The temperature was dangerously hot inside the D.C. jail cell block where a 70-year-old inmate collapsed and later died last month, News4 has learned.
The average temperature inside the Northeast 3 cell block of the D.C. Central Detention Facility was nearly 85 degrees when Lester Irby collapsed on July 14, records provided by the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) show.
Irby, who was a father and a published author, collapsed in the jail and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The medical examiner determined he suffered a heart attack, and the DOC has said Irby's death was unrelated to the sweltering temperatures in the jail.
"We have no reason to believe that there is a correlation between elevated temperatures and the recent death of an inmate," spokeswoman Sylvia Lane previously said in a statement.
Jail officials declined to provide the hottest temperature recorded in the jail and instead provided daily averages.
After News4 reported on Irby's death, the DOC relocated dozens of inmates and brought in crews to repair the overtaxed cooling system. Reports of excessive heat also led to protests by prisoners' rights advocates.
