing…? It’s absolutely horrible. Have you ever googled the Sheriff’s Department Web Site after a hurricane, and we haven’t had electricity or AC for a week? Do you know how many domestic disturbances there are one those weeks and we are supposed to be the ones who “maintain…” Its adding fuel to the fire…
Suck It Up Buttercup says
I went to grade school and most of high school in this area without air conditioning. When I was at home we always had the windows open so we never had air conditioning there either. I survived and so can they.
Land of no turn signals says says
Yea,I agree after raping,robbing,killing they should have lobster and A/C.
Beth says
Just because your in prison does not mean you should be treated so cruelly. It’s hot in this state you need air you do unless you are outside with some kind of air in prison no air flow.they don’t want to fix anything in the crappy prisons no air and no hot water in the woman’s prison in Ocala.. Florida is sad ..but I see both sides of the story .you get treated bad maybe u won’t return …baby rappers should just be killed 100 degree weather in prison is to good for them ….
tulip says
I’m not defending prisoners, but they are human beings and it is cruel and inhumane to not allow them to have air conditioning or some kind of relief. If they die because of it, that’s called murder. If a prisoner is having, or has, a serious medical condition he or she should be granted the medicines or care that is needed. I don’t understand how people can be that cruel. Granted there are some horrible murderers, violent people in prison but even they should have relief from either very hot temps or very cold temps.
jake says
Blah, blah, blah, the dregs of society, in jail, deserve nothing more than than 3 hots and a cot.
Mike P says
What “humane” treatment did many of those incarcerated give to their victims, who were killed, maimed, raped, shot, robbed. Did they consider the families of the victims who many won’t ever see their loved ones again? It’s a shame that their air conditioning doesn’t keep them very cool. It sure was cold in the morgue for their victims. Please interview some of their victims, and get their thoughts of the conditions of their loved ones…
JimboXYZ says
A long time ago, K-12 without AC for school & was expected to learn just the same. Go figure ? Perhaps the human race is cruel & unusual.
The_Madman says
Hell will be a lot hotter,
Ricardo Stoyell says
I have my own foundation I’m starting to expose the silence (www.ExposeTheSilence.org) I’m a new media journalism student in Fullsail University in Florida and would love possibly collaborating on some pieces…I am working on several articles and could use some support promoting if you find it worthy…
I’m trying to rise from this broken system and fight for my rights and in so doing help create awareness of the systemic injustice of the babuse of the system that was supposed to be for the people and not for the privileged few.
Please contact Mr if you consider my content is something you relate to and we can combine our efforts and I’m going to do several investigation pieces and could find an outlet to promote and amplify my message.
Kennan says
How many times you been to prison Dusty?
In many cases individuals are fighting for their lives. Paying the price for their crimes is one thing, but being treated like an animal doesn’t fall in line with rehabilitation. When inhumanity is justified on the inside, we lose our humanity on the outside. Truly.
Andy Montgomery says
You’re just one of those bleeding heart left wing liberals corrupting our “It’s all about Me, Me, Me, Me”.
How can your offspring “make it” without clawing their way to top of the world?
If society adopted your world view soccer, football, hockey, basketball, debate teams will all finish last.
How can we be happy unless we are boss and number one.
Peter, you set a very poor example.
Get woke, my friend.
Your to be competition.
FlaglerDEAD.com
In its season.
theBlueGoose
R.S. says
I wonder why people are so incredibly stupid to believe that penalties and inflicting pain endlessly is a way to re-educate anyone whatsoever. To re-educate anyone, one must show them a way and assist their re-entry. Instead, companies like Securus and J-Pay and Correct-Pay are bleeding the families of inmates dry by imposing usurious fees on financial assistances one offers inmates. More than 10% is being taken from frequently very poor families that attempt to help out a loved one in jail. Email requires “STAMPS” at 10 cents a pop–required from sending messages into or out of jails. Gang activities in the prison systems runs rampant. White supremacists, Odin worshippers as they’re called, rule the roost. One official excused the gang activities by white supremacists with the worlds: But there are MORE of Blacks. [What? It’s a war in there?] For a Christian nation, there’s certainly no love lost on sinners.
OIF Vet says
No shortage of crying from liberals for criminals …
Are these prisoners better than our Soldiers who served in horrendous conditions in Iraq/ Afghanistan?
Did liberals cry about Soldiers’ conditions during the wars?
I mean, both groups made decisions…. One to break laws and forego their ability to control whether or not they have freedom and air conditioning… And the to serve their country and give their lives if necessary for those freedoms.
