A federal judge has ordered Texas to install air conditioning in every state prison by Dec. 31, 2029, ruling that extreme heat in uncooled lockups violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said a systemwide project could cost about $1.5 billion.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued the 150-page order Tuesday after a trial in Austin. He found TDCJ’s current heat plan — extra water, cold showers and respite rooms — is not enough in a state where heat indexes can top 130 degrees. Pitman wrote that inmates are “suffering — and in some cases dying — in extreme heat every summer” and that prison Director Bobby Lumpkin’s failure to put a real cooling timeline in place amounted to deliberate indifference.
Just over one-third of TDCJ’s 104 prisons were fully air-conditioned as of Sept. 1, The Texas Tribune reported. When the trial began, about 37% of inmates had “cool beds,” leaving nearly 89,000 without. Texas holds about 143,000 people in prison. TDCJ has said air-conditioned beds rose from 35,000 in 2018 to a projected 60,000 by the end of this year and 90,000 by 2028 if current projects finish.
The agency told the court a full build-out at today’s pace could take more than 20 years. Pitman instead set a 2029 deadline, saying TDCJ’s own engineering estimates showed that timeline was doable if the state funds it. He ordered an immediate installation plan and progress reports every six months, starting March 22, 2027.
TDCJ asked lawmakers for far less than the two-year sums it previously told the court it could seek. The ruling noted the agency requested about $289 million for cooling in the next budget cycle after outlining a much larger phased plan. Lawmakers will have to decide how to pay for compliance.
TDCJ said Tuesday it will appeal and that it already has heat-mitigation measures and an expanding slate of cooled beds. Inmate advocates called the order a long-sought win after years of lawsuits over summer temperatures that have been linked to heat injuries and deaths.
