Incarcerated Women Plead for Help After Central Valley Prison Death Amid Extreme Heat

The Madera County coroner’s office is investigating the death of a woman imprisoned at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla over the weekend as temperatures continue to reach into the triple digits.

California Coalition for Women Prisoners, an advocacy group for incarcerated women, said the woman suffered from heat-related illness after she had become incoherent and collapsed in a shower while trying to cool off.

“It was heat exhaustion,” CCWP said in a statement, quoting a fellow inmate who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal. “She dropped to the ground and her legs started shaking and wouldn’t stop.”

A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, however, said the cause of the unnamed woman’s death appears not to be related to heat but rather an ongoing medical condition. CDCR provided no other details other than the woman was transported to an outside medical facility on July 4, and she died on July 6.

“We are paying special attention to medically vulnerable incarcerated people, and will be providing additional water, ice, cooling areas, and information to our staff and incarcerated population on ways to prevent heat-related illnesses throughout this heat wave,” CDCR spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said in an email.

CDCR declined KQED’s request for an interview.

The department said its heat protocols include monitoring temperatures every hour when indoor temperatures exceed 90 degrees. People vulnerable to heat are “moved to air-conditioned spaces, fans are used to provide additional cooling capacity, and the incarcerated population is given more access to more frequent showers, water and ice,” Xjimenez said.

But Kelly Savage-Rodriguez, a program coordinator with the CCWP, said the group has received dozens of calls from inmates who say CDCR isn’t following that protocol.

“When you’re at high risk or a heat-alert patient, they’re supposed to be monitoring you, which means that every hour they physically check in on you. None of those things are happening,” she said. “You can be compassionate and still have safety and security.”

One of the incarcerated women who reached out to CCWP about the health effects she’s been feeling during the heat wave is Trancita Ponce. “I have a huge migraine and I feel sick and other girls are throwing up,” she said in CCWP’s statement. “Please help us, they’re not doing anything for us.”

Earlier this year, state workplace safety regulators at the California Division of Occupational Health and Safety cut out state prisons and other correctional facilities from protections for indoor workers during excessive heat events. That includes the tens of thousands of guards, nurses, janitors and other positions, and the nearly 39,000 incarcerated people who have jobs in state prisons.

The Central Valley remains under an excessive heat warning through Saturday morning.