IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v367y2025ics0277953625000085.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carceral heat exposure as harmful design: An integrative model for understanding the health impacts of heat on incarcerated people in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Brunn, Karina
  • Toledo, Olivia
  • Tran, Chelsea Chau
  • Vasudevan, Ashwin
  • Venkat, Bharat Jayram

Abstract

In an era of climate change-driven weather events, extreme heat has become the most lethal form of “natural disaster” in the United States. However, its negative consequences are unequally distributed. Incarceration exacerbates vulnerability to heat-related illnesses and deaths. This article reviews and synthesizes a range of literature related to carceral heat exposure to characterize the complex biological, social, infrastructural, financial, and legal mechanisms through which incarcerated people experience heat-related illnesses and deaths. These mechanisms include the location, design, and construction of carceral facilities; structural racism and poverty that lead to the overrepresentation of specific populations within the carceral system; comorbid conditions amongst incarcerated people; the use of medication as a form of control; barriers to medical care; institutional neglect; and the weaponization of heat as a tactic of retaliation. This article also reviews the patchwork regulatory apparatus related to carceral heat exposure, legal efforts to improve protections for incarcerated people, and obstacles to implementing those protections.

Suggested Citation

  • Brunn, Karina & Toledo, Olivia & Tran, Chelsea Chau & Vasudevan, Ashwin & Venkat, Bharat Jayram, 2025. "Carceral heat exposure as harmful design: An integrative model for understanding the health impacts of heat on incarcerated people in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000085
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625000085
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625000085. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.