The share of Texas prison inmates who live in facilities without air conditioning — about 90,000 people exposed to extreme heat. Temperatures inside cells routinely exceed 90 degrees, and officials have acknowledged that heat has contributed to inmate deaths. In court testimony, former prisoners described eggs cooking on cell floors and flooding their cells with toilet water just to cool down. The conditions have also been linked to high staff turnover, as employees fall ill from heat exposure. A federal trial could force the state to install climate control, with a judge signaling the situation may violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
