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Officials said inmate Marcia Powell was kept in an outdoor cage for hours. She didn't survive, and now the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute the people who put her there.

Donna Hamm has been an inmate rights activist for more than three decades, but cases like this one still catch her off guard.

Powell was behind bars in prison in Perryville. She was put in one of their outdoor holding units in May of 2009, where she was left in the sun for four hours, officials said.

"Her core body temp was 108, her eyeballs were dry, her mouth was parched," Hamm said.

The state Medical Examiner's Office listed Powell's official cause of death as dehydration and said she had numerous first-and second-degree burns on her face and body from being put in direct sunlight with no shade.

"There are people who are charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in this country who leave their baby in a couple inches bathwater to go out and answer a cell phone or to check a mailbox, and they're successfully prosecuted," said Hamm.

But the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute anyone in this case, saying the evidence isn't there and that there are too many conflicting statements.

The Arizona Department of Corrections said it did make changes after Powell's death.

ADC's outdoor holding units are now shaded and each unit has its own water supply and a bench inside.

Also, inmates aren't to be held in the outdoor units for more than two hours

ADC representatives disciplined the 16 individuals involved in the Powell incident.

Two quit in lieu of being fired, three were fired and 10 others were suspended.

Hamm told CBS 5 there won't be a civil suit filed either, because Powell had no family so there's no one to file one on her behalf.

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