Austin, Texas (AP) – A federal judge found on Wednesday that the intense heat in Texas prisons was “clearly unconstitutional”, but he refused to order the state to start immediately to install air conditioning, which could cost billions of billions.
The judge confirmed the claims made by the advocates of imprisoned persons in the state, as the summer temperature routinely rises above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 ° C). But they will continue to click on a lawsuit later on a trial.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Teddy, a former real estate expert who spent a life sentence that inspired the murder case “Bernie”. Then many prisoners’ rights groups requested to join and expand his legal battle.
The lawsuit argues that heat in state facilities amounts to a harsh and unusual punishment, and seeks to force the state to fix air conditioning.
Jeff Edwards, the main lawyer for prisoners and preachers, described the judge as victory, even if he did not require an immediate solution.
“We have proven our cause,” Edwards said. “The court clarified that what the state is doing is unconstitutional and displays the lives of those who are supposed to protect them … This is the first step in changing the system of Texas prisoners.”
Edwards said the defenders will press for relief for prisoners as soon as possible. “I am unfortunate because we cannot protect them with temporary satisfaction this summer, but we will move as quickly as possible,” he said.
In Texas there are more than 130,000 people who spend time in prisons, more than any state in the United States only about a third of about 100 fully air -conditioned prison units and the rest is either partial cooling or without anything.
“This case is related to the unconstitutional treatment clearly for some of the most weak and marginalized members in our society,” said the American boycott judge, Robert Beatman. “The court believes that excessive heat is likely to serve as a form of unconstitutional punishment.”
But the judge said that the state’s order to spend “hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, from dollars to stabilize permanent air conditioning in every (prison)”, cannot be accomplished before its expiration in 90 days.
The judge wrote that it takes months to install temporary air conditioning, and may even delay a permanent solution.
Bitman said he expected the case to go in trial, as preachers can continue to say.
He also issued a warning to the state that they are likely to win in the trial, and that the state may face an order to install air conditioning.
The judge also indicated that the state legislative body, which is in a session until May and writes the two -year budget, is also studying bills that require fixing air conditioning in prisons.
But the majority of the majority legislative body heard complaints about the severe heat in prisons for years and did not address this issue. In 2018, the state was ordered to install air conditioning in a unit for older prisoners and that is medically at risk.
Texas Criminal Justice officials have not immediately responded to emails seeking to get a comment.
Texas is not alone in the face of the lawsuits for hot prisons. The cases were also provided in Louisiana and New Mexico. One of them claimed in July in Georgia that a man died in July 2023 after leaving him in an external cell for hours without water, shade or ice.
A study conducted by researchers at the universities of Braun, Boston and Harvard found that 13 % – or 271 – of deaths in Texas prisons without global AC between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to severe heat. Prisoners of prisoners say these numbers are likely to increase only as the state faces the most extreme weather and heat due to climate change.
Last year, in a hearing, the people who previously imprisoned their experiences in the hot prison buildings witnessed that the temperatures exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius).
They testified that some prisoners will sprinkle the toilet water on themselves to cool them, or fake suicide attempts to be transferred to cooler medical areas, or even fires that deliberately place until the guards are forced on the cell hose.
Edwards said on Wednesday: “It is sad that the matter requires a federal court to enter and change matters,” Edwards said on Wednesday. “This is not a Spanish magazine in the seventeenth century, and this is 2025.”
The Director of the Criminal Justice Ministry of Texas, Brian Coller, admitted that Hit was a worker in three deaths of multiple reasons in 2023, and that prison and prisoners sometimes getting sick with high temperatures.
But the state has opposed hundreds of deaths in recent years by prisoners’ advocates, and says Texas has carried out effective measures to relieve heat, such as providing fans and towels and reaching more cold “comfort” areas.
Coller also insisted that he would like to install air conditioning via the prison system, but the state lawmakers have never agreed to spend enough money to do so.