A federal judge has ordered that the State of Texas air condition a prison unit in southeast Texas where the temperature routinely rises over 120 degrees in the cell blocks, in a decision which could easily spread to other units across the sprawling Texas prison system, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison's ruling specifically covers the Pack Unit, near Houston, where the judge ruled the lack of air conditioning amounts to 'cruel and unusual punishment' and puts the health of sick and elderly inmates at risk.
Ellison cited statistics showing that 22 inmates have died from heat stroke and other heat related conditions in Texas prisons since 1998, although none died at the Pack Unit.
Lance Lowrey, who heads the Texas Prison Guards Union, says it's about time. He points out that his members also have to work in sweltering conditions.
"Hopefully we will resove some of the issues that we have," Lowrey told News Radio 1200 WOAI reports. "I'm surprised it has taken as long as 2017 for these issues to come down."
Texas has long fought efforts by air condition its prisons, saying retrofitting the state's numerous prisons, some of which are a century old or more, would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lowrey says in the Twenty First Century, live in Texas without a/c is pretty difficult.
"When it gets to 100 degrees, the heat indexes can get to 120, 130 degrees sometimes," he said. "There is also a lot of humidity in these buildings, and conditions can become unbearable."
While Judge Ellison's ruling specifically covers the Pack Unit, inmate advocates are expected to ask that it be extended to all of the units in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The State says it plans to appeal the ruling. The judge gave the state 15 says to come up with a plan to lower the temperatures in the unit to no more than 88 degrees.