Accountability.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas will appeal a federal judge’s order requiring the state to air-condition every prison in its system, even as the ruling laid bare new detail on just how far the state’s own funding request falls short of the price tag.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued a 150-page order Tuesday finding that extreme heat in uncooled Texas prisons violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which estimates systemwide air conditioning would cost about $1.5 billion, said it will appeal.
Pitman found TDCJ’s current heat-mitigation measures — extra water, cold showers, and respite rooms — inadequate, and cited testimony that inmates have resorted to splashing toilet water on themselves to cool off. As of Sept. 1, 2026, just over a third of the agency’s 104 facilities were fully air conditioned.
The ruling also noted that TDCJ’s own legislative appropriations request, unveiled Aug. 28, seeks $289 million specifically for prison air conditioning — an amount the judge said fell far short of what the agency itself has said it could spend.