The investigation was triggered by a federal judge, who questioned the state’s recordkeeping. Inmates are suing the state, alleging the heat inside the state’s dozens of un-air conditioned prisons is dangerous.

I have been hearing about temperature issues in prisons in Texas since I was a child. I can’t help but think this stems from a lot of Americans thinking of prisons as places to be punished, not rehabilitated. This quote makes me crazy:

Department officials acknowledge it is hot inside its prisons but deny that the conditions are unconstitutional. During testimony in the case last year, Department Executive Director Bryan Collier argued it would be financially and logistically impossible to immediately install A/C in every one of the state’s prisons and noted that he is working diligently to fix the problem within their fiscal constraints.

This has been an issue for a WHILE. Bryan Collier’s statement makes it seem like this is something we just found out about that can’t all be fixed at once.

I understand (some) people go to prison for awful things they’ve done, but they shouldn’t have to deal with a Texas summer with no AC on top of that.

  • End0fLineOPEnglish
    10·
    6 days ago

    Another fun quote:

    Chris Cirrito, the chief audit executive for the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, carried out the investigation. In his report, he found the Department of Criminal Justice did not intentionally deceive the judge because the falsified records were created before this case was filed.

    The logs were falsified, Cirrito wrote, after someone requested them under the state’s public records laws. That’s when prison staff realized they were missing or defaced.

    “The evidence supports periods of carelessness in record creation and/or retention and an attempt by the unit to avoid reporting missing temperature logs,” he concluded.

    In emails sent to Department Executive Director Bryan Collier, also included in the court filing, Cirrito said he was confident in his findings and that they “should satisfy the judge.” But he added, “I might be able to prove it out even further and think it’s worth turning over the rock.”