A federal judge has officially ordered the state of Texas to install air conditioning in all of its prisons by the end of 2029, CNN reports. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued this 150-page order on Tuesday, marking a significant turning point for a long-standing legal battle over the extreme temperatures inside state lockups.
Summer temperatures routinely climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Texas. The ruling addresses this directly, with Judge Pitman declaring that the current lack of climate control in many facilities violates the constitutional right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishments.
The judge was particularly moved by the testimony of those who have lived through these conditions. He noted that inmates described getting sick, passing out, and reaching a level of desperation that led them to splash toilet water on themselves just to cool down. In his order, Judge Pitman wrote, “These are not humane conditions.”
The human cost of the current situation is quite sobering
The legal journey to this point started in 2023 when Bernie Tiede, the former mortician whose story inspired the movie Bernie, filed the initial lawsuit. Several advocacy groups eventually joined the fight, expanding the scope of the case. While Judge Pitman had previously declared the heat levels to be plainly unconstitutional in 2025, he had hesitated to mandate immediate installations at that time. After a trial earlier this year, he has now set a firm deadline that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice must follow.
The prison agency itself has acknowledged that 23 people died from heat-related causes between 1998 and 2012, with three more deaths reported in 2023. Furthermore, the judge pointed to credible evidence presented by plaintiffs suggesting that additional deaths occurred between 2023 and 2025 which were at least partially linked to the intense heat.
For those who have been fighting for these changes, the ruling is a massive win. Amite Dominick, who serves as the founder and president of Texas Prisons Community Advocates, expressed that the ruling “made clear that the state cannot keep treating human lives as a budget line.” She also noted, “We will be watching every deadline in this order.”
Of course, this is a massive infrastructure project that comes with a high price tag. The state prison agency estimates that implementing systemwide air conditioning will cost approximately $1.5 billion. In response to the ruling, the agency stated on Tuesday that it plans to appeal the decision.
Officials maintained that they already have robust heat mitigation efforts in place and are actively working on unit installations. According to the agency, the number of air-conditioned beds has grown from 35,000 in 2018 to an expected 60,000 by the end of this year. They anticipate that this number will reach 90,000 by 2028, though the state houses about 143,000 people in total.
Published: Sep 24, 2026 05:49 pm