Rep. Alma S. Adams is trying to make roasting in your cell - or shivering through the night - a thing of the past in federal lockups. Her new bill would set the first nationwide standards to shield people in Bureau of Prisons facilities from deadly heat and extreme cold, after years of reports that many prisons lack basic climate control.
Filed as H.R. 9591, the Extreme Temperatures Injustice in Prisons Act was introduced in early July and has been sent to the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees, as recorded on Congress.gov. If it becomes law, sponsors say the measure would force the Bureau of Prisons to overhaul how it monitors temperatures, upgrades infrastructure, and reports on conditions across the federal system.
Many BOP facilities lack basic climate control, leaving people in cells where temperatures reach deadly levels during record heat waves and winter freezes. The Extreme Temperatures Injustice in Prisons Act would establish the first comprehensive federal standards for this crisis. https://x.com/i/status/2082247229579112808
What the bill would require
Among its core requirements, the bill orders the installation or upgrade of HVAC systems at every federal prison within five years and mandates temperature-reading devices in every occupied area, including individual cells. It would also direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study temperature-related harms, require no-cost mitigation supplies for incarcerated people when certain thresholds are exceeded, and assign the Department of Justice Inspector General to carry out yearly inspections and public reports, according to Congress.gov.
A federal system under strain
Supporters point to a Bureau of Prisons response that lawmakers say shows nearly 19,000 reported heat-related illnesses and more than 40 heat stroke diagnoses between January 2022 and September 2025, a tally detailed by the Prison Policy Initiative. Bill summaries also note that the Bureau operates roughly 122 facilities and that the federal system holds more than 138,000 people and employs about 34,000 staff, figures outlined by LegiScan.
Research and legal backdrop
Academic studies have found that carceral facilities are facing more days of dangerous heat and that indoor heat exposure raises the risk of illness and death, according to analysis in Nature Sustainability. Courts are also increasingly treating extreme temperatures as a constitutional problem. In 2025, a federal judge described holding people in uncooled Texas prisons as "plainly unconstitutional," according to reporting by the Associated Press.
Costs and practical hurdles
The bill authorizes "such sums as may be necessary" for HVAC installation through fiscal 2031 but does not set a specific dollar amount, leaving both funding levels and implementation timelines unsettled, according to the bill summary at LegiScan. That open-ended language matters because state estimates suggest retrofitting prisons can be extremely expensive. Texas, for example, has projected roughly 1.5 billion dollars to cool its state system, a price tag advocates say Congress will have to confront if it wants a nationwide upgrade.
What comes next
H.R. 9591 now sits in committee, where it will need hearings and markup before any floor vote. With only Democratic cosponsors listed so far, the bill's path is uncertain and will likely hinge on broader fights over federal spending and oversight of prison conditions. Rep. Adams has framed the proposal as a basic responsibility of government, writing that "the federal government has responsibility to maintain safe and humane conditions for those in its custody" in a post on X that linked to her announcement of the measure.
