Serena Hanson didn’t shy away from the fact that her son had done wrong, and she was frank about the crimes — related to substance abuse, she said — that landed him in prison.

She also understands that prison is meant to punish. But keeping inmates in rooms without air conditioning when outside temperatures reach the high 90s and 100s seems cruel, she said.

That’s the reality her son, a 25-year-old man, has been living with inside of State Correctional Institution Camp Hill, where he has been incarcerated for about two years, Hanson said.

“I feel really bad for him and the other inmates, as well,” Hanson said.

Hanson asked that her son not be identified because he is working through a program intended to prepare him for release.

A heat wave has taken hold in central Pennsylvania, delivering day after day of extreme heat. During that period, temperatures remained mostly in the upper 90s. On Sunday, a heat index value for the Harrisburg area warned that outside temperatures would feel like 110.

All the time, Hanson’s son has been lodged in a part of the prison with an open floor plan and without any air conditioning, she said. She recalled a recent conversation with her son, when he told her about the heat in his living space.

Prisoners, she was told, were soaked with sweat and running around in as little clothing as possible in an attempt to keep cool.

"They are allowed to open windows, and they can buy fans if they can afford them,” Hanson said, adding that she has been able to give her son some money. “There are people in there who don’t have that.”

According to her son, that has not been enough to beat the heat, she said, worrying about prisoners with medical conditions and those who are out of shape.

Heat-related illness can be deadly, health officials said.

“The only break they get is going outside,” Hanson said. “Well, going outside is just as bad.”

Hanson said her son told her he’s approached prison officials about the heat, but they told him it’d be too expensive to provide air conditioning for the entire building.

Some living spaces in the Camp Hill prison have air conditioning, according to Susan McNaughton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

McNaughton said SCI-Camp Hill opened in 1940 and began housing men in the 1970s.

“Some of the housing units are original. Others have been demolished and rebuilt, and those new ones would have some sort of AC system,” she said.

That older part of the prison houses about 500 of the prison’s total 3,400 inmates, McNaughton said.

In the other locations and in state prisons without air conditioning, plans are in place to keep prisoners cool, she said. That includes providing prisoners with extra water and with ice at meal times, McNaughton said. Prison employees also have been educated about the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses, she said.

“We also have portable fans that are brought in to help lower the internal temperatures. Finally, inmates have sinks in their cells and can use them to keep themselves cooler,” she said.

Officers in state prisons can cool down in control areas for housing units, she said. The officers also have access to water, ice and fans.

Officials at the state Department of Corrections do not operate county jails.

Still, Hanson believes more can be done. She suggested bringing in portable air conditioning units and even making ice cream available to prisoners who can afford it.

“When you are living in hell, a little bit of ice cream could make a difference,” she said.

PennLive reporter Travis Kellar contributed to this story.