Federal judge orders Texas to air condition all prisons by the end of 2029 - KSAT

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman released the order Tuesday, siding with inmate advocates and their attorneys who sued to force TDCJ to cool its prison system. As of September 1, just over a third of the agency's 104 facilities had full air conditioning, leaving the rest exposed to Texas summers without relief. He found that conditions in those uncooled units violate the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment, writing that TDCJ's current heat response falls short.

The order does more than set a deadline. Pitman directed the prison agency to immediately begin work on a plan to bring the rest of its facilities up to standard, putting a hard timeline on a problem advocates have pushed courts to address for years.

For West Texas families with someone locked up in a TDCJ facility, this ruling could mean the difference between a relative surviving another brutal summer indoors and one who doesn't. It also puts pressure on state lawmakers, who now face a court ordered clock instead of an open ended policy debate.

Now the state has four years to finish the job, or answer to the court again.