Federal Judge Orders Texas to Air Condition All Prisons by 2030

The Texas Tribune

AUSTIN, TX — A federal judge has ordered Texas to air condition all of the state’s lockups, which the prison agency said could cost $1.5 billion, by 2030.

The ruling, released Tuesday, is a win for inmate advocates and their attorneys, who had asked the court to force the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to cool the entire prison system by that time. Just over a third of the agency’s 104 facilities were fully air conditioned as of Sept. 1.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found that conditions in Texas prisons without air conditioning violate the Eighth Amendment — which protects against cruel and unusual punishment — and that TDCJ’s current response to extreme heat is insufficient.

Pitman ordered the prison agency to immediately create and implement a plan to add air conditioning in every Texas prison. The installation, he said, must be completed no later than Dec. 31, 2029.

“In the face of clear evidence of risk — including ongoing injuries, deaths, and suffering every summer — Director [Bobby] Lumpkin’s failure to enact a meaningful, committed plan to install air-conditioning on the timeline that TDCJ has repeatedly indicated is possible is deliberate indifference,” the judge wrote in his 150-page order.

The decision came after Pitman declared in a 2025 ruling that excessive heat in Texas prisons is likely “unconstitutional punishment.” But the judge declined at the time to require TDCJ to install temporary air conditioning, reasoning that the option was not a permanent solution and was unlikely to be accomplished before a preliminary ruling would expire. 

TDCJ said it was reviewing the Tuesday ruling and couldn’t immediately comment. 

Marci Marie Simmons, previously incarcerated in Texas, called the ruling a “huge win.” She is also the communications director for the Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Texas Prison Community Advocates and the Texas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants.

“We’re just so excited,” Simmons said, laughing and crying. “This decision is going to save lives, and that’s huge.”

TDCJ has acknowledged that at least 23 people died from heat-related causes in its facilities between 1998 and 2012 — a likely underestimate, Pitman wrote in his order last year. Inmate advocates say at least 10 additional deaths between 2022 and 2025 can be attributed to the high temperatures, including three people whose autopsy reports reference heat as a possible contributing factor. 

The agency disputes this alleged death toll, arguing that the cause could instead be attributed to drug overdoses or other medical conditions.