I’d like the liberals to tell me who I should care more about … And why I should want any of my tax dollars going to prisoners instead of the well-being of those who served in the form of VA Benefits.
I am sure neither of the limp-wristed “journalists” Jeff or Pierre with this garbage publication will explain… Rather this comment will likely never make it to post.
Either way… If libs are so concerned… Nothing is stopping them from using their own paychecks to purchase fans for prisoners and donating them… Or allowing those prisoners to live with them and their families upon release.
Always everyone else’s problem and dollars … Sheesh
jake says
“Pray for those people and families that have been and will be killed and disrupted by the orange terror and his cult.”
First, pray for the victims of these criminals, those are the people that need our support. Secondly, the “orange terror” as you call him had nothing to do with the current conditions in which these criminals reside.
You can blame the governors of this state, DeSantis, Scott, Crist (who claimed to be republican, but was really a democrat), or Bush, however, every Governor of Florida prior to that was a Democrat, all the way back to 1845.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Orange my ass! You are the most deranged people in P/C! There’s no Cocaine in this Whitehouse! No scandals either! Continue to lie, continue to ignor the facts, continue to lose. Where did all the men go in the Democrat party? They joined the ORANGE CRUSH! The Jackass party is in kaous, a snake without a head! The lies & cover ups rock D.C., while their apruval rating is at rock bottom. Mean while TRUMPS RATINGS are better everyday.Inflation is at a 4 year low, food has come down, gas has come down. The border is closed, and Bidens invaders are being ship back. 77 million Americans are happier than a pig in shit. And this is only the begining, only just the start! You see some folks are winners, laughing, & smiling all the time! Others like ya,LL constantly
complain, do nothing constructfull, sit on the couch & bitch about TRUMP.
Just my thought says
It is one thing sentencing someone to prison it they deserve it. It’s another thing to sentence any human being to cruelty not feeding them decent food or providing them with air conditioning.
joseph falis says
This is what the MAGAs’ voted for.
Shawshank says
I pulled a nearly 5 year bit back in the 80s on a series of dine and dashes (I kid you not; during Reagan’s “War on Drugs”). The only places where there was cooled air was in the max. All of the mediums had no AC. It’s a doubled edged sword, as I witnessed time and again inmates acting a fool just to be able to get back to a max where there was AC of course, along with more food, and even more privacy and security. And guess what? So too did the guards try to get some level of tenure in order to get to a max. So yeah, this is a big big problem that goes far beyond just the morality of prisoner treatment. It’s everyone that is wrapped in and around the system, from the employees to the vendors to even the visitors, all of whom have committed no crime.
Mr. David says
I graduated high school in Florida in the early 80s.
The old part of the school did not have air conditioning, more than half the school.
Do I get credit for time served?
Wait, this IS Florida! “Call attorneys Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe. You may be entitled to compensation!!”
RealityChecker says
If someone is in jail it’s most likely because he/she was found guilty of some crime.
Before complaining about the harsh conditions he/she should consider the conditions endured by people that never comited a crime but in order to support themselves and their family, work in agricultural, construction, (roofers specially) commercial fishermen, law enforcers, military, etc. that pay taxes so you can be securely housed and feed for free.
Just take it as a learnig experience, redeem yoursef and do your best to in the future contribute for a better world.
Sam says
There are plenty of people that don’t have air conditioning. Having quite a bit of direct knowledge of the prison system those dorms have ceiling fans, exhaust fans as well as large industrial fans that circulate the air. Just like in real life occasionally one breaks down and has to be replaced. This doesn’t even account for those dorms that have geo thermal units which regulate temperature. Prison isn’t hard to stay out of. Millions actually do it. It’s not meant to be a Country Club.
Hard Time says
It’s not supposed to be nice. They are giving them hints. DON”T COME BACK
Clarence Johnson says
I have been inside those institutions, and I know better than most the truth of the Torture. I have suffered inside those very cells for 12 years 8 months of my life. I made a mistake with the mother of my child that was 15 and I being 19 at the time who admitted in trial that she lied to me about her age and when the Judge asked her admitted to why she lied,but the Jury wasn’t allowed to hear her Testimony, did I deserve to suffered and be Tortured.? I made it out when some never will,the ones who made simple mistakes that weren’t life threatening to anyone just simple mistakes, that will loose their life by hand of the Correctional guards or or the simple conditions of the prison system.!
Ivette Principe says
This is a TRUST FRAUD scam. It is against the Constitution to incarcerate human beings that did not commit an Injury.
NO INJURY NO CRIME.
