By Lauren McGaughy
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says 10 inmates and prison staff members have been treated for heat-related illnesses since July 20.
That’s one person on average per day since TDCJ activated its “incident command center” after temperatures reached record highs across the state earlier this month. The center, which was deactivated when the heat abated on Friday, was put in place to ensure staff at each state-run unit was following official “heat protocols.”
“The health and safety of our staff and offenders is our top priority. Over the five days of extreme heat, there were no significant heat related events system wide,” TDCJ’s Facebook page said Friday. “Thanks to the TDCJ staff who ensure that the heat protocol is followed, endure the heat themselves, and remain so diligent.”
The 10 heat-related illnesses were reported at seven state prisons.
Two occurred at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, a women’s prison, and three at the Jester III Unit, a men’s prison in Richmond, where a 31-year-old female staff member and 65-year-old male inmate were treated for heat exhaustion on Friday, department spokesman Jeremy Desel said. Temperatures reached a high of 100.3 degrees in Richmond that day.
Desel stressed these heat-related illnesses were minor, “not acute,” and that all 10 people were treated and released. There were no heat-related deaths, said Desel, who added there have been 58 heat-related incidents among the roughly 172,000 inmates and staff this year.
TDCJ policy requires these incidents to be reported “when an employee or offender is diagnosed by a qualified medical provider with a heat-related illness and receives intravenous fluids, or is diagnosed with heat exhaustion or heat stroke.”
Of the 104 state-run jails and prisons, just 29 have air conditioning in their cellblocks and inmate dorms. This year, the state agreed to install air conditioning at one prison after inmates filed a lawsuit. This settlement applies to just the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota and is still subject to “legislative approval.”
Last week, The Dallas Morning News reported that families of inmates have created a Facebook group to share information and lobby legislators to install air conditioning and heating at these state-run facilities. There has not been a heat-related death in a TDCJ facility since 2012, officials said; between 1998 and 2012, nearly two dozen inmates died as a result of high temperatures.
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