A federal judge has ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to install air conditioning in every state prison by the end of 2029, ruling that housing inmates in extreme heat without cooling systems constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued the sweeping 150-page ruling Tuesday, directing the state agency to immediately begin developing an installation plan. The order comes after years of legal battles by prisoners’ rights advocates over deadly summer temperatures that routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit inside Texas lockups.
In the ruling, Pitman described testimony from incarcerated individuals who reported passing out, falling ill, and resorting to splashing toilet water on themselves in desperate attempts to cool down. He wrote plainly that “these are not humane conditions.”
The state prison agency acknowledged that 23 inmates died from heat-related causes between 1998 and 2012 and confirmed three additional heat-related deaths in 2023. The judge also cited credible evidence of further heat-related deaths occurring between 2023 and 2025.
Statewide air conditioning is estimated to cost approximately $1.5 billion. Texas currently houses around 143,000 people across its prison system.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Tuesday it will appeal the ruling. The agency argued it already has robust heat mitigation measures in place and noted that its number of air-conditioned beds has grown from 35,000 in 2018 to a projected 60,000 by the close of this year, with plans to reach 90,000 by 2028.
The original lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, a former mortician serving a life sentence whose case inspired the film “Bernie.” Multiple prisoners’ rights organizations later joined the legal effort to expand the scope of the challenge.
Judge Pitman had previously ruled in 2025 that extreme heat conditions in Texas prisons were unconstitutional but stopped short at that time of ordering immediate action. The case proceeded to trial earlier this year before Tuesday’s landmark decision was handed down.
Amite Dominick, founder of Texas Prisons Community Advocates and a plaintiff in the case, called the ruling a clear message that the state can no longer treat human lives as a budget consideration. Dominick vowed that advocates would closely monitor every deadline outlined in the court order.
Prison reform groups across Texas celebrated the decision as a historic victory following years of documented suffering and death inside facilities where summer heat has long posed a life-threatening danger to the incarcerated population.