Texas Appeals Federal Order to Air Condition Every State Prison by 2029

Texas has appealed a federal judge’s order to air condition all 104 state prisons by the end of 2029, and it has asked the judge to suspend the order while the appeal is decided. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed its notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 8, together with a motion asking U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to stay his judgment.

Pitman entered that judgment on September 22. He found that uncooled prison cells violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and that the department had been deliberately indifferent to the inmates held in them. The motion calls the order’s thirty-nine-month schedule an “unachievable timeline” and puts the cost at more than $1.5 billion. Lawyers for the advocacy groups that brought the case told the state on September 26 that they oppose a stay.

The state’s case

The attorney general’s office, defending department Executive Director Bobby Lumpkin, argues that the Fifth Circuit’s 2026 ruling in Parker v. Hooper controls. The motion cites that ruling for the rule that a reasonable response to poor prison conditions defeats a finding of deliberate indifference even when it does not solve the problem. In the motion’s words, “imperfection is not the measure of deliberate indifference.” The state also argues that the groups lack standing to win relief for every inmate in the system and that their members never exhausted the prison grievance process.

Every Texas prison has some air conditioning, the motion says, but not every prison is fully air conditioned. As of October 1, just over a third of the state’s prisons were fully climate controlled, leaving about 90,000 inmates without air conditioning, The Texas Tribune reported. The department told the court it expects to have almost 90,000 “cool beds” going into 2028.

The budget

The department’s money comes from the Legislature every two years. For the 2028-29 budget, the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker told state agencies to cut their base requests by 3 percent, which the motion says comes to $287.1 million for the department. On top of that base, the department is asking for $2.2 billion in additional items. They include $400.9 million for major repairs, air conditioning among them, and $591.8 million for 17 dorms at 13 locations that would add about 5,600 air-conditioned beds.

Pitman’s findings state that “financial considerations will not be considered a legitimate reason for failing to comply.” The state answers that asking lawmakers for $1.5 billion for air conditioning could cut into health care, contraband interdiction and treatment programs, and into $3 billion in deferred maintenance on water and wastewater treatment, locking systems, fire alarms and existing air conditioning.

If the order stands, a federal judge, not the Legislature, will have set the schedule for spending $1.5 billion to cool the state’s prisons.