What is the upshot of TDCJ heat litigation injunction?

Hard to know the full implications, yet, but the issuance of injunctive relief by a federal district judge in favor of inmates complaining of un-air-conditioned housing in TDCJ's Wallace Pack Unit surely changes the terms of debate surrounding heat-related deaths of Texas prisoners. See coverage from the Houston Chronicle and the judge's 100+ page order.

It's hard to know the implications for several reasons. First, the ruling only applies to one TDCJ unit, not all of them, and Grits is unclear of how this ruling might affect other facilities. Is it a one-off that only applies to the Pack unit, or will TDCJ be forced to adopt similar remedial measures to similarly situated inmates in other facilities?

Also, the judge's ruling that air conditioning must be supplied only applies to heat-sensitive inmates - i.e., inmates who are elderly, disabled, or who have special needs. It does not apply to younger, able-bodied inmates who are housed at the facility to do the work.

Still, it's going to apply to a lot of folks. From the ruling:

The parties stipulated that, as of September 18, 2014, the Pack Unit contained 728 men with hypertension (high blood pressure), 212 men with diabetes, 142 men with coronary artery disease, 111 obese men, 53 men with a psychiatric condition, 66 men prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, 22 men with cirrhosis of the liver, 84 men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (“COPD”), 189 with thyroid dysfunction, and 113 with asthma. There are 188 men in the Pack Unit over the age of 65. Id. Many of these conditions overlap within one person. However, all of the conditions, individually, cause heat sensitivity[.]

If everybody with a psychiatric condition, everyone taking mental health meds, everyone with asthma, everyone over age 65, etc., all require air conditioning, TDCJ will find itself facing similar issues in dozens of facilities across the state.

It was also interesting to note that the judge believes some of TDCJ's heat mitigation methods are counterproductive. Fans used when the heat index surpasses 95 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, just blow hot air onto inmates and worsen the problem. Similarly, misters like those restaurants sometimes use to cool off patrons are less effective in prisons where they can't cover much area and over time actually serve to increase the humidity.

One interesting suggestion has arisen. Texas county jails overbuilt based on speculation that the mass incarceration boom would go on forever, and those facilities are air conditioned as required by state law and regulations by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The County Judge in Newton County has already suggested that TDCJ inmates could be housed in his facility.

This thought, though not a terrible idea, raises its own set of issues. First, Grits wouldn't support shifting inmates to county contracts unless the state simultaneously moved to close un-air-conditioned state-run units. I wouldn't want to see this plan become a back-door means to raising capacity during an era when we should continue cutting it.

Second, because many of the inmates subject to the injunction are special needs inmates, there'd need to be expanded training and maybe additional hiring of more qualified jailers and support staff in order to handle TDCJ's sick and elderly, which is a quite different demographic of inmate than those who routinely cycle through county jails. I'm not certain most local facilities are able to handle them, and extremely rural sites like in Newton County may not have access to medical and mental-health supports that inmates with special needs might require.

Still, if TDCJ moved special needs inmates to air-conditioned county facilities, ensured they received adequate medical and mental-health care, and closed some state-owned prison units that couldn't be retrofitted with A/C, Grits can think of worse outcomes.

All that said, like the federal judge, Grits believes TDCJ is vastly overstating the costs to upgrade the Pack unit to add A/C. So when the real numbers are acknowledged, it may be cheapest and most efficient just to improve the facility and continue to treat elderly and disabled inmates where they are. If the agency can provide air conditioning for their hogs, they can do so for sick and elderly inmates.

Finally, all this depends on what the 5th Circuit does in response to the state's appeal. They have upheld injunctive relief in other prisoner-heat cases but insisted it be cabined to inmates with special heat-sensitivity issues. This ruling tracks that reasoning pretty closely, but the makeup of the 5th Circuit could change soon and there's no way to predict what mood they'll be in when they consider the case. And if the case ended up with cert granted at the US Supreme Court, your correspondent wouldn't be particularly surprised.