extreme heat on the body<\/a>. Dean Williams, the former head of the Alaska and Colorado prison systems, testified for the plaintiffs, calling the lack of air-conditioning for the more than 130,000 inmates in TDCJ\u2019s care a \u201cfive-alarm fire.\u201d If he were running the system, he said, he \u201cwould be acting with urgency.\u201d<\/p>\nThe former TDCJ executive director Bryan Collier and his successor Bobby Lumpkin have both testified the costs of fully cooling roughly 100 prisons across the state of Texas would be more than $1 billion and take 23 years to complete at the current installation pace.<\/p>\n
In his closing argument to the judge, Kevin Homiak, one of the plaintiffs\u2019 lead lawyers, pointed to the deaths of several inmates between 2024 and 2025, whose body temperatures were not taken at the time of death \u2013 deaths he said were omitted from legally required annual reports to the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n
In a statement to CNN, a TDCJ spokesperson said there was \u201cone death determined to be most likely heat related\u201d during fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2023, the agency reported three deaths \u201cwhere elevated temperatures were cited in the final autopsies as a possible contributing factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least dozens of inmates have died from the extreme heat, and we know it\u2019s getting hotter,\u201d Homiak told CNN, referencing the number of deaths estimated by the 2022 study. \u201cWe know that if these prisons aren\u2019t air-conditioned, and if the unconstitutional conditions persist, we\u2019re going to see likely dozens more deaths in the coming summers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The heat radiates\u2019<\/p>\n
CNN spoke with three inmates inside the Choice Moore Unit in Bonham, about 70 miles northeast of Dallas, on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The prison has hallways dedicated to respite and fans throughout, but it does not have air-conditioning throughout the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more or less like being in a tin can, and you\u2019re under, I guess, a magnifying glass, and the heat radiates in,\u201d one inmate who has been at Choice Moore Unit for three and a half years said.<\/p>\n
He says during the heat of the summer, it feels like it\u2019s over 120 degrees inside the prison, and there\u2019s little to no relief until the sun goes down. Throughout his years at the unit, he said he\u2019s seen some of the heat-related illnesses firsthand and says tempers rise with the temperatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen more of the incidents that, you know, occur of the violence or anything happening during the summer than any other time during the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Another inmate who has been there for a year and a half says he continually pours cold water on himself throughout the day to try to stay cool.<\/p>\n
The third inmate is preparing for his first summer inside the Choice Moore Unit. He said he feels anxious, and the men who have been there longer offer advice on how to prepare, stay cool and stay safe.<\/p>\n
When asked what he thinks of their conditions, the third inmate said it\u2019s nothing short of cruel and unusual.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put a bunch of animals in a warehouse in the middle of summertime in the deep South, in Texas, where we are at, I think that would be considered animal cruelty,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a standard of care for dogs, then the same standard, if not more, should be the same for human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what he would say to the head of TDCJ or the lawmakers in charge of the state budget about the conditions inside the prison, he asked them to consider what prisons were made for: rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they expect us to come out of this society and to be contributing members of that society, they should start treating us like they want us to be a part of that community\u2026that eventually most of us are going to reenter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Effort could cost more than $1 billion, state says<\/p>\n
While there is currently no air conditioning standard for TDCJ facilities, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which was created by the Texas Legislature in 1975, requires county jails to be kept between 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 degrees Fahrenheit in occupied areas.<\/p>\n
A TDCJ spokesperson told CNN they could not comment on ongoing litigation but did share efforts underway to help keep inmates and staffers cool at their facilities.<\/p>\n
Today, 38 units are fully air-conditioned, with an additional 52 partially cooled, according to TDCJ \u2013 the main distinction being whether a full housing area is air-conditioned or only select parts.<\/p>\n
In 2018, it was made a priority to add \u201ccool beds,\u201d which TDCJ describes as beds in air-conditioned housing areas, and respite areas where prisoners can get access to cooler temperatures for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.<\/p>\n
There are more than 52,000 cool beds available for inmates, per the agency; however, that doesn\u2019t cover even half of the number of the state\u2019s 130,000 incarcerated individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last several years, the agency has worked to increase the number of cool beds available,\u201d TDCJ said on its website. \u201cTDCJ is dedicated to continuing to add air-conditioned beds in our facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes have been instrumental in reducing the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths across the system,\u201d the state said in court filings. In 2025, TDCJ recorded 13 instances of heat-related injuries to inmates, down from 25 the year before.<\/p>\n
During the 2023 and 2025 Texas legislative sessions, TDCJ received a combined $203 million for the installation of air conditioning.<\/p>\n
The state has said providing air conditioning to all its prisons would cost more than $1 billion, and even if the judge were to rule in the plaintiffs\u2019 favor, state lawmakers would still need to allocate the funding in the state budget.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs believe their demands are achievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe asked for an order that the system be fully air conditioned by the end of 2029, which is what our experts have said is reasonable and can be done with full funding,\u201d Homiak said.<\/p>\n
The-CNN-Wire
\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) \u2014 A decision whether to mandate air conditioning inside Texas prisons is in the hands of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-607253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}