US Judge Orders Air Conditioning Across Texas Prisons by 2029

A federal judge has ordered Texas to equip all of its prisons with air conditioning by the end of 2029, ruling that holding inmates in facilities without cooling during the state's punishing summers violates their constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

In a 150-page order issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman directed the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to draw up a plan for installing air conditioning in every state prison, where summer temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

The judge described conditions inside uncooled facilities in stark terms, noting that incarcerated witnesses had spoken of inmates falling ill, losing consciousness and resorting to splashing toilet water on themselves in a desperate effort to cool down. He concluded that such conditions are not humane.

According to the ruling, the department has estimated that cooling its entire prison system would cost roughly $1.5 billion. The agency did not immediately respond to the decision, but has previously stated it remains committed to adding more air-conditioned beds across its facilities.

The case began in 2023 when Bernie Tiede, a former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder conviction inspired the film "Bernie," filed suit. Several prisoners' rights organizations later joined the litigation and sought to broaden its scope.

In 2025, Pitman held that extreme heat in Texas prisons was plainly unconstitutional, though he stopped short at that point of ordering the state to begin installing air conditioning immediately. The matter proceeded to trial earlier this year.

At the time of the trial, about 52,000 beds were fully or partially air-conditioned, covering roughly 37 percent of the inmate population, the ruling said. That left around 89,000 prisoners housed without air conditioning as the summer approached.

The order also noted that the department has acknowledged 23 heat-related deaths in its facilities between 1998 and 2012, along with three more in 2023. The judge wrote that plaintiffs presented credible evidence of further deaths between 2023 and 2025 that were caused at least in part by heat.

Amite Dominick, founder and president of Texas Prisons Community Advocates, a plaintiff in the case, said the ruling made clear that the state cannot continue treating human lives as a budget line, and pledged that the group would monitor every deadline set out in the order.