Excessive heat at a prison qualifies as “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment, a federal judge said in a groundbreaking ruling last month. U.S. District Judge Brian A Jackson ordered Louisiana’s Department of Corrections to deliver a plan by Feb. 17 to maintain a heat index of no higher than 88 degrees on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. According to the opinion, temperatures on the prisons various tiers exceeded 100 degrees for multiple days each summer.
Mitchell Kamin, co-managing partner at Los Angeles-based Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks & Lincenberg, who worked with Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans in representing the inmates pro bono, talked to The National Law Journal about the case. His remarks have been edited for length and clarity.
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