Texas Must Move 1,000 Inmates to Protect Them From Heat Stroke

Twenty-three Texas inmates have died from heat-related illness in the past two decades. But no heat deaths have been reported at the Pack Unit, and the latest year that Texas inmates died of heat was 2012, when two prisoners died.

Texas claims a respite program it started in 2015, in which inmates can ask guards at any time for access to one of their prison’s air-conditioned areas and stay as long as they want, has reduced the number of heat illnesses.

But Texas’ own expert Dr. Dean Rieger testified in other hearings that the vague language in the TDCJ’s poster describing the respite program, and posted on a bulletin board in the Pack Unit, should be rewritten, as it’s generally accepted that the average reading level of inmates is third grade.

Rieger is the former medical director for the Indiana Department of Corrections and Correct Care Solutions, a private company that specializes in prisoner health care. Texas has paid him more than $40,000 for consulting on the Pack Unit class action and other heat-related prisoner cases.

Texas stated in an Aug. 3 brief that it will make four classrooms in the Pack Unit, a hallway outside them and an adjoining prison library a “permanent base for respite” that can accommodate 280 inmates, more than 50 percent of the roughly 400 inmates who will be left after the prisoner transfers.

Addressing the poster language concerns, Texas said it plans to put up new posters about the respite program.

“The poster emphasizes that: (1) respite areas are accessible to anyone who wishes to cool down, at any time, regardless of whether he is currently suffering symptoms of heat related illness or injury; (2) the heat is dangerous and inmates should use respite areas to protect themselves, and seek medical attention if they actually feel ill; and (3) inmates may talk at a reasonable volume, read, or rest in the respite areas,” Texas said in its response to the judge’s order.

But Edwards took issue with the new poster’s wording, seizing on Rieger’s testimony about inmates’ reading level. He questioned how many prisoners know what respite means.

“We are talking about third graders. … Will the state agree to state on the posters, ‘The heat is dangerous, it can kill you and it has killed many others because they lived in these temperatures?” he asked.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to scare inmates,” Warner said, his calm voice contrasting with Edwards’ indignation.

Ellison told the parties to work out the poster wording, and said he would not let the conflict stall the inmate transfer. “The TDCJ is authorized to begin transfer of heat-sensitive inmates to be finished in three weeks,” he said.

Ellison is also presiding over lawsuits that eight families of prisoners who died of heat stroke have filed against the TDCJ. The families are represented by Edwards’ Austin firm Edwards Law and attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Alex Friedmann is the longtime managing editor of Prison Legal News. He served 10 years in the Tennessee state prison system. He told Courthouse News that Texas inmates’ heat deaths and resultant legal defense costs will not move officials to install air-conditioning in its 109 state prisons.

“It's a political matter, and the lack of climate-controlled prisons is seen as a tough-on-crime issue,” he said, noting that most states do provide air-conditioning for prisoners.

“Those that don't tend to be in the South, among the former Confederate states,” Friedmann said.

Ellison stated in his injunction order that it’s possible that more than 23 Texas prisoners have died from heat illness since 1998, citing doctors who testified in the case about the underreporting of heat deaths.

Friedmann faults Texas for exposing prisoners and guards to life-threatening heat.

“For those people who think prisoners don't ‘deserve’ air conditioning, they need to consider the at least 23 Texas prisoners who have died due to extreme heat conditions, none of whom were sentenced to death,” Friedmann said.

“The state has a constitutional responsibility to provide adequate care to prisoners. It doesn't matter what prisoners ‘deserve,’ it is what the state is required to do when it locks people up. Also consider that prison guards and other staff suffer under the same heat conditions, which they don't deserve, either,” he said.

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