'It's inhumane': Advocates, families urge Texas leaders to put AC in prisons amid heat wave

Marci Marie Simmons worked in the fields in the Texas heat with one 3-second water break while she was serving her sentence at Lucile Plane State Jail in Dayton, northeast of Houston. But for her and the other inmates, the worst part of the day was going back to their rooms with no air conditioning.

"As hot and miserable as it was outside, it was 15, 20, 25 degrees hotter in our cells. We got no relief," Simmons said Tuesday at the Capitol.

She joined advocates, ministers, politicians and grieving parents to call on the governor, lieutenant governor and Senate to put air conditioning in Texas prisons as triple-digit temperatures transform the prisons into a "living hell."

At times, the press conference took on the feeling of a tent revival service, with minister and state Rep. Carl Sherman, D-Dallas, opening the briefing with a prayer for state politicians to address the problem in Texas prisons.

"This state requires that our animal shelters must be air-conditioned, but when it comes to people, who are we?" Sherman said. "It's inhumane. ... This is not a political issue. This is a humanity issue."

More than two-thirds of Texas' 100 prisons do not have air conditioning in their living quarters. Last month, nine people died of heart failure or unknown conditions, which advocates blame on the excessive heat in the prisons.

Amanda Hernandez, Texas Department of Criminal Justice communications director, said that preliminary findings show the deaths are "not heat related." The department has not reported a confirmed heat-related death since 2012.

However, J. Carlee Purdum, a Texas A&M University research assistant professor who worked on a study released last year, told the House Appropriations Committee then that the number reported is “wildly underestimated” because determining whether heat was the cause of death is difficult.

Essentially, a person could die of heart failure and it wouldn't be considered a heat-related death, but continuously living in those dangerous heat conditions probably is the reason that person had a medical emergency, she said.

When asked how the heat exacerbates medical conditions for vulnerable people, Hernandez said each inmate is given a heat sensitivity score, and people with extreme sensitivities are given a "cool bed," which is a cell with air conditioning.

She added that since fiscal 2018, the department has added 9,500 cool beds, for a total of 42,000 cool beds. Texas has a total prison population of about 128,000, and she said 31 prisons are fully air-conditioned, 55 are partially air-conditioned and 13 have none.

A study released last year by Texas A&M found that temperatures regularly hover at about 110 degrees inside prisons during the summer and have gotten up to 149 degrees. Texas is one of 13 states without universal air conditioning in its prisons. These conditions will only get worse as climate change makes excessive heat a new normal.

The study, from Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and the advocacy group Texas Prisons Community Advocates, said that 79 incarcerated people and prison staffers reported a heat-related illness from January to October 2018.

Additionally, the conditions are cited as a reason that Texas has trouble staffing its prisons, and the state has spent more on legal fees in the fight over installing air conditioning than it would have cost to install AC, according to The Texas Tribune.

Purdum said inmates described prisons during the summer as a "living hell."

'Resources are there'

With an extra $32.7 billion in the budget to spend this year, the Texas House approved $545 million to fund a plan to install air conditioning in state prisons. The Senate rejected that, and the final budget offered only $85.7 million to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for “additional deferred maintenance projects,” according to reporting by The Texas Tribune. That money is likely to be used in part to cool some prisons.

Kristie Williams said she could see the exhaustion and discoloration in her brother Tommy McCullough's face during their last video conversation before his death on June 23 at the prison in Huntsville. McCullough, whom Williams called TJ, was outside mowing when he collapsed and could not be resuscitated. She said it was a "senseless death."

She said the night before his death, TJ, who had asthma, told a friend that it was so hot he was having trouble breathing and that inmates weren't getting a lot of water. Williams and other advocates lamented how inmates only get little fans that blow hot air.

"It has shook our family to its core. When I try to close my eyes at night to sleep, all I can hear's his voice," Williams said through tears. "The resources are there. You that are elected need to be responsible for making certain that the living conditions are above that of animal shelters for these inmates."

Hernandez, the TDCJ spokesperson, said a toxicology report for McCullough is still pending and that a piece of paper was found in his throat.

Speakers at Tuesday's press conference said prisoners have written to them that some inmates have been pouring water on the concrete floor and sleeping in puddles to try to cool down. Many said that prisoners have reported not getting enough water.

Hernandez said that "everyone has access to clean ice and water" and that it's "strategically placed" throughout the prisons.

Simmons said that during her first summer, a cook smuggled in an egg and cracked it on the ground, and they watched it fry.

"I remember thinking to myself, 'What is this heat doing to the inside of my body?'"

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Advocates urge politicians to put AC in prisons amid Texas heat wave