“This place ain’t for humans. Of course people are going to die.”

A former cellmate of Patrick Womack, who was found dead in a hot Texas prison cell in August 2023 a day after Womack asked a correctional officer to let him take a cold shower so he could cool down, a request that was denied because there weren't enough guards to watch him. Attorneys for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are trying to dissuade a federal judge from forcing the state to cool its un-air-conditioned prisons, arguing in an ongoing lawsuit that the state already provides incarcerated people with unlimited access to cold showers, ice water and air-conditioned respite areas. From 2001 to 2019, as many as 271 Texas prison inmates may have died because of extreme heat, according to a 2022 study. (The Texas Tribune — Sept. 11, 2024)