Judge must decide: How hot is too hot for Texas inmates?

State has seen 22 heat-related deaths since ’98

As summer heats up across the South, a federal judge in Houston is expected to decide in coming weeks whether prison inmates have the right to live in cooled housing areas when the mercury rises above 90 degrees.

In anticipation of the coming heat, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison held a landmark two-week hearing concluding Thursday in a lawsuit brought by inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit northwest of Houston, where prisoners — including the elderly and infirm — want emergency relief. The case comes in the wake of 22 indoor heat deaths at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice since 1998.

Lawyers for the six inmates who sued say the hearing marked the first time a group of inmates collectively testified about their exposure to heat and what it’s like to live dayto-day in prison housing units without air conditioning.

According to Jeff Edwards, one of the team of lawyers who argued the

case for the inmates, the case boils down to two questions: Do the Pack Unit inmates face a substantial risk of harm from extreme heat and is Texas violating the Constitution by exposing them to “cruel and unusual punishment”?

The team from Edwards Law in Austin and the Texas Civil Rights Project argued that standards of human decency dictate that inmates — especially those who take medicines that affect their bodies’ ability to fight heat, and those with diabetes, hypertension and other conditions that make them sensitive to heat — should be allowed to live in temperatures below 88 degrees.

TDCJ administrators testified that the prisons make every reasonable effort to protect inmates during heat waves, offering an unlimited supply of ice water, cold showers and respite areas.

But they told the judge that given their budgetary constraints, air conditioning the entire facility is not economically feasible.

$3.3 billion budget

Based on court documents and testimony during the hearings, the temporary cooling systems the judge is considering range from $100,000 to just over $1 million. A permanent fix would cost from $450,000 to $22 million plus yearly operating costs.

Court testimony revealed that TDCJ’s budget is $3.3 billion, which does not include $30 million in profits from the TDCJ commissary.

Robert Herrera, warden at the Pack Unit since 2010, told the judge he’d personally spoken with hundreds of inmates about drinking the water, taking cold showers and going to respite areas if they’re hot.

But Herrera said he was limited in terms of implementing policies to relieve the heat.

How many heat illnesses was too many?

“Any incident is one too many,” Herrera said.

Cody Ginsel, the highest ranking TDCJ official to take the stand, echoed that sentiment when asked about the heat deaths at state facilities.

“Any death is one too many, but we have improved following the deaths,” said Ginsel, who now oversees private prisons but was formerly deputy director of correctional institutions.

No to thermometer

Several inmates took the stand, in handcuffs and leg irons, saying they have headaches and feel dizzy when it’s hot and humid in the dorms. They slept on the concrete floor and blanketed themselves in wet clothing.

Michael Ray Denton, 39, who does not have heat sensitivity, said he’d experienced heat illness on two occasions in his unit, where the windows don’t open.

He testified that in the summer of 2009, he became dizzy and vomited.

“Honestly, my head was hurting so bad I felt like someone was sticking an ice pick in my brain,” he testified.

In the summer of 2015, Denton asked the guards for respite in the air-conditioned areas of the prison, which TDCJ officials said they permit any time as needed. He was told he could go to the infirmary but would have to permit the staff to check his core temperature using a rectal thermometer. He passed on respite for this reason, and others testified they did as well.

Doctor’s testimony

A doctor called by the state testified that enough preventative measures were in place for inmates to avoid substantial harm when it is hot indoors. Attorneys for the inmates cited previous testimony from Dr. Susi Vassallo, a national expert on heat illness, who said humans need more than occasional exposure to cooling to endure a multiple-day heat wave.

In addition to air conditioning in the dorms, the inmates lawyers are asking for insect abatement, an explicit heat wave policy and special accommodations for heat-sensitive inmates.

Ellison is expected to rule before the end of July on the temporary fixes. His findings will apply to all 1,400 inmates at the Pack Unit.