A Tampa woman is hoping for a thorough investigation after her son said he and three other inmates had to ride in the back of a prison van without air conditioning and very little ventilation.

"He's going to prison, he's serving his time," said Joshua Wentworth’s mother, Nona Bragg. "Who has the right to punish him more? Nobody."

Wentworth said he and the other inmates were in the back of the prison van for 200 miles to the prison hospital in Lake Butler. He said when they got there, they all had to be admitted immediately because they got so sick from the trip.

The Florida Department of corrections released the following statement regarding the incident:

"The appropriate care and treatment of inmates in our custody is a priority of the department. The incident referenced in the article is currently under administrative investigation with the department, so we cannot provide further details."

"He thought he was going to die," said Bragg. "That's exactly what he told me. He said 'I thought I was going to die, mama.' I'm sitting there like my son could've died and I wouldn't have known anything about it, until they were calling me to come get his body."

Bragg says she knows the men are prisoners but said they should still be treated as human beings.

“The state has just as much responsibility to see that they're brought to justice for what they did, just like my son did for what he did," said Bragg.

For more information on this story, visit Bay News 9's partner paper the Lakeland Ledger.