Human Rights Tribunal will hear complaint about sweltering heat in Canadian prisons
As much of the country grapples with heat waves and poor air quality, a human rights complaint about the lack of air conditioning in Canada's prisons will soon be heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The John Howard Society of Canada, an organization that advocates for the well-being of people in the justice system, filed the complaint on behalf of those who are “vulnerable to extreme heat due to their age and/or disability” in prisons, alleging Correctional Service Canada (CSC) “discriminates against inmates on the basis of age and disability by exposing elderly and medically vulnerable inmates to extreme heat without adequate and effective accommodations and mitigation measures.”
Meanwhile, this country’s prison watchdog says it has received “several complaints” from incarcerated people or their families about excessive heat in Canadian prisons.
The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) recently said in a social media bulletin that Canada’s prisons are not built to handle high temperatures, putting prisoners "at heightened risk of health issues, such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and the worsening of pre-existing medical conditions.”
The social-media post included a picture of a temperature reading from the Cowansville Institution in Quebec, showing a cell’s temperature hovering just below 30 C on July 8.
Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, said she was at the Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security federal prison in Bath, Ont., on July 15, where incarcerated men detailed their experience living under extreme heat.
With no air conditioning, the men also aren’t allowed to have oscillating fans, she said, “or any way to really mitigate the impact of the heat.”
“When people are exposed to too much heat, they're not sleeping well, tempers get frayed,” she said. “And those prisons are a dangerous, violent place anyways. And it could be that this precipitates even further violence.”
Many of Canada’s aging prisons have recirculated air systems, Latimer said, meaning they don’t get a lot of fresh air.
“The windows are limited in how far they’ll open, and the cell blocks where the prisoners live get very hot.”
Latimer said she was in the “structured intervention unit”—also known as solitary confinement—where incarcerated people are sometimes kept for 20 hours a day, or more.
“And then they’re letting them out of their cells onto the range, which is equally hot,” she said.
The human-rights complaint was made on the basis that heat has a disproportionate impact on elderly and ill prisoners, she said, or those who take psychiatric medication.
The complaint accuses CSC of “[impeding] access to mechanical cooling such as heat pumps and air conditioning for inmates in institutions.” The complaint was referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on July 8, according to a file shared with The Hill Times.
CSC spokesperson Kevin Antonucci told The Hill Times that “CSC takes the actions necessary to prepare for warmer temperatures,” and the department has implemented a number of strategies and best practices designed to address temperatures over the summer months. That includes increasing access to cold water, ice and cool showers; ‘cooldown zones’ that use existing air-conditioned spaces for larger groups of inmates, such as in gyms and program spaces; mechanical ventilation that circulates cooler air into institutions; and dehumidifiers.
“Additionally, high-temperature environments, such as kitchens and workshops, may be furnished with air conditioning on an as needed basis," said Antonucci, adding the health of inmates "at higher risk of heat-related complications" are "continuously monitored," and "CSC regularly assesses the need for additional accommodations."
Amy Matychuk, an Alberta-based lawyer who specializes in police misconduct and prison justice advocacy, noted that air conditioning is often used in staff areas and health-care locations in prisons, but not in inmates’ living areas.
“It’s a well-recognized issue in many previous years of hot summers,” she said, as air conditioning is only allowed to be installed in living quarters with “special permission,” and often prohibited due to security issues.
“On a really baseline level, the purpose of the federal correctional system … is rehabilitation,” said Matychuk. “And that really becomes impossible when just existing in a correctional facility is so unpleasant.”
Sweltering conditions shouldn’t be seen as an additional punishment for a crime, she added, and while it’s challenging to generate public investment in improving correctional facilities, "it is genuinely a public safety issue and a concerning indication of how we're okay with treating fellow human beings."
It reveals a "less visible outcome" about what society tolerates as treatment for inmates, Matychuk said.
“We communicate to our government and to each other that there are some classes of people that we don’t actually think deserve to have humane living conditions.”
Extreme heat 'a growing concern" in prisons worldwide: Valerie Phillips
Justin Piché is a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa and the principal investigator for the Disaster Prisons Partnership, a research group that examines how life in Canadian prisons is disrupted by climate change. He said hot weather often exacerbates existing health issues among inmates, along with mental health crises and exacerbated violence, either between inmates or with staff and inmates.
He noted that jails in the Northwest Territories were evacuated during the 2023 wildfires, with inmates sent to institutions in Alberta and the Yukon.
Justin Piché is the principle investigator for the Disaster Prisons Partnership, a research group that has found incarcerated people reporting a lack of access to cold drinking water, ice, or cooling stations, in addition to no air conditioning. Handout photograph
“The forest fires tend to produce these air quality warnings that a lot of us across the country are living with, but obviously it has different ramifications for people who are imprisoned, who might end up facing harsher conditions of confinement in the name of emergency management,” Piché said.
Poor air quality can lead to outdoor time being cut, he said, and “basically compounds the harms that already exist with imprisonment, associated with the deprivation of liberty.”
The group’s research has found, along with a lack of air conditioning, incarcerated people have also reported a lack of access to cold drinking water, ice, or cooling stations.
“We are living in the age of climate catastrophe, and that is permeating, not just for folks on the outside, like us, but also on the inside,” he said.
“Imprisonment is harmful at the best of times, and if we are subjecting people to these even harsher conditions of confinement, that doesn't … produce the conditions in which people positively transform their lives and re-enter our communities in a way that improves our collective safety and well-being.”
Valerie Phillips, the interim correctional investigator, told The Hill Times via email that her office has received “several complaints from incarcerated individuals and from their family members regarding excessive heat and other climate-control issues in federal penitentiaries,” particularly during heat waves.
She said extreme heat has been "a growing concern" in prisons in Canada and other countries.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense across Canada, increasing the likelihood of high indoor temperatures in many federal institutions, particularly older facilities that were not designed for current climate conditions,” said Phillips, who took on her role on June 18, months after former watchdog Ivan Zinger resigned his term early back in January.
Concerns range from high temperatures inside cells, an inadequate number of fans in common areas, brief time outside, limited access to fresh water, and the physical and mental health impacts associated with prolonged exposure to high temperatures, she said via email.
“While some institutions have implemented heat-mitigation measures, such as increased access to water, fans, cooling areas, or modified routines, these measures are not always applied consistently, may be insufficient during periods of extreme heat, and in some cases have been restricted or removed due to operational or security considerations,” Phillips said.
Phillips said managing extreme heat in this country’s prisons will require “sustained attention and long-term planning” to ensure that correctional infrastructure and operations can adapt to a changing climate, “while protecting the health, safety, and dignity' of both prisoners and CSC staff.
The OCI often publishes systemic investigations into conditions within the prison system, but hasn’t yet done so about heat, Phillips said, though “issues related to temperature, ventilation, and climate control have instead been raised through complaint-specific investigations, institutional visits, and broader reporting on conditions of confinement.”
But, for complaints from “vulnerable individuals for whom extreme heat presents a health and safety issue, OCI investigators assess the information provided and follow up with appropriate institutional staff to ensure those individuals are being monitored by health services staff and given access to available heat mitigation measures.”
Editor's note: This story was updated on July 20, 2026 at 10:40 a.m. to correct that the complaint will be heard by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The Hill Times