Bills to require air conditioning in prisons stall again as lawsuit advances

Legislation to guarantee air conditioning and basic rights for Florida inmates is once again dying quietly without a single Committee hearing — even as a related lawsuit moves forward.

Substantively identical bills (SB 106, HB 55) by Tamarac Sen. Rosalind Osgood and Tampa Rep. Dianne Hart-Lowman, both Democrats, have seen no movement in either chamber.

As was the case in five prior Sessions that Hart-Lowman carried the proposal, time is running out this Session, and the legislation is likely to again die unheard.

The bills would establish a statutory “Inmate Bill of Rights,” requiring air conditioning in newly constructed prisons and mandating cooling or ventilation systems in existing facilities. The legislation would also guarantee inmates a minimum of 20 minutes to eat each meal, access to necessary health products and personal protective equipment, and adequate food supplies during emergencies.

The measure, which includes no funding appropriation, would also expand the definition of “permanently incapacitated inmate” for purposes of conditional medical release and require that incarcerated individuals receive a written copy of their rights.

Hart-Lowman has filed versions of the legislation since her first Session in 2020. A Senate companion was first introduced in 2023 by former West Palm Beach Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell, but the chamber has likewise repeatedly declined to take it up.

Other Democratic lawmakers, including Jacksonville Sen. Tracie Davis and Rep. Angie Nixon, have pushed similar air-conditioning proposals in prior years without success.

The stalled legislation comes amid ongoing litigation over extreme heat in Florida prisons. In late 2024, the Florida Justice Institute filed a federal lawsuit alleging that conditions at Dade Correctional Institution contributed to the deaths of multiple inmates and exposed others, particularly elderly and medically vulnerable individuals, to unconstitutional levels of heat.

The suit argues that the lack of air conditioning and insufficient ventilation violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

In September, a federal Judge certified a class action allowing more than 1,500 inmates to collectively challenge prison heat conditions they say increase the risk of illness and death.

Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon previously testified that roughly 75% of the state’s prison housing units are not air-conditioned.

It’s a problem of which the Legislature’s budgeters are well aware; last year, lawmakers approved $300,000 for a pilot program to install air conditioning units in dorms at three Miami-Dade correctional facilities.

Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the funding in 2025.

Florida Politics contacted Osgood by text and Hart-Lowman’s Office by phone and email for comment on this story but did not receive a response by press time.