They appropriate the Social Security numbers and draw millions of dollars. They don’t care about the crime, they care that
you have a Social Security number that is not protected.
If people were to file an F56 IRS form the state can not withdraw or
put you in jail unless you INJURED ANOTHER BEING. THE STATE CAN NOT BE A VICTIM. PERIOD !!!The Constitutional Jural Assemblies and The Natural Law…..GOD’s LAW is where you find this information. Commercial Law or Defacto is Luciferian or Satanic Law. We The People follow God.
charles lillo says
Prison is not only for punishment for a crime, but to deter anyone from wanting to come back there again, and to spread the word that prison is no place anyone wants to be! What did prisons or even citizens, for that matter, do before we had electricity or A/C. THEY TOUGH IT OUT!!! YOU KEEP SPREADING THE WORD, AND MAYBE THE PRISONS WILL BE EMPTY ONE DAY BECAUSE EVEN THE HARDEST CROOK WILL NOT WANT TO SPEND TIME IN SUCH HARSH CONDITIONS!
Doug says
Here’s the truth of the matter. Don’t commit crimes.
Charles Kennington says
STOP BREAKING THE LAW.
Pierre Tristam says
How disappointing. And surprising. Andy Montgomery, of all people. And what’s with that bogus (and disturbing) link of yours?
Wright says
Florida prisons are inhumane. Infested with bugs, no air flow, no heat, sewage backup common, gangs, corruption and more. Yes there are cosequences for bad choices but there are peopke in prison today for things that were considered accidents in past. So don’t ever think your family can’t be impacted. Even health care is given at a cost to inmate. Mentally ill are incarcerated in prisons and not mental health facilities. There has to be change.
Canary says
Dusty – Louisiana still does have chain gangs. Their recidivism rate is nearly 10 points HIGHER than ours is here in Florida. That’s because you don’t stop recidivism with cruelty. You stop recidivism by fixing people…and that takes programs like mental health services, job training, and other services. It also takes post-incarceration support to help the transition back into society. But that’s hard, and expensive. Chain gangs are easy, cheap, and make great political ad talking points for the blood thirsty electorate.
Land of no turn signals says says
Boo Hoo
Grammer King says
I agree, most people who are in prison put themselves there. However; we have to ask what our goal is by sentencing them to prison? Do we want to reform them so they can one day re-enter society? Or do we just want to punish them and do nothing else? In this state, it is too hot to go without a/c. For those saying well I went to school with no air yada yada, each year the heat index rises, our temperatures also are not the same they were 10 years ago. This is why there are so many fights and worse in the prison system, they don’t care anymore, they are not there to be reformed or to learn how not to come back. We have made the prison system a money pit. Meaning those in charge don’t want to reform them they want them to continue to come back to the system because they make big money off of them. They get to hire more police etc…but no one wants to work in the prisons, it’s too hot for the workers as well. Maybe we could compromise and put in industrial fans even to have air flow if the ones in charge are (and we know they are not wanting to spend the money) being cheap. They need to be fed as well. I know because I have a loved one in there right now. His biggest complaint is not getting enough food to feed a baby let alone a grown man. The cockroaches crawl over EVERYTHING. The heat is so bad they get huge blisters all over their bodies. You call this humane, and like I said it’s not just the inmates but the guards too that get these blisters. I know this is true because I have a family member who works in the prison system. Wake up, something needs to change. God forbid any of you thinking this treatment is fair end up in there. My loved one is in there for driving on a suspended license and getting caught too many times. Yes he should just not drive or get his license that is neither here nor there, our prisons are full of non-violent offenders. Sadly, I guarantee nothing will change, maybe if the political officials have someone they love inside there. Bet things change then, they wouldn’t like their loved one suffering like this. Such bullshit
Mark says
Amazing how many of these commenters most likely went to Church yesterday and then spew hatred.
Rent says
At a certain point, it becomes hard for the human body to cool itself through sweating. This is calculable when you know the air temperature and humidity to calculate the wet-bulb temperature. If the air temperature reaches 100 with a humidity over 80% over a long period of time, it is considered dangerous to their health. Considering a lot of these people are elderly or have other health issues that may be a factor, a few degrees less may actually be the point where they start to see health complications.
As we all should know, high air temperatures and high humidity are common in Florida.
And as far as the fact that they are criminals doesn’t matter if you believe in the Constitution. They are not to be tortured and if submitting them to conditions that can lead to health issues is not torturous, you would have to explain why it isn’t.
If this were the conditions in a nursing home, would you be okay with that or is it the fact that they are criminals as to why you are okay with terrible treatment for those human beings?
