Judge orders Texas to have air conditioning at all prisons by end of 2029

Rose Baca /The Dallas Morning News/AP

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Texas to install air conditioning in all of its prisons by the end of 2029, saying that inmates in lockups without it are being given punishments that violate their constitutional rights.

The ruling was hailed as a major victory by advocates who have fought for years for air conditioning in prisons across Texas, where summer heat routinely soars above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said in the 150-page order that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice must immediately begin developing a plan for the installations. He ruled that a lack of air conditioning violates the constitutional right to not be given “cruel and unusual punishments.”

“Witnesses in this case who had been incarcerated in un-air-conditioned Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons described themselves and their fellow inmates getting sick, passing out, and reaching a level of desperation to cool off that made it ‘common’ to splash toilet water on themselves,” Pitman wrote in the ruling. “These are not humane conditions.”

The ruling said that the state prison agency has estimated that systemwide air conditioning would cost about $1.5 billion.

The state prison agency said Tuesday that it will appeal the court’s decision, adding that it has “robust heat mitigation efforts in place” and is already committed to installing air conditioning in units. The agency said its number of air-conditioned beds has increased from 35,000 in 2018 to an expected 60,000 by the end of this year, and that the number will reach 90,000 in 2028.

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Texas has about 143,000 people in prisons across the state.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede , the former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.” Several prisoners’ rights groups then asked to join his legal fight and expand it.

In 2025, Pitman found that the extreme heat in Texas’ prisons was “plainly unconstitutional,” but declined at that time to order the state to immediately start installing air conditioning. The case then went to trial earlier this year.

The ruling said the agency has acknowledged that 23 people died in its facilities from heat-related causes between 1998 and 2012, and that the agency acknowledged three additional heat-related deaths in 2023. The judge wrote in the order that plaintiffs also presented “credible evidence” of additional deaths from 2023 to 2025 that were at least in part caused by heat.

Amite Dominick, founder and president of Texas Prisons Community Advocates, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the ruling “made clear that the state cannot keep treating human lives as a budget line.”

“We will be watching every deadline in this order,” Dominick said.

罗斯·巴卡/《达拉斯晨报》/美联社

周二，一名联邦法官下令德克萨斯州在 2029 年底前在其所有监狱安装空调，称被关押在没有空调的监狱中的囚犯正在遭受违反其宪法权利的惩罚。

这项裁决被多年来一直争取在德克萨斯州各地监狱安装空调的倡导者们誉为一项重大胜利，因为德克萨斯州夏季的高温经常飙升至华氏100度（摄氏38度）以上。

美国地区法官罗伯特·皮特曼在长达150页的命令中指出，德克萨斯州刑事司法部必须立即着手制定相关设施的改造计划。他裁定，缺乏空调违反了宪法赋予的免受“残酷和不寻常惩罚”的权利。

皮特曼在判决书中写道：“本案中，曾被关押在德克萨斯州刑事司法部下属监狱（这些监狱没有空调）的证人描述说，他们自己和狱友经常生病、昏厥，为了降温，甚至不惜用马桶水泼自己。这些条件根本不人道。”

裁决书称，州监狱管理局估计，全系统安装空调将耗资约 15 亿美元。

州监狱管理局周二表示，将对法院的裁决提出上诉，并补充说，他们已采取“强有力的防暑降温措施”，并已承诺在监狱单元内安装空调。该机构表示，其空调床位数量已从2018年的3.5万张增加到预计今年年底的6万张，到2028年将达到9万张。

Adam Davis/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

德克萨斯州监狱系统内约有 143,000 名囚犯。

这起诉讼最初由伯尼·蒂德于2023年提起，他是一名被判终身监禁的前殡仪员，他的谋杀案启发了电影《伯尼》。随后，几个囚犯权益组织请求加入他的法律斗争并扩大诉讼范围。

2025年，皮特曼法官裁定德克萨斯州监狱的极端高温“显然违宪”，但当时他并未下令该州立即开始安装空调。此案于今年早些时候开庭审理。

裁决书指出，该机构承认，1998年至2012年间，其设施内有23人死于与高温相关的疾病，并承认2023年另有3人死于与高温相关的疾病。法官在裁决书中写道，原告还提供了“可信的证据”，证明2023年至2025年间还有其他死亡事件至少部分是由高温造成的。

德克萨斯州监狱社区倡导组织创始人兼主席阿米特·多米尼克是该诉讼的原告之一，他表示，该裁决“明确表明，该州不能继续把人的生命当作预算项目来对待”。

“我们将按这个顺序关注每一个截止日期，”多米尼克说。