Climate change is more than a security threat – it’s a reality for America’s prisoners

On December 12 President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018. In it is a statement that reads: “Climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States.”

The statement in the NDAA on climate change comes with a requirement for the Pentagon to produce a report on the effects of climate change. The statement and accompanying report is directly contrary to the official stance of the White House on climate change, but was supported by a bipartisan majority in congress. Bipartisan acceptance of the existential threat of climate change is growing in Congress, but the concrete damage of its effects has not yet been felt by many of the members of that institution. By and large, the effects of climate change are borne first by the most vulnerable and least visible communities within our nation, including incarcerated people.

One poignant example comes from Texas, where extreme weather events are already affecting incarcerated people. During the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey five Texas prisons had to evacuate nearly 6,000 prisoners. Additionally, extreme heat has killed 22 incarcerated people in Texas prisons since 1998. In that same span of time, we have experienced the 17 hottest years ever recorded, with 2017 expected to rank in the top three hottest years.

It is not only extreme weather events that have endangered Texas’s incarcerated people. Prison mismanagement has as well. In his 83-page order this July, U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison analyzed the death of Larry McCollum, who died of heat stroke while serving a one-year sentence for writing a bad check, writing: “McCollum’s tragic death was not simply bad luck, but an entirely preventable consequence of inadequate policies.” It’s clear that, just as the Department of Defense takes up climate change preparedness, domestic institutions need to account for their current conditions and prepare for a warming future.

The confluence of heat-related deaths in prisons and the increase in extreme heat, especially in places like Texas, raises a pressing moral question. The state has both moral and legal obligations to provide for a minimum standard of living to individuals within the prison system. The wrongful death of prisoners due to mismanagement is a clear abdication of this duty. However, in many cases, including the state of Texas, the oversight ultimately lies with administrators and elected officials who reject the scientific fact of climate change or refuse to develop and adopt climate preparedness measures. Climate change poses a threat, and, more importantly, has caused harm to incarcerated people. What are the implications when those in charge of the prison system deny the very existence of such a threat?

The torrid influence of climate change on the lives of incarcerated people does not end in Texas. Shortly after the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey forced the relocation of 6,000 prisoners, the state of California employed approximately 4,000 prisoners to fight the destructive wildfires of September and October. In the most recent eruption of wildfires, California has employed 8,700 prisoners to fight the flames, and has even recruited inmates from the state of Nevada to join the firefighting forces. The 2017 fire season in California is the worst on record, and these prisoner-firefighters, many of them incarcerated women, are engaged in dangerous or even life-threatening work as a result. Undoubtedly, many Californian families will have these individuals to thank for protecting their homes.

Due to the dangerous nature of the work, the women fighting California’s wildfires are paid approximately \$2 an hour. The average hourly wage for prisoners is just 86 cents, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Back in Texas, despite receiving such an indecent and immoral wage, prisoners collectively raised \$54,000 to donate to relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey. It seems that in these cases of heat, floods, and fires fueled by a changing climate, prisoners bear a disproportionately heavy burden yet simultaneously pony-up for greater than their share in mitigating its effects.

Our prison system is in dire need of substantive reform, and preparing institutions for the realities of climate change is a necessary starting point. There are simple concrete steps that can be taken towards that end, such as providing air conditioning in sweltering summer heat or implementing a federal flood risk management plan. Most importantly, however, we must recognize the threat that climate change poses not only to our national security but to our domestic well-being. Elected officials must act on their moral duty to protect vulnerable communities, especially those under the care of the state, from its devastating and even deadly effects.