A42-year-old Black woman, Adrienne Boulware, has died in the custody of the California Department of Corrections at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. On July 4, prison guards exposed Boulware to extreme temperatures in prison outdoors during a heatwave for 15 minutes, leaving her with just a small glass of water in the over 110 F heat. Boulware began to exhibit symptoms of heat exhaustion almost immediately after returning indoors. Two days later, she passed away while receiving medical care for being exposed to extreme temperatures in prison. Elizabeth “Leesa” Nomura of the California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners joins Rattling the Bars to discuss Boulware’s tragic death, and what it reveals about the dangers prisons place incarcerated people in as the climate crisis intensifies.

Transcript: Extreme Temperatures in Prison Are Deadly

Mansa Musa:

Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. I’m your host, Mansa Musa. It’d be unimaginable to think that if I left a dog in the car with the windows rolled up under these heating conditions that I would not be held accountable by the animal and Humane Society. But the same thing is taking place right now in California with the women in Central California Women’s Facility. Women are being held in environments where the heat has reached a temperature of 110 degrees. As a result of the extreme temperatures in prisons, a woman has died, and we can't know how many more will die or what the state of these women are at this current time. Joining me today is Elizabeth Nomura. Welcome, Nomura. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what organization you’re representing at this juncture.

Elizabeth “Leesa” Nomura:

My name is Leesa Nomura. I am the statewide membership organizer for the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. We are an organization that’s been around for just shy of 30 years, and I have been a statewide organizer for close to three years, but have been connected with CCWP since I was incarcerated. And I’ve been home. Since January, it will be five years that I have been released from prison. I am of Pacific Islander descent and I am very grateful to be here calling from Tonga Land, commonly known as Los Angeles. Thank you for having me.

Mansa Musa:

Okay. Yeah. And thank you for that. Okay, so let’s get right into it. According to a report that just came out on July 6th, a woman died from heat exhaustion due to extreme temperatures in prison in Central California Women’s Facility. Talk about what’s going on with the conditions right now as we walk back through what happened with this system.

Read the full article about extreme temperatures in prisons by Mansa Musa at The Real News Network.