Colorado Prisons Under Siege: Incarcerated Individuals Confront Climate Extremes

In a revealing study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, more than 35 formerly incarcerated individuals provided accounts of the harsh conditions within Colorado's prisons and jails. _Extreme heat, biting cold, and insufficient infrastructure_ leave many vulnerable to growing climate hazards. **Published on October 13** in _Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space_, the paper highlights a systemic failure to respond to increasing climate threats. **Lead researcher Ben Barron** emphasized the need for dynamic policies to protect incarcerated individuals, whose agency is severely limited. The researchers, unable to obtain cooperation from prison facilities, turned to former inmates to understand their real experiences with climate hazards like wildfires and floods. The stories unveiled are distressing: accounts of unbearable temperatures, poor air quality, and overflowing sewage. Despite these challenges, facilities resist change, often falsifying data to obscure real conditions. The findings expose a critical need for infrastructure improvement and emergency preparedness, highlighting an urgent necessity for systemic change that respects human dignity, even in incarceration settings.