Judge orders Texas to have air conditioning at all prisons by end of 2029 – spectrumlocalnews.com

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

The ruling was hailed as a major victory by advocates who have fought for years for air conditioning in prisons across the state. DALLAS (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. 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