Another Texas summer is here, and once again, tens of thousands of people incarcerated in Texas prisons are sweltering, and some are dying, because they’re denied the necessity of air conditioning.
Let that sink in: In 2025, in the United States, people are dying preventable deaths because they’re trapped in sometimes 100-degree concrete boxes with no relief.
This is not a fluke. It is the result of repeated, deliberate choices by Texas lawmakers and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to ignore both human suffering and constitutional law.
More than 88,000 people in Texas prisons currently live without air conditioning. That means two-thirds of the state’s incarcerated population are enduring life-threatening heat in facilities that routinely register indoor temperatures well above 90 degrees.
The state’s inaction is not for lack of funds. Last year, TDCJ received $85 million in state funding for prison air conditioning. This year, it received another $118 million. Yet according to sworn court testimony in a 2024 lawsuit against TDCJ, the agency still has not issued a systemwide bid for installation.
Since 2018, the agency has allocated only $115.5 million total, less than what it received just this year, to install air conditioning at state prisons. This slow drip of action, while lives remain at risk, is indefensible.
In the Cole v. Collier lawsuit against TDCJ, the agency initially claimed it would take more than $20 million to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit. But that number quickly crumbled, dropping to $11 million after an internal review in 2017, and ultimately to just $4 million after the state settled the case. This revealed a pattern of exaggeration used to delay or avoid basic protections for incarcerated people.
Meanwhile, we already know what happens when air conditioning is absent. Between 1998 and 2012, TDCJ acknowledged that at least 23 people died from heat-related causes. That includes 10 deaths in just one summer, 2011. Medical experts, correctional officers and family members have all sounded the alarm repeatedly. The federal courts have acknowledged the danger, too.
In Coones v. Cogburn, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed last month what has been obvious for years: exposing incarcerated people to extreme heat is unconstitutional. Earlier this year, a federal court in Austin agreed. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman acknowledged that TDCJ is likely violating the Eight Amendment but denied a preliminary injunction for immediate air conditioning, citing concerns it would delay a permanent fix. Everyone knows it. There are no more excuses.
Instead of wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars on the costly upkeep of aging, chronically understaffed facilities, TDCJ should act decisively to close those units and redirect resources toward urgently installing air conditioning — an essential step to protect the health and safety of both staff and incarcerated individuals.
Yet the Texas Legislature once again failed to pass a law requiring installation of air conditioning on a clear timeline. And there’s no mention of prison heat relief on the agenda for the 2025 special sessions. That means tens of thousands of people will continue to face the blistering heat with no idea if or when it will end.
Texas is not only allowing these conditions, it’s defending them in court. Inaction is not just immoral, it is unlawful. No one in a civilized society should be sentenced to death by heat. Texas has a constitutional duty to act, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF will continue fighting alongside families, advocates and legal allies to demand change in both the courts and the Capitol.
We cannot keep letting summers in Texas turn into death sentences. We cannot let bureaucracy and indifference outweigh dignity and life. If Texas won’t do the right thing on its own, we’ll continue fighting in court, in legislatures, and alongside our communities to make sure this basic right is given.
Karen Muñoz is the associate counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a nonprofit legal advocacy group.
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