TALLAHASSEE — Accusing the state of “deliberate indifference,” a federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that sweltering heat at a Miami-Dade County jail unconstitutionally violates inmates’ rights and amounts to “cruel and dangerous confinement conditions.”

The Florida Institute for Justice filed the lawsuit, which seeks certification as a class action, against the state Department of Corrections on behalf of inmates at the Dade Correctional Institution in Homestead.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern Federal District of Florida, accuses prison officials in part of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal laws by failing to make “reasonable accommodations” for elderly and sick inmates.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys pointed to data on rising temperatures in the Miami area.

“Temperature and heat index records are broken every year, at an alarming rate,” the lawyers wrote, adding that there is a “broad scientific consensus” that the warming trend will continue.

The prison has been designated as a facility that houses people with disabilities, and more than half of the inmates are over 50 years old, according to the lawsuit. Authorities have refused to record temperatures inside the prison, which can hold up to 1,500 inmates, according to the lawsuit.

The 63-page lawsuit says the “dangerous heat” in the prison’s non-air-conditioned dormitories is exacerbated by “polluted, unventilated air” and inadequate access to cold water.

Inmates have resorted to building “air tunnels” out of “cardboard, plastic or whatever material they can find” to place over small windows or vents in their cells, but air tunnels are considered contraband and are confiscated by guards.

“The heat is stifling and people confined there sweat profusely, even after showering. The ventilation system barely moves any air and people struggle to breathe. It’s like being locked in a parked car in the tropical midday heat,” he says. the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs, in part, ask the court to order correctional officials “to develop and implement a plan that will remedy and reduce plaintiffs’ serious risk” of heat-related harm.