Texas prisons are fatally hot, a lawsuit and a lawmaker are changing that

AUSTIN – The Dallas Observer reports Texas is one of 13 states that does not require air conditioning in its state prisons, but a new bill that would enforce humane treatment for the incarcerated has been filed for this legislative session. House Bill 2997, filed by Rep. John Bryant, a Democrat from Dallas County, would require Texas to keep prisons between 65 and 85 degrees. A similar bill failed to pass the Senate last session, with critics claiming that installing HVAC systems would be too costly. The previous bill asked the state for half a billion dollars to install and repair air conditioning units within prisons. Two-thirds of state prisons do not have air conditioning, and the temperatures within those prisons can easily exceed 100 degrees. A 2022 study from Texas A&M University found that one had topped out at 149 degrees. When the heat index is above 125 degrees, there is an extreme risk of heat stroke.

“We have the resources. We just seem to not have the compassion to do it,” a former state representative, Carl Sherman from DeSoto, said during a press conference after last year’s bill failed at the Senate. The bill comes as a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice moves through the legal system. The lawsuit was originally filed by Texas inmate Bernie Tiede. His criminal case has caught media attention and was even the inspiration for an eponymous film directed by Austin filmmaker, Richard Linklater. Tiede, convicted of murder in 1999, has been considered a model prisoner and now stands at the forefront of this branch of criminal justice reform. Now he has been joined by a group of criminal justice activist organizations that say the lack of proper temperature regulation creates inhumane conditions. “If cooking someone to death does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment, then nothing does,” the complaint said. Prison conditions don’t just affect the incarcerated, the guards and administrators working the prisons are also subject to the same conditions. “[Guards are] in the same conditions for maybe 16 hours that someone who’s incarcerated is in. It’s not fair for either one, by the way,” Andy Potter, founder of One Voice United, an advocacy group for correctional officers, said to the Observer. Aside from the death and debilitation that comes from prolonged exposure to high temperatures, an increase in heat has been linked to interpersonal violence, further perpetuating the tensions that already exist within prisons. The bill from Bryant is modeled after an existing rule within the Texas Administration Code that requires county jails to keep their facilities between 65 and 85 degrees. The law has stood since 1994. A night’s rest on the metal cot of the drunk tank is hospitable compared to the life-threatening conditions of a summer weekend spent in solitary.