Arguments have concluded in a trial that could require Texas to provide air conditioning at more than 100 prisons statewide.
A two-week trial over the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's rollout of air conditioning concluded Thursday evening in a federal courthouse in downtown Austin. Plaintiffs sued the state for lack of air conditioning, arguing that the temperatures in the summer, which regularly top 90 degrees, are cruel and unusual punishment. TDCJ attorneys argue the state has made progress installing AC at more units and that plaintiffs' claims that the state has been hiding heat-related deaths behind bars were unfounded.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who presided over the case, will decide whether to force the state to provide more AC in prisons before 2029.
An order from Pitman last year called conditions in Texas prisons "plainly unconstitutional" and plaintiffs' attorneys used the trial to expand on their previous argument that Texas has been slow-walking its installation of AC at prisons.
Plaintiffs' attorney Kevin Homiak highlighted 10 deaths since 2023 that he argued were heat-related — including one inmate who died last August with a body temperature of 105 degrees. Homiak said the TDCJ has been slow to provide autopsy reports on some deaths — and falsified temperature logs — to hide the problem from state lawmakers.
"This is deliberate indifference — full stop," Homiak said. "There is nothing short of a court order to get this done."
The state's prison operator has argued it can't provide AC to all its prisons overnight. For one, it argues, the estimated $1.5-billion price tag is too tall an order for the Texas Legislature to deliver to TDCJ. The agency also says arevamp at all 104 TDCJ facilities — some of which were built in the 19th Century — could take at least until 2033.
Ryan Kercher, a lawyer with the Texas Attorney General's office, argued the agency has made strides to bring more so-called "cool beds" to Texas prisons and "move the ball forward." Kercher added that TDCJ has been at the mercy of its health care providers — particularly the UT Medical Branch in Galveston — to document heat-related deaths in its prisons.
"Plaintiffs have spent this trial ... ignoring the TDCJ's efforts," Kercher said in closing arguments. "If TDCJ is trying to hide the heat in its prisons from the Legislature, it is doing a terrible job.
TDCJ says it currently has more than 52,000 "cool beds" in its system and that it plans on bringing as many as 9,000 more by the end of the year. The state's prison population is roughly 140,000 people, and nearly two-thirds of inmates do not have access to air conditioning.
Last year, TDCJ said at least 23 people died as a result of heat-related illness between 1998 and 2012. As the trial opened, the agency confirmed heat was a factor in three deaths in recent years.
TDCJ's plan to address heat was front and center throughout the trial. The agency presented a phased plan to lawmakers to air-condition its prisons in 2023, one that cost $1.1 billion. That was revised again to a three-phase, $1.3-billion plan, and last month the agency said its new two-phase plan would cost $1.5 billion.
But throughout the trial, multiple TDCJ officials bristled at classifying that as a "plan," instead referring to it as a "cost estimate." That, plaintiffs' attorneys argued, suggested the agency wasn't moving with urgency to either contract with builders to do the work — or ask lawmakers for the money to bring AC to all its prisons.
It's not the first time Texas has faced a federal lawsuit over heat in its prisons. TDCJ installed air conditioning at the William Pack prison near College Station in 2018 — but only after another yearslong lawsuit in federal court forced the state to do so.
On Thursday, Homiak, the plaintiff's attorney, urged Pitman to do the same in this case.
"They don't see this as an emergency," he said. "They never have."
A decision in the case could take months and, depending on the ruling, could face an appeal at the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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