Even though the State of Texas has not reported a death of a prisoner in custody due to heat since 2012, a group is suing the state to guarantee prisoners will have access to cooling facilities in the upcoming hot season as data collected by the Texas Tribune show dozens died in the state’s custody during last year’s heat wave.
Four nonprofit organizations filed lawsuits on behalf of prisoners including murderer Bernie Tiede who was kept in a cell where temperatures exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit and he suffered a medical emergency. The state reports no heat-related deaths in Department of Criminal Justice system, but a 2022 review of records show an average of fourteen prisoners per year had died from heat-related issues over the course of the study.
“What is truly infuriating is the failure to acknowledge that everyone in the system–all 130,000 prisoners–are at direct risk of being impacted by something that has a simple solution that has been around since the 1930s, and that is air conditioning,” attorney Jeff Edwards told reporters. Roughly two-thirds of state prisoners are housed in facilities without air conditioning.