Activists Say Texas Is “Cooking” Inmates In Hot Prisons

July 19, 2023 Politics, Republicans

The Texas Tribune reports:

Shouting, screaming and crying with raw desperation, dozens of prisoners’ relatives and former inmates gathered at the state Capitol Tuesday begging, once again, for state officials to install air conditioning in Texas prisons.

“They’re cooking our babies alive!” wailed a grieving mother, whose 36-year-old son died unexpectedly in an uncooled prison last month.

As a seemingly unending heatwave bears down across Texas, prison rights advocates and several lawmakers demanded the governor call an immediate special legislative session to cool prisons. Though similar measures failed in the Legislature earlier this year, the current heat crisis and a fear for the safety of those inside spurred them to try again.

CBS News reports:



Advocates and others have been highly critical of the lack of air conditioning in the nation’s largest prison system, alleging temperatures that often go past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) inside Texas prisons in the summer have been responsible for hundreds of inmate deaths in recent years.

Only about 30% of Texas’ 100 prison units are fully air conditioned, with the rest having partial or no air conditioning. Texas currently has more than 128,000 inmates.

However, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, says there have been no heat-related deaths in the state’s prisons since 2012. There were 17 deaths from 2000 to 2012, with 10 in 2011 alone when Texas experienced a record heat wave, according to TDCJ.

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