A federal judge has ordered Texas to install air conditioning throughout its prison system by the end of 2029, ruling that extreme heat in facilities without adequate cooling violates the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued the 150-page order on Tuesday after a years-long legal battle over temperatures inside Texas prisons. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which estimates that systemwide air conditioning could cost about $1.5 billion, said it will appeal the ruling.
Judge Orders Systemwide Cooling Plan
Pitman ordered TDCJ to immediately develop and implement a plan to install air conditioning in every state prison. The work must be completed no later than December 31, 2029.
As of September 1, just over one-third of TDCJ’s 104 facilities were fully air conditioned, according to the agency. TDCJ has said it expects to have 60,000 air-conditioned beds by the end of this year and 90,000 by 2028.
In his ruling, Pitman found that the agency’s existing measures for dealing with extreme heat are insufficient. He cited evidence of injuries, suffering and deaths during Texas summers and concluded that prison conditions without air conditioning violate the Eighth Amendment.
The ruling follows a federal trial held earlier this year in Austin. In 2025, Pitman had determined that extreme heat in Texas prisons was likely unconstitutional but stopped short of immediately ordering permanent air conditioning.
TDCJ Plans To Appeal
TDCJ said it disagrees with the ruling and with Pitman’s finding that the agency acted with deliberate indifference.
“TDCJ has robust heat mitigation efforts in place to protect the safety of its population and staff,” the agency said, adding that it continues to improve measures intended to protect incarcerated people and employees from extreme temperatures, The Texas Tribune reported.
The agency has pointed to measures including cooled respite areas, water, cold showers, fans, cooling towels, and a heat-risk system used to prioritize people considered particularly vulnerable to heat-related illness.
Texas has roughly 143,000 people in its prisons, according to the information presented in the case. The state’s prison population is projected to exceed 150,000 by 2028.
Court Order Creates Funding Questions
The ruling also affects TDCJ’s plans for securing funding to expand air conditioning.
The agency’s 2028-29 legislative appropriations request includes $289 million for prison air-conditioning installations and another $591.8 million for expansion dorms with climate control. TDCJ said the combined proposals would create more than 21,000 additional cool beds.
However, those figures are substantially below the amount TDCJ previously told the court it could obligate toward a two-phase plan for installing air conditioning throughout the system. The agency had estimated it could use $774.3 million during the 2028-29 budget cycle, followed by another $730.7 million in 2030-31.
Pitman ordered TDCJ to provide the court with progress reports every six months. The first report is due March 22, 2027.
Lawsuit Followed Years of Heat Concerns
The current legal battle began with a lawsuit filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, a former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder case inspired the film “Bernie.” Tiede filed the lawsuit after experiencing a medical emergency allegedly due to the extreme heat in his prison cell. Prisoner-rights organizations later joined the case and expanded the legal challenge to cover people held in uncooled TDCJ facilities.
The order cited TDCJ’s acknowledgment that 23 people died from heat-related causes in its facilities between 1998 and 2012. In the ruling, TDCJ also acknowledged three heat-related deaths in 2023 — Elizabeth Hagerty, John Castillo and Patrick Womack — and Pitman found credible evidence that at least six other incarcerated people died from extreme heat between 2023 and 2025. The court noted the true number could be higher. TDCJ has separately maintained there have been no heat-related deaths in its prisons since 2012, a dispute that remains part of the case record.
Advocates welcomed the ruling and said they intend to monitor TDCJ’s compliance with the court-ordered timeline.
The order does not immediately install air conditioning in every facility. Instead, it requires TDCJ to begin implementing a systemwide plan, with the deadline for completion set for the end of 2029.
