By Gabrielle Banks
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Inmates from a geriatric Texas prison will have a chance to air concerns by phone Tuesday in Houston federal court about a proposed settlement of their 2014 class action lawsuit over their right to be safe from potentially lethal indoor heat in the summertime.
The tentative deal applies to about 1,400 prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit northwest of Houston, where air conditioning has already been installed. It calls for temporary air conditioning to be in place at the rural Navasota facility during the next two summers, and in 2020 the state has agreed to request legislative approval for a permanent cooling system at the low-security facility. The agreement would also resolve a wrongful heat injury claim by an inmate at the Hutchins Unit and eight wrongful death suits brought by families of men who died amid extreme heat at several Texas prisons that lack air conditioning.
The majority of Texas prisons do not have modern cooling systems, however, the top prison official said in closed door meetings that he has begun mapping out plans to move tens of thousands of at-risk inmates at other facilities to air conditioned beds already available at 29 state facilities.
The wrongful death and wrongful injury suits and the class action at the geriatric came after a series of heat fatalities during heat waves in 2011 and 2012. In July 2017, U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison found the unmitigated heat amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the constitution and ordered that heat-sensitive inmates to be housed in units cooled to an 88 degree threshold. The settlement between the inmates and state prison officials followed several months after Ellison’s ruling.
Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter or send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.
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