A trial underway in an Austin federal court this week could decide whether Texas must provide air-conditioning in its prisons.

For decades, lawyers for inmates have argued the conditions — which can reach 110 degrees on some days — constitute cruel and unusual punishment for people at state-run facilities. Now, a federal judge could force the state to provide air-conditioning to all of its roughly 130,000 inmates after a two-week trial.

Attorney Brandon Duke is one of a cadre of lawyers in court in Austin this week arguing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is violating the Constitution. The agency has countered that, arguing it’s bringing more AC online at prisons, but Duke says it’s not enough.

“The Constitution requires living conditions that are not exposing individuals to high heat levels, and the evidence has consistently shown that what TDCJ has done as an alternative has just not been effective,” he said. “It’s not a solution.”

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who’s presiding over the case, has already signaled that those conditions — which the state prison system said has contributed to the deaths of  dozens of inmates since 1998 — are unconstitutional.

Pitman said as much in a ruling last year, but didn’t rule outright. Now, he’ll decide the case from the bench after a two-week trial.

Plaintiffs attorneys say at least five inmates have died in Texas because of heat-related illness since 2023. In the lawsuit, attorneys also allege the TDCJ has been ignoring — or even hiding — some heat-related deaths in prisons.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice wouldn’t provide KUT News a comment for this story, but the agency’s current and former head have said throughout the case that air conditioning would decrease deaths in Texas prisons.

TDCJ Executive Director Bobby Lumpkin said in a deposition last year that he agreed with Pitman’s take on the situation.

According to the state’s records, temperatures inside cells during the summer regularly top 90 and even 100 degrees.

‘Competing priorities’

The problem, the agency argues, is funding. It would cost $1.5 billion to install air-conditioning systems — and state lawmakers would need to approve a plan to bring AC into all of the state-run prisons. In the meantime, TDCJ says it’s chipping away at bringing air-conditioning online.

But Duke, a plaintiff’s attorney, said the state is slow-walking that rollout.

“They’ve chosen basically the slowest, least efficient process that will take a significant number of years longer … to air condition the system,” Duke said.

The agency’s former head, Bryan Collier, said in court Tuesday that TDCJ can’t simply plop down a billion dollars to address the need. The state’s prison operator also has to contend with other issues it faces — security, the prevention of contraband, providing health services.

“It has been a priority,” Collier said. “But you have competing priorities.”

On top of that, there’s staffing. Corrections agencies across the country have seen their labor pools dry up in recent years. Sure, the job is demanding, Collier said, but he added he has only seen the agency at 100% staffing “one time” in his 40 years with TDCJ.

Attorneys say this case is novel. If Judge Pitman sides with plaintiffs, he could order Texas to provide air-conditioning at all its 100-plus prisons by 2029. Previous lawsuits have pushed the state’s prison operator to require AC at some units — but not across the whole system.

Duke said other states are watching.

“This litigation serves as a model to address that same issue,” he said. “Because there are units in Louisiana that are un-air-conditioned, in Mississippi and several other states that get hot or could get equally as hot and are equally as dangerous.”

‘Lingering cruelty’

Award-winning Austin auteur Richard Linklater was outside the courthouse Tuesday. Linklater helped spotlight the federal case when he intervened on behalf of inmate Bernie Tiede, the subject of Linklater’s deeply dark and equally Texan film Bernie.

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Linklater grew up in Huntsville, home to one of Texas’ oldest prisons, and his stepdad used to be a corrections officer — who also suffered through hot summers.

And he stayed close with Tiede after his 2011 film.

During a visit a few years ago, Tiede pleaded to Linklater for help: He told the filmmaker he was hospitalized because of the oppressive heat in his Huntsville prison.

Linklater supported Tiede in filing a federal lawsuit to bring AC to Texas prisons. Tiede was ultimately transferred to an air-conditioned unit, but his case spurred the broader lawsuit in court this week.

Linklater said the case would address a longstanding gap in state law. Federal law requires air conditioning in prisons, and state law requires county lockups be between 65 and 85 degrees.

“There’s kind of a lingering cruelty,” he said. “And it falls under the radar because people don’t really care about what goes on in prisons behind those … walls.

Linklater conceded that TDCJ officials inherited this issue; that it’s the “original sin” of the state’s prison system.

“They didn’t build the units with air conditioning because I think they felt legally they didn’t have to, but morally, they probably should have,” Linklater said. “Think of the millions and millions of hours of suffering. Think of all the deaths, all the illness — not just for the incarcerated — but the state employees who work there.”

Linklater, and others, will be in court over the next two weeks. Plaintiffs are calling witnesses this week and TDCJ will do so next week ahead of closing arguments.

After that, a decision could take weeks or months — well into another sweltering Texas summer.