After years of complaints about prison heat, incarcerated women in Texas successfully fought for a court order requiring air-conditioning in all prisons by 2029. It is also a story about dignity. India’s prisons have a more basic problem: they are overcrowded, poorly ventilated and increasingly unbearable in extreme heat. At Tihar, prisoners endure Delhi’s summer with room-temperature water; cold water requires a canteen purchase, a doctor’s orders or a court order. Authorities offer lemons and heat-resistant sheets. The irony is painful: in Udaipur, inmates make air coolers for government departments, but are barred from using them. The Supreme Court has recognised freedom from climate change’s worst effects as a fundamental right. Prisons cannot be exceptions.