Adolf is proud says
Murikkka Land of the imprisoned! More prisoners than even countries with 10x the population! It’s mainly for slave labor it’s codified slavery ! Murikkka is racist and evil! Don’t you maga seeking out more to starve to death or something? Or using the newly pardoned proud boys to round up the “immigrants “ that are being sent where?
GOP chain gang says
Always takes more to build than to destroy. Which leaders do you prefer lol.
Laurel says
Oh…my…God! I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in my Flagler County neighbors! If I have a “bleeding heart,” thank creation at least I have one!
Now for the bullshit comments here. Don’t even try to compare your days in school without a/c. I was born and raised in south Florida, and didn’t have a/c in school until High School, grade 11. What we did have, you drama queens, was lots of large windows, in every room, that were cranked wide open every day. These rooms opened up to open hallways that did not block air flow. And, since y’all seemed to forget, we kids were home on summer vacation, the hottest three months of the year: June, July and August. We were swimming in pools, or at the beach. So much for your *suffering.* Don’t even, because if you believe this is some sort of understanding, then you understand nothing.
Even though I grew up in the heat, and tolerated it quite well, now as a senior, I get red in the face, and overheated, just sitting in the shade. Shame on you who feel nothing for the older people who died under these conditions.
Also, since I am not religious, I am constantly surprised how dammed heartless and cruel the supposedly religious are. Do tell, is this what Jesus taught you? Do your churches tell you to be as bad, or even worse towards your fellow man and woman who are incarcerated? Does your minister, priest or rabbi tell you to turn your backs on the suffering because they failed? Is this the reason for the crosses around your necks? Were you not taught about compassion, but instead, told to act at the same level of thoughtlessness as the incarcerated? Then, what makes you better?
I don’t believe you listened to Jesus, or your God, at all. You’re listening elsewhere.
Local says
Would people please quit with the orange man syndrome? It’s already been proven the exact same speeches on other channels did not have him Orange and the ones on CNN had a filter on them to make him look orange.
No empathy? says
We have rapist and convict in the White House but these people need to be tortured? Aren’t most of the tens of millions of people in prison for drugs and theft anyways? Every system here is corrupt. Especially the Justice system it’s is totally corrupt! For profit prisons make money off feeding people less than dog food and providing basically zero healthcare but charging taxpayers for it. They do all sorts of other inhumane treatments such as no ac or 24 hour lights, feed them maggots, give them bedbugs. ect! There was a government document that talks about inhumane treatment but nobody seems to support those values anymore.
Atwp says
Ac in prisons. Criminals, some of them killed people and did other bad things, my tax dollars are suppose to make them comfortable. Why make their lives comfortable after they did what they did? Did they make the victims lives better, no. Why should they have all of the comforts and not working, don’t understand some of these comments. We are suppose to treat them like humans but the victims were treated inhumanly. The world we live in.
Laurel says
Atwp: So in order to treat prisoners like garbage, we have to be garbage ourselves? Is that how you were raised?
Sharona Smith says
Arizona houses inmates in tents on the prison property. They work outside on chain gangs. They wear pink. Warden, Joe Arpaio says he doesn’t want them to like it there. He wants it to be so bad they never want to come back. They DO have fans. I worked for years in Georgia warehouses, many summer days over 100 degrees. I also worked for a few years in a drycleaning shop. More days over 100 degrees and lots of steam. Construction and landscape workers do the same. Prison should not be a resort. It’s punishment. As Baretta said,”Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Pierre Tristam says
Most of Arpaio’s goonery described in the comment above was declared illegal or unconstitutional by various courts, and he himself, always lawless at heart, was convicted of criminal contempt, a conviction that barely a month later the current felon in the White House pardoned.
R.S. says
Fascinating comments here: Half seem to be sensibly looking for solutions; the other half looks only for the mindless gratification of exercising vicious revenge, regardless of what that will do to the society ultimately. At the same time, it’s gratifying to see that the “let’s fix the problem” voices are becoming so numerous meanwhile.
School funding matters says
Floriduh! People are being detained without trials! Heat is a form of torture like it or not and people should not be tortured because they committed crimes. At least the former nation had a document about it. These people are serving crimes from that country! I’m still shocked how evil and stupid people are. There needs to be standards as it comes to food quality and temperature control that’s just basic human decency. Unfortunately more of you than probably realize are likely to be sent to a “camp “without any sort of due process! The justice system is blatantly corrupt. White power and orange treason aren’t going to help in any form or fashion.