Deadly heat, unsafe water, black mold and cockroaches plague prisoners at many Texas prisons. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)
As a federal judge ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to cool down one of its prison units for the sake of its elderly and sick residents’ health, plaintiffs at another Texas prison are hoping to see a similar victory in their own challenges to deadly heat and toxic water at their unit.
Judge Keith Ellison ordered TDCJ to come up with a plan to keep heat-sensitive prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit near Navasota, Texas, at a maximum temperature of 88 degrees, and provide ready access to respite areas for the unit’s other prisoners. It’s a landmark case that could have implications for other Texas prisons — and prisons around the country — without air-conditioning in cellblocks.
According to TDCJ Director of Public Information Jason Clark, only 29 of 108 TDCJ units have air-conditioning in their cellblocks, with all units having at least some areas that are air-conditioned. The Eastham Unit in Lovelady, Texas, is among the state’s many prisons lacking air-conditioning in the areas where prisoners spend most of their time.
People incarcerated in the Eastham Unit have filed federal complaints in the Eastern District of Texas arguing that they must drink copious amounts of water tainted with lead and copper to cope with the deadly summer heat. The water, they say, has caused a chronic, untreatable stomach disease among some of them. Their complaints are closely modeled after the Wallace Pack Unit case, and could become some of the first tests of the new precedent set by Judge Ellison’s July ruling.
But even with the recent victory in the Wallace Pack case, the Eastham lawsuits face…