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‘You can see the steam off the ground’: Wisconsin slow to add cooling system in prisons despite rising heat

Steve Wright, clinical law professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and founding director of the Constitutional Litigation, Appeals, and Sentencing Project, which includes, in part, getting people in Wisconsin prisons needed legal representation.

Wright said lockdowns are likely the cheapest way to prevent catastrophes, but it also means prisoners are unable to venture out of their cells to find relief from the heat without being escorted by correctional officers.

“I’ve been to some of the prisons. On a hot day, you can literally see the steam coming off the ground,” Wright said.