Texas Inmates Granted Air Conditioning in Class Action Settlement

A federal judge recently approved a settlement for a class action requiring Texas to install air conditioning in a Houston prison.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison recently approved a settlement for a class action lawsuit filed by inmates from the Wallace Pack Unit prison.

The inmates filed the class action in 2014 alleging that the conditions the inmates had to live in were classified as cruel and unusual punishment.

The terms of the settlement include the Texas Department of Criminal Justice installing temporary air conditioning in the Pack Unit’s housing areas. The temporary fix is to be replaced with permanent air conditioning by May 1, 2020.

“I never dreamed we’d get air conditioning at the Pack Unit, and I believe it will benefit future generations of prisoners […] What we have done is extraordinary. It’s a new day in Texas prisons,” Judge Ellison said at the Houston federal courthouse.

Counsel for the Pack Unit inmates was also pleased with the settlement, crediting Texas officials for being open to a settlement. “This is as good a day as a civil rights attorney can have. The settlement will benefit thousands of people in the TDCJ. All Texans should be happy because it took the state of Texas to realize that the rights of inmates are no different than the rights of anybody else,” counsel said after the hearing.

The settlement means that Pack Unit inmates will no longer have to live in conditions involving excess heat that can kill. According to the inmates’ counsel, this case could serve as a template for inmates all over Texas as they fight for better prison conditions.

Pack Unit is a minimum-security prison 70 miles northwest of Houston. The prison houses about 1,300 male inmates serving sentences for non-violent crimes. Many of the inmates are disabled, sick and elderly, or take drugs that increase their risk of heat stroke.

In the past 20 years, 23 Texas inmates have died from heat-related illnesses. However, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice maintained that prisons built without air conditioning would be too expensive to refurbish.

In July 2017, Judge Ellison found that the summer temperatures in the Pack Unit constituted cruel and unusual punishment for inmates susceptible to heat stroke. This means the conditions are in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

As a result of the settlement, Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier said he has plans to move tens of thousands of at risk inmates to air conditioned prisons.

In addition to the air conditioning class action, eight related wrongful death lawsuits were also settled in the deal. The settlement also granted the plaintiffs’ counsel $4.5 million for attorneys’ fees and expenses.

The Texas Prison Air Conditioning Class Action Lawsuit is Cole, et al. v. Collier, et al., Case No. 4:14-cv-01698, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.