This week, temperatures in Connecticut will reach the mid-to-high 90s and, at times, it will feel like it’s over 100 degrees outside. Gov. Ned Lamont issued a heat advisory yesterday, directing residents to stay in air-conditioned buildings as much as possible.
But more than 2,600 people incarcerated at three state prisons will have to face the sweltering temperatures with limited access to air conditioning.
The state has plans to launch a project to install AC upgrades at two of the facilities next year. But higher temperatures are only becoming more frequent, and people residing at those facilities will have to face days of discomfort before those projects are completed.
The majority of Connecticut Department of Correction facilities are equipped with AC, but Bridgeport Correctional Center and Osborn Correctional Institution are both only partially air-conditioned. Hartford Correctional Center doesn’t have AC at all.
“They’re gonna be in pretty treacherous conditions,” said Correction Ombuds DeVaughn Ward about the people at all three prisons, but he noted that Hartford would face the hottest conditions of all.
“They don’t have any AC, and the way that Hartford is designed is that the housing units are vertical. As you know, heat rises,” he said.
Projects to bring AC to the Hartford and Bridgeport Correctional Centers are both slated to begin construction in 2027, according to a July 2 DOC press release. The state allocated $25 million in bonding to install HVAC systems at both facilities, DOC spokesperson Andrius Banevicius said in an emailed statement.
In the meantime, the department “will activate its heat mitigation protocols agencywide,” Banevicius said, which includes providing ice water in housing units, deploying industrial-sized fans, reducing outside recreation time and monitoring people for signs of heat-related illness.
“The health and safety of everyone in DOC’s care, incarcerated individuals, staff and everyone else in its facilities remains the Department’s top priority,” Banevicius said.
The state does not have plans to bring facility-wide AC to Osborn.
A January 2024 Department of Administrative Services feasibility study estimated that a “full facility retrofit” would cost between $76 million and $85 million. DOC estimated that the actual project cost — including DAS fees, contingency fees and construction management — would be closer to $120 million.
Instead, the state spent $1.2 million to bring 18 “industrial grade air conditioners” to Osborn, according to a July 2 DOC press release. The portable units mostly provide cooling to the housing units, Ward said, but not in other areas, like the corridors, mess hall or kitchen.
Ward visited Osborn on July 1, during a multi-day heat wave that swept the East Coast. Using a temperature gun, Ward clocked a temperature of 85.6 degrees in the mess hall and kitchen. A cell in the C block registered a temperature of 81.5 degrees.
“Even though they’re pumping in AC, there are really questions about the efficacy of whether it’s really working in some housing units,” Ward said. “I have long said, and I’ll continue to say, that [Osborn] is a facility beyond its useful life. That’s as a whole, not just with respect to the air conditioning.”
While DOC institutes heat mitigation protocols at the prisons with limited AC, visits by Ward’s office have shown varying levels of adherence to those guidelines. An October 2025 heat mitigation report outlined findings from announced and unannounced visits last summer to Bridgeport, Hartford and Osborn.
During an announced visit to Bridgeport on June 30, 2025, when the outside temperature registered a high of 96 degrees, several housing areas lacked operational fans and ice water. Fans were observed stored under stairwells and not deployed, despite the heat. During an unannounced visit several days later, a plumbing failure relocated roughly 50 residents to the gym, where there was only one small fixed fan and minimal water available in a single cooler. The high that day was 87 degrees.
“The evidence demonstrates that Connecticut’s correctional facilities continue to face significant deficiencies in addressing extreme heat,” the report concluded. “CT DOC faces a substantial risk of violating the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments’ prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment if these deficiencies are not promptly and effectively addressed.”
“While we acknowledge the importance of the concerns raised, facility records, directives, and corrective measures demonstrate that several of the findings were either temporary in nature, mischaracterized due to timing, or had already been corrected prior to follow-up inspections,” wrote then-Commissioner Angel Quiros in a December 2025 memo responding to the report’s findings.
This story was originally published by The Connecticut Mirror July 14, 2026
