NAVASOTA, Texas-- A federal judge has approved a settlement to give Air Conditioning and more improved accommodations to inmates in a Texas State Prison, near Navasota.
The settlement is the product of a years long legal suit, in which Texas inmates sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), saying that the Wallace Pack Unit was too hot for certain inmates’ health.
In the settlement, the TDCJ agreed to air condition the entire Wallace Pack facility and ensure that the over 1,000 inmates involved in the lawsuit stay in air conditioned accommodations for the duration of their sentences. The state legislature must approve the cost of the air conditioning.
In 2014, six inmates in the Wallace Pack Unit sued the TDCJ, saying the heat inside the prison was detrimental to their already frail health. They called themselves “heat-sensitive inmates.” U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison ruled in favor of the inmates in July 2017 and ordered the TDCJ to address the issue.
In a statement to KAGS, TDCJ Director of Public Information Jeremy Desel said:
“While the TDCJ is confident that its current protocols protect offenders from the effects of extreme heat, the agreement adds additional protections for vulnerable offenders and removes the uncertainty of prolonged litigation allowing the department a clear path forward.”
In Judge Ellison’s ruling, last summer, he said the TDCJ, which has had complaints about heat in prisons in the past, was “deliberately indifferent” to the risks that excessive heat posses on its vulnerable inmates.