\n
![\"Kwaneta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Kwaneta_menopause_prison.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
Read Next: \u201cOur organization is named Lioness, and there\u2019s a reason for that. We move like the animal. Lionesses stick together; they stay together,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s that same tenacity and loyalty that a lioness has \u2014 that\u2019s what we have that makes us capable of taking on, frankly, the largest prison system in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, letters had poured into Lioness\u2019 mailbox, with incarcerated people sharing details of how the heat affected them. Sometimes, they \u201cjust wrote because they were hot, frustrated, sad and exhausted, and they felt forgotten,\u201d Diane Thompson, Lioness\u2019 director of member relations, wrote in an email to The 19th. \u201cThey needed somebody on the outside to hear them and to know what they were living through.\u201d<\/p>\n Those stories were at the forefront of the Lioness staff\u2019s minds as they entered the legal fight for air conditioning. In 2024, Lioness joined and expanded<\/a> on an existing federal lawsuit filed a year prior on behalf of Bernie Tiede, a 65-year-old man with diabetes and high blood pressure whose health, he argued, had been affected by the heat. The Lioness lawsuit was filed jointly with two other organizations, Texas Prisons Community Advocates and Texas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants.<\/p>\n Thompson kept meticulous notes on the heat-related letters. She logged the correspondence in a spreadsheet, listing the incarcerated members\u2019 names and unit, the date they sent the letter, the heat-related issue they reported and any other notable details they might have included. She also saved the physical copies of the letters in a folder for future reference, Thompson said.<\/p>\n Judge Pitman referenced these letters at multiple points in his order.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are a membership-based organization. We include our incarcerated members in our decision-making. They lead our advocacy work,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cBecause of the structure of our organization, that is what got us to the finish line in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlee Purdum, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Houston, who has researched how natural disasters impact incarcerated people, said she was overwhelmed to hear the news of the victory. \u201cThe immense pressure it\u2019s going to relieve off of people\u2019s health and on the entire system. I just can feel that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She has studied the physical and mental toll extreme heat has taken on people in Texas prisons. \u201cThe most significant impact is just the helplessness and the dehumanization that a person feels,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not being able to protect yourself and not being able to protect the people around you that you care about, and feeling like nobody else cares.\u201d<\/p>\n In surveys Purdum has conducted, incarcerated people have described myriad health effects from the heat, including heat illness, passing out, and having seizures and rashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), a nonprofit that researches prison conditions, said many people in prison also have physical conditions that make them more susceptible to extreme heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cQuite a few of them are taking psychotropic medications, which often are dangerous to be taking if you\u2019re exposed to the heat for a long time. And the same goes for people with high blood pressure who are on hypertension medication,\u201d Bertram said. A big portion of the population has diabetes and heart issues that make people more vulnerable to heat, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A majority of incarcerated women who are in prison or jail have a chronic medical condition<\/a>. Women are also more likely to report \u201cserious psychological distress,\u201d compared to men, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).\u00a0<\/p>\n Purdum also conducted focus groups that included women from Lioness, who brought up having to deal with pregnancy and menopause in the extreme heat. U.S. prisons and jails see about 58,000 admissions of pregnant women each year, and studies have shown that extreme heat is linked to higher rates of preeclampsia, a potentially fatal blood pressure condition, and is associated with higher rates of premature and low-weight births.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/p>\n Read Next:
\n
\n In a Texas prison, Kwaneta cultivated a menopause support network from scraps of paper
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n ![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/krystal-top.jpeg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\n She\u2019s 11 months from possible parole. Krystal Clark fears she won\u2019t survive to see it.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n