Texas Appeals Order Requiring Air Conditioning in All Prison Cells Before 2030
State lawyers have taken the prison climate-control order to the Fifth Circuit and asked the trial judge to pause it, arguing the order could disrupt the prison system's own air-conditioning plans.
Texas has appealed a federal judge's order that all state prison cells be climate-controlled before 2030. The appeal was filed with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Standard reported, in coverage carried in the Capital Highlights roundup for the week of October 19 to 23. The state also asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to suspend his order while the appeal continues, arguing it could disrupt critical operations in the prison system.
"Throwing chaos and confusion into TDCJ's ongoing plans to install complete air-conditioning, before the Fifth Circuit has a chance to rule, needlessly wastes finite resources, and frustrates TDCJ's efforts to acquire funding to address operational and life safety measures to protect its population while moving expeditiously to install air conditioning," the state's filing said, as quoted in the roundup.
Pitman issued the ruling in September in a case filed by prison rights advocacy groups, which argued that forcing incarcerated people to endure triple-digit temperatures inside prison cells was unconstitutional. Just more than a third of the state's prisons are climate-controlled, while 90,000 incarcerated Texans do not have air conditioning, according to the roundup's account of the case.
The legal fight began with a 2023 complaint filed by Bernie Tiede, a high-profile inmate featured in the film "Bernie." The appeal now puts the 2030 deadline before the Fifth Circuit, while the state's separate request asks Pitman to hold his own order in place until the appeals court rules.
