Extreme Heat in Prisons Might Violate 8th Amendment, Professor White Tells Bee

Professor Carter White spoke to the Sacramento Bee for a July 9 story on the death of an incarcerated woman at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla during a recent heat wave and general concerns about extreme heat conditions in California prisons.

White, supervising attorney for UC Davis Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, told the Bee that extreme heat conditions in correctional facilities might be interpreted as a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Carter “Cappy” White has been the supervising attorney of the King Hall Civil Rights Clinic for more than 23 years. He has been a trial and appellate lawyer for more than 35 years. The primary emphasis of his work is protecting the civil rights of incarcerated people. He has also taught courses at the law school in civil rights and pretrial skills.