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The head of the Texas prisons department said he wants to install air conditioning in every state lockup — he just doesn’t have the cash to do it.
Testifying in federal court on Friday afternoon, Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier agreed heat levels in state prisons lead to staff illnesses. He acknowledged that high temperatures behind bars contributed to the deaths of three inmates last summer. He called installing A/C systemwide “a key priority.”
But Collier said he needs more money — way more — to finish the job.
“It’s not a simple solution,” he said.
Collier’s testimony capped a four-day hearing about the extreme heat in Texas prisons. Two-thirds lack full A/C, and the temperature indoors can top 100 degrees in the summer.
The case was filed by convicted murderer Bernie Tiede and several prisoner rights groups. Their lawyers argued the lack of A/C in state prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and they do not trust that the state is dedicated to quickly fixing the problem.
They want U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to order the agency to act.
The state of Texas said the issue isn’t so simple. Prison officials told the judge that they have to deal with the funding need — plus the logistical issues posed by a massive and aging system.
Simultaneously defending and pointing the finger at the Legislature, Collier said state budget writers recently earmarked $85 million for A/C for the first time. He hopes to get more money next year — but could not guarantee that would happen.
“There has been an awakening that this is an issue,” Collier said.
After the hearing, a lawyer representing the advocacy groups pointed out that, time and again, the agency has made meaningful changes only after being ordered by a court. He said Collier has not done enough to fix unconstitutional conditions behind bars.
“While I wish that TDCJ would do the right thing on its own, my experience in litigating against this agency has taught me the exact opposite,” said Jeff Edwards. “Words are easy. Actions matter. And until I see the department and its head go to the Legislature and demand that its prisons be air conditioned and its temperature be cooler, nothing’s going to change.”
Pitman, an Obama appointee, gave both sides until Aug. 20 to send him their final thoughts. He could make his decision any time after that.
“Survivor mode:” incarcerated people testify
There are about 134,000 inmates in Texas prisons.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, current and former inmates testified about the effect of the heat. They said they would inflict harm on themselves or set fires to be moved out of their hot cells. Sometimes, they’d lay, nearly naked, in puddles on the floor to cool off.
Marci Marie Simmons was incarcerated for 10 years, much of that time without A/C. She said she’d splash toilet water on her face to cool down because the sink in her cell had warm water. She said tempers would run high and inmates would fight.
“I was in survivor mode, complete survivor mode,” she said. “I felt like a caged animal.”
Tiede testified that he had a stroke last year while in housing without air conditioning. Brought into the courtroom in shackles, face drooping on one side, he said his health has improved since Pitman ordered him to be moved into A/C.
“You would be arrested if you treated a dog like this,” said Tiede, whose crime was immortalized in Richard Linklater’s dark comedy “Bernie.”
Multiple doctors testified that heat of this magnitude would put anyone at risk. They said autopsies produced by the state’s own doctors show the deaths of three inmates last summer were hastened by high temperatures.
The experts said this number is likely an undercount.
“Until you get rid of the heat, people are going to continue to die,” said Dr. Susi Vassallo, an emergency room doctor and toxicologist who studies the effect of heat on the body.
Beating the heat
This isn’t the first time the Department of Criminal Justice has been sued over extreme indoor heat. As part of a 2018 settlement from a previous case, agency officials agreed to install A/C in one prison and to implement a number of changes to lessen the heat.
For two days this week, prison leaders testified about these protocols.
Inmates are given access to cool water, cold showers and fans, they told Pitman. There is at least one part of each prison with A/C, called the “respite area,” where inmates can ask to go if they’re in crisis. Recently, the agency began dispatching strike teams to make unannounced visits to prisons with lots of heat complaints or reports of heat-related illnesses.
They have added almost 9,000 air conditioned beds to the system in the last six years.
Also as part of the 2018 settlement, the prison agency’s medical providers created a system to designate which inmates should be guaranteed air conditioned housing. More than 12,000 inmates now have one of these “heat sensitivity scores,” officials testified.
But under cross examination, they acknowledged the system’s limitations.
For example, a hypothetical 90-year-old inmate with hypertension would not be guaranteed A/C housing unless he was on a specific drug for his illness. Tiede also doesn’t have a heat sensitivity score, even though he has diabetes, asthma, is obese and over 65 years of age.
Neither did the three inmates who died last summer. One of them, Patrick Womack, was also denied a cold shower hours before his death, according to an unredacted copy of his autopsy presented in court.
Prison officials were also hesitant to acknowledge heat-related deaths.
“The heat was a contributing factor but not the sole cause of death,” David Sweetin, who heads the division that oversees the state’s private prison contracts, said in a videotaped deposition played in court.
Collier said the heat was an “additional” factor alongside issues that were the primary cause of death, like epilepsy. When asked about the risk to prisoners who spoke out about the effects of high heat, he said: “I don’t know that they’re not safe. They’re just complaining.”
Ron Hudson, who heads the agency’s facilities division tasked with implementing A/C plans, was more blunt. When asked if heat was causing deaths or serious illnesses, he said “no.”
This is despite the agency’s own training documents, which were presented in court, stating that heat was the fifth leading cause of serious injury among staff.
A question of cost
Hudson said fully air conditioning the prison system is complicated.
The agency manages 37 million square feet of space, he testified. Those range from prisons like the Huntsville Unit, which dates to before the Civil War, to 10 units that also lack air conditioning despite being built in the 1990s.. The process for getting cooling into each prison involves designing anA/C system, hiring contractors, and then installing it — something he said could take years.
Previous estimates of the cost to air condition the entire state prison system topped $1 billion, Hudson said.
“We can’t be in a hurry,” Hudson told Pitman, noting these projects are funded by taxpayer money. They need to be “done right and done right the first time.”
Several prisons in Texas have temporary air conditioning because they house undocumented migrants arrested under Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s state-led border effort.This is because state jails in Texas must be kept to between 65 and 85 degrees. As pretrial detainees, the migrants have not been convicted of a crime.
But prison officials also testified installing temporary A/C in all prisons would be too costly and distract from the ultimate goal: permanent A/C.
Toward the end of the day Friday, Pitman asked about the future. At the agency’s current pace, he said, wouldn’t it take them 25 years to finish the job?
Maybe not, Collier responded. He said lawmakers have allocated more and more money towards air conditioning prisons in the last few years. When the Legislature meets again in 2025, he plans to ask for “well north of” the $85 million he got the last time and is “confident” he’ll receive it. Collier balked at allegations he hasn’t “pulled the fire alarm” over the issue with state lawmakers.
“I absolutely have done that,” he said.
Erica Grossman, another attorney for the plaintiffs, reminded the judge that all of the biggest steps taken in the last few years were made under court order. Even Tiede is only currently in A/C housing because Pitman ordered him there.
One more thing…
Just before the hearing concluded on Friday, Pitman called attention to a piece of “highly suspect” evidence. Earlier that day, the agency’s lawyers presented a document showing temperatures taken at a prison near Beaumont.
At 4:30 p.m. on July 12 2022, the document recorded the outdoor temperature as 79 degrees. Pitman was incredulous, noting the National Weather Service showed the high that day was 96 degrees.
Abigail Carter, an assistant attorney general representing Collier and the agency, said the temperature must have been taken down incorrectly by a staff member.
“This is not a mistake. This is a fabricated document,” Pitman said. He said it raised serious questions about the reliability of the agency’s records. “Somebody needs to look into this.”
Collier, sitting in the courtroom, indicated he would.
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