The family\u2019s civil complaint<\/a>, lodged in a federal district court in Houston, accuses the state of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on the prisoner \u201cthat led to his death in a brutally hot, un-airconditioned cell\u201d. Refusal to provide Wilson with cool water and regular showers, combined with the lack of air conditioning and a failure to check routinely on his wellbeing, \u201ccaused him immense suffering and death\u201d.<\/p>\n His plight was the result of \u201cdeliberate indifference\u201d and \u201cintentional discrimination\u201d on the part of the Texas authorities, the suit says.<\/p>\n The new wrongful death lawsuit comes as Texas is already awaiting the outcome of a separate federal court action <\/a>in Austin over the heat crisis. An alliance of advocacy groups is calling on a federal judge in the western district of Texas to order the state to introduce air conditioning in all its prisons over the next three years.<\/p>\n A ruling in that case is expected within months.<\/p>\n The legal crunch is coming to a head just as searing summer heat yet again pummels Texas prisons. Of the state\u2019s 141,000 prisoners, more than 85,000 are held in cells without air conditioning where internal temperatures regularly exceed 115F (46C) in summer months.<\/p>\n A high of 149F has been recorded. At such extremes, individual inmates can experience physical and mental breakdown<\/a>, and those who are particularly vulnerable as a result of co-morbidities can suffer fatal heatstrokes.<\/p>\n Desperate inmates have been known to spill dirty toilet water on the concrete floors of their cells and lie in it in an attempt to cool off.<\/p>\n TDCJ has accepted that there were three heat-related deaths in its prisons in 2023, but has denied any such fatalities since then. One of the three deceased inmates, Patrick Womack, 50, was found unresponsive in his cell in August 2023 with a core body temperature of 106.9F.<\/p>\n In the Coffield unit the temperature log inside the prison recorded 107F the day before Wilson died. This summer, the heat register for Coffield has again been intense.<\/p>\n Anderson county, where the prison is located, recorded temperatures of 100F or hotter on 17 out of 30 days in June. Those outside temperatures are known to rise even further inside the prison, especially at night.<\/p>\n Brittany Robertson, who acts as an outside advocate for hundreds of Texas inmates, said that she had been receiving distress signals from several individuals in recent days complaining of a dearth of cool water.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cool down showers are still at regular shower temperatures, which won\u2019t do anything to lower the body temperature,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cThe dire conditions are made worse by electricity and water outages.\u201d<\/p>\n An advocate for cooling Texas prisons walks past a makeshift cell during a rally on the steps of the Texas capitol, on 18 July 2023, in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Eric Gay\/AP<\/p>\n One recent communication from James, an inmate in the Coffield unit, sounded the alarm in chillingly similar terms to urgent pleas Robertson received from Wilson shortly before he died. James wrote: \u201cI was stuck 20hrs with no running water or a toilet. Wow. Not one rank walked the line lastnite or even came to resolve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of his death, Wilson was locked up in his solitary confinement cell \u2013 known as restrictive housing in Texas \u2013 for 23 hours a day. He was known to have co-morbidities including his weight that rendered him officially obese, and as such was supposed to have been given intensive wellness checks during hot spells.<\/p>\n The night before he died, however, the officer responsible for carrying out the last wellness check of the day failed to complete it. The officer later said the unit was struggling from understaffing and he was \u201ctired due to the heat\u201d.<\/p>\n Ronnie Wilson, Jason Wilson\u2019s father who has brought the wrongful death lawsuit, told the Guardian that he had no idea that his son was enduring such extreme suffering until after he died. When he began digging into the conditions at Coffield, Ronnie was told that the institution was colloquially known by staff as the \u201cglass house\u201d because of the way the sun beat down on it.<\/p>\n Jason Wilson in 1987. Photograph: Courtesy of the Wilson family<\/p>\n Texas is facing possible punitive charges in the wrongful death suit. Wilson said that money wasn\u2019t the issue \u2013 he wanted to see justice done for his son and necessary changes made by the state.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many people are dying. My son was sentenced for what he did wrong, but he didn\u2019t get a death sentence. He wasn\u2019t meant to suffer like that, like he was slowly being put to death.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian approached TDCJ for its response to the accusations leveled against it, but the agency declined to comment due to pending litigation.<\/p>\n The calamity inside Texas prisons is predicted to steadily intensify as temperatures rise under the climate crisis. Climatologists project that Texas is likely to warm<\/a> by up to an additional 5.1F (2.8C) by 2050.<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/360.jpg\")
Jason Wilson in an undated photograph provided by his family. Photograph: Family of Jason Wilson<\/p>\n