A federal judge has ordered Texas to install air conditioning throughout its prison system by the end of 2029, ruling that conditions inside uncooled facilities violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
And Texas plans to appeal.
In this video, I’m looking at the fight over extreme heat inside Texas prisons, what U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found after years of litigation, what the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says it is already doing to expand air conditioning, and why the state says completely cooling the system could cost roughly $1.5 billion.
As of September 1, 2026, TDCJ reported that only 38 units were fully air conditioned, with another 53 partially air conditioned. The agency says tens of thousands of additional cooled beds are under construction, procurement, or design.
But the federal court found the existing measures were not enough.
Whatever somebody has been convicted of, the sentence handed down by a judge does not include being slowly cooked inside a concrete building during a Texas summer.
So why is Texas fighting the order?
That’s what we’re talking about.
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SOURCES:
The Texas Tribune — Federal judge orders Texas to air condition all prisons by the end of 2029:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/22/texas-prison-air-conditioning-lawsuit-ruling/
Associated Press — Judge orders Texas to have air conditioning at all prisons by end of 2029:
https://apnews.com/article/fa2f1997bd77b47129cdfe5c2350332d
Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Air Conditioning Construction Projects:
https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/ac/index.html
Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Enhanced Heat Protocols:
https://tdcj.texas.gov/inmate_info/enhanced_heat_protocols.html
#Texas #TexasPrisons #PrisonReform #CriminalJustice #PrisonHeat #AirConditioning #EighthAmendment #TDCJ #ACShouldNotBeDLC #TexasTurnDownTheThermostat
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