Old prison infrastructure a major hurdle for heat mitigation in California

Here’s what that means for residents at CCWF

Every year, triple-digit temperatures plague Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in the summer months.

The prison is located in Chowchilla, in the middle of California’s Central Valley, where temperatures of — or exceeding — 90 degrees have long been common for weeks on end from May to October. And the 2025 summer forecast calls for hotter-than-normal temperatures from coast to coast, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center and other private forecasters.

What this means for CCWF — and the entire world — is that this summer will be hotter than last summer, and next summer will likely be hotter than this one.

More to the point, the level of heat we currently experience in the Central Valley is particularly bad for those who are sensitive to heat, “especially those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” according to the National Weather Service. “[H]ot conditions can cause heat illnesses,” as the agency explicitly states.

CCWF does have two operational policies designed to combat heat and heat-related illnesses. As temperatures continue to rise, those policies may not be adequate, in good part because of the way the prison is constructed.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2020) indicates that the aging infrastructure of California prisons traps heat, and that many of CDCR’s facilities are located in places that experience extreme heat.

Most buildings at CCWF, including all housing units, are constructed of cinderblock. This material radiates the sun’s warmth, causing rooms where incarcerated individuals are housed to retain heat in the summer.

The 14 housing units containing 8-person rooms also have large outward-facing windows. While those windows allow residents to look outside and possibly catch a glimpse of nature, the windows also bathe the rooms in light and heat.

Cinderblock is not just a CCWF problem. A June 2025 climate impact report states that many CDCR institutions are made of concrete and lack insulation. That means that the sun’s heat gets “directly transferred” through building walls.

This problem is compounded by the lack of shading and other groundcover in CDCR institutions, which makes buildings vulnerable to moisture loss from dry wind in addition to radiant heat. David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, has likened leaving prisoners in cells to leaving a child in a car on a hot day.

In addition to that, the cooling infrastructure that currently exists in CDCR institutions “has degraded and become less effective” over the years, the CDCR acknowledged in its 2025 climate impact report. That is true at CCWF where nearly every housing unit has a leaking roof and evaporative cooling systems, also known as “swamp coolers.”

Only a small portion of CDCR facilities have refrigerated cooling, according to the department’s 2020 Climate Change Adaptation Plan. While swamp coolers may have been enough 35 years ago when CCWF opened, these systems no longer provide relief.

The department is working on infrastructure solutions by adding insulation to its roofing systems as they are replaced, to help reduce interior daytime temperatures, according to the Climate Adaptation Plan. It also has a multi-year roof replacement program.

When invited to provide a comment for this story, a spokesperson for CDCR said, “The CDCR considers the health needs of incarcerated people a top priority.” The spokesperson indicated that two buildings in CCWF are being upgraded to a chilled mechanical cooling system, and CDCR is beginning “a cooling pilot program that includes two further housing units at CCWF.”

One of the housing units “will provide exterior insulation and a new air conditioning unit.” The spokesperson also noted that during the summer months, Plant Operations at CCWF “conducts daily inspections on housing units to ensure cooling is operational.” CDCR “continues to explore long-term solutions to heat in its institutions statewide.”

CCWF is a part of an Air-Cooling Pilot Program that was included in the Governor’s 2025 budget, the results of which are expected to be announced in fiscal year 28/29. The problem is that the urgent need for repairs, replacements, and expanded pilot programs “far exceed available funding.”

Installing air conditioning would be ideal for prisons in areas with extreme temperatures. The fact is, it will take many years and many millions of dollars to make that a reality. In the meantime, strategies that are easier to implement must be employed at every facility that experiences triple digits for many months out of the year.

For example, solar films can be applied to windows and can block up to 80% of the sun’s heat, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Not only is this a low-cost alternative to upgrading windows, solar films leave an “essentially clear” finish, in contrast to the mirrored or tinted effect left by other films.

In this way, solar films would alleviate the security concerns that currently prohibit residents from blocking the windows in any way. This modification would be a lifechanger for everyone who lives at CCWF.

Limiting time spent waiting outside is another strategy. Allowing incarcerated individuals to move to a shaded area when there is no movement on the yard due to an emergency can help prevent heat related illnesses.

Also, allowing residents to sit on concrete or grass – not the dangerously hot asphalt – can help prevent individuals from getting burned. Expediting processing through work change and facility pedestrian gates can help residents return to the safety of a covered structure instead of waiting in areas with little to no shade.

Continuing the mitigation efforts paid for by the department last year is also important. In 2024, every incarcerated individual at CCWF was given a cooling towel and awnings with misters were installed in several areas across the facility.

According to a memorandum authored by Warden Anissa De La Cruz, industrial fans are available in each housing unit, ice water is delivered to housing units and placed on the facility yards, and cooling stations are made available once temperatures inside rooms exceed 90. Cooling towels and straw hats are now sold on canteen, and one cooling towel is issued to all new arrivals to CCWF.

Climate change is happening, and communities have to adapt to a rapidly warming earth. This adaptation must include incarcerated people and other vulnerable individuals. While attempting to mitigate climate change in its entirety may or may not be possible, what is possible is enacting some measures to ensure wards of the state and the staff who work in the state’s prisons are protected from heat-related illnesses.