More than 85,000 Texas inmates lack air conditioning

HOUSTON — The family of Jason Wilson filed the civil complaint in a federal district court in Houston, accusing the state of inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on the prisoner “that led to his death in a brutally hot, un-airconditioned cell.” The suit alleges that refusal to provide Wilson with cool water and regular showers, combined with the lack of air conditioning and a failure to check routinely on his wellbeing, “caused him immense suffering and death.”

Wilson was found dead in his solitary confinement cell at the Coffield unit in July 2024. He was locked in restrictive housing for 23 hours a day and had co-morbidities including obesity, which under TDCJ policy should have triggered intensive wellness checks during hot spells. The night before he died, the officer responsible for carrying out the last wellness check of the day failed to complete it, later citing understaffing and fatigue from the heat.

The lawsuit contends that Wilson’s death was the result of “deliberate indifference” and “intentional discrimination” on the part of the Texas authorities.

Ronnie Wilson, Jason Wilson’s father who brought the lawsuit, told the Guardian that he was unaware of the conditions his son endured until after his death. When he began investigating the Coffield unit, he said staff told him the institution was colloquially known as the “glass house” because of how the sun beat down on it.

“Too many people are dying,” Ronnie Wilson said. “My son was sentenced for what he did wrong, but he didn’t get a death sentence. He wasn’t meant to suffer like that, like he was slowly being put to death.”

The new lawsuit follows a separate federal action in Austin in which an alliance of advocacy groups is asking a judge to order Texas to introduce air conditioning in all its prisons over the next three years. A ruling in that case is expected within months.

Temperature logs from the Coffield unit recorded 107F the day before Wilson’s death. The broader summer heat in Anderson County, where the prison is located, included 17 days in June with outdoor temperatures of 100F or hotter, which advocates say rise further inside the prisons, especially at night. TDCJ has admitted to three heat-related deaths in 2023 — one of whom, Patrick Womack, 50, was found unresponsive in his cell in August 2023 with a core body temperature of 106.9F — but the agency has denied any such fatalities since then.

Brittany Robertson, who acts as an outside advocate for hundreds of Texas inmates, said she has been receiving distress signals from several individuals in recent days complaining of a dearth of cool water. “The cool down showers are still at regular shower temperatures, which won’t do anything to lower the body temperature,” Robertson said. “The dire conditions are made worse by electricity and water outages.”

Robertson shared a recent communication from an inmate at Coffield identified only as James, who wrote: “I was stuck 20hrs with no running water or a toilet. Wow. Not one rank walked the line lastnite or even came to resolve the problem.”

The cost of introducing air conditioning into all of Texas’s prisons has been estimated at $1.3 billion, while the state’s rainy day fund is capped at $27 billion. To dip into the fund, the legislature would need to pass a two-thirds vote. Erica Grossman, a lawyer acting as counsel on both the wrongful death suit and the federal action in Austin, said prison authorities have continued to deny the scale of the problem. “You don’t get the funding unless you explain to the legislature why you need it, and articulate the severity of the crisis,” she said.

Grossman said the state has tolerated unconstitutional conditions for years. “It continues to tolerate it, to cover it up, rather than take accountability,” she said. “Prisoners in solitary confinement like Jason Wilson are basically being cooked to death.”

The Guardian contacted TDCJ for response but the agency declined to comment due to pending litigation.