The United States has almost 2 million people behind bars in prisons, jails and detention centers – the largest such population in any country. Although incarcerated people are locked away from the outside world, they are even more vulnerable to the impacts of disasters, such as hurricanes and wildfires, than the rest of society.

People who are incarcerated can’t take protective actions, such as evacuating or securing their belongings. They have no say in decisions that the system makes for them. Instead, they must depend on staff and administrators to protect their health and safety.

In September 2024, for example, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, triggering mandatory evacuations in 20 counties and emergency declarations in 61 counties along its path. Despite a mandatory evacuation in Wakulla County, the populations of two state prisons and a county jail were not evacuated.

As Helene traveled northward, 2,000 incarcerated people were evacuated from prisons in North Carolina, but only after the storm damaged local water and power sources.

Just two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida. Two jails, in Manatee and Pinellas counties, were under mandatory evacuation orders but were not evacuated.

There are no current reports of deaths or injuries among the incarcerated during either of these storms. However, such casualties often go unreported or under-reported.

We study environmental exposures and hazards from the perspectives of public health, sociology and planning. In a recent study, we worked with our community research partner, the Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, to better understand how disasters affect incarcerated women and........

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