Accountability.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has asked state lawmakers for $298 million over the next two years to add more than 15,700 air-conditioned beds in state prisons, according to the Texas Tribune — a request advocates say falls well short of what’s needed.
The ask is part of a two-phase plan TDCJ outlined in a June court filing, under which the agency said it “anticipates that it could obligate” $774 million in the 2028–29 state budget, followed by another $730.7 million in the two years after that. TDCJ has separately estimated it would cost roughly $1.5 billion to fully air-condition the entire prison system.
Nearly two-thirds of Texas’s 104 prisons are not fully air conditioned. Erica Grossman, an attorney representing plaintiffs in ongoing litigation over prison heat conditions, called the funding request “more deliberate indifference,” arguing that TDCJ’s current pace puts it far behind the timeline the agency itself laid out.
TDCJ said the $298 million request is more than double what it sought — and received — in the last legislative session. The agency is also seeking $591.8 million to build new expansion dorms with climate control.