DALLAS — People incarcerated in Texas state prisons without air conditioning are soaking their clothes and bedsheets in toilet water to cool off, according to testimony offered before the Texas Board of Criminal Justice.
Janet Delk told board members Friday that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has effectively sentenced her husband to death by incarcerating him in a prison without air-conditioning.
More than 100,000 people have so far watched a clip of her testimony on various social media platforms.
"He said they take their shirts or sheets at night and put them in the toilet to get them wet and then lay in them," Delk said. "They used to take the water and put it on the ground so they could lay in the water and cool down, but it's been so hot lately that that water evaporates right away."
Texas is one of 13 states without universally cooled prison units. About two-thirds of Texas prisoners sleep somewhere without air-conditioning each night.
Marci Marie Simmons remembers the thermostat reading 136 degrees during her last summer incarcerated.
"Mentally, it's a struggle," said Simmons, now the community outreach coordinator for Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance. "Physically, your body is in pure survival mode during the summer months."
Simmons told WFAA a cook once smuggled an egg into the dayroom outside her dorm. The egg fried on the floor.
"I remember thinking, 'If it's hot enough to cook this egg, what is this heat doing to the inside of my body?'" she said.
The TDCJ reports it has 42,507 "cool beds" available for the roughly 128,000 people incarcerated. The department will spend $85 million to install A/C for another 11,065 beds in the coming year.
"We take numerous precautions to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for those incarcerated within our facilities," TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez said Tuesday. "Everyone has access to ice and water. Fans are strategically placed in facilities to move the air. Inmates have access to a fan, and they can access air-conditioned respite areas when needed."
Incarcerated people who are more likely to experienced heat-related illnesses because of their age, health, or prescribed medications receive priority placement in a housing area that is air conditioned, Hernandez said.
The department is developing a website to track A/C projects which should launch in the coming weeks, she added.
A department executive told board members on Friday the TDCJ is committed to installing universal air-conditioning, but that plan will require further investment from the legislature.
"That's one of our priorities and one of our goals," board member Faith Johnson, former Dallas County district attorney, said.
The Texas House in 2023 approved a $500 million bill which would've paid for universal air-conditioning, but the idea stalled in the Texas Senate.
The state has not officially reported a heat-related death since 2012, but a Texas Tribune analysis found at least 41 cases this summer where an inmate died of heart-problems or unknown causes in uncooled prisons.
Last week, congressional Democrats wrote a letter asking a U.S. House committee to investigate conditions inside prisons across the nation. The lawmakers made specific reference to heat-related problems at Texas facilities.
"In the next five years, while TDCJ is going through its plan and adding more air-conditioning, there are still going to be a lot of lives lost," Simmons said. "These folks did not get a death sentence."
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