The Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Christian Life Commission has made combatting inhumane temperatures in Texas prisons a priority. Those efforts received a positive tailwind this week, with a judge’s 91-page ruling declaring the lack of temperature regulation in some state prisons unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman stopped short of mandating air conditioning be installed in the ruling, signed on March 26, but he classified incarceration in un-air-conditioned state facilities as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The ruling notes: “At the outset, the Court notes that the parties are in agreement that air conditioning all TDCJ facilities is necessary as a matter of inmate health and safety.”
It also acknowledges the defendant, Brian Collier, executive director of Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not already installed air conditioning in all housing areas throughout TDCJ units only because “the Texas Legislature has not appropriated the funds to do so.”
The ruling explains about 95,000 inmates currently are housed in un-air-conditioned facilities. The state’s 46,000 “cool beds” — beds in proximity to partial or full air conditioning — are prioritized to inmates based on an individual’s susceptibility to heat illness.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Calli Keener and originally published by Baptist Standard.
