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Texas Prison Heat Declared Unconstitutional
Loaded on May 1, 2025
published in Prison Legal News
May, 2025, page 57
Filed under:
Eighth Amendment,
Exposure to Heat,
Preliminary Injunctions/TRO's,
Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
Location:
Texas.
In a ruling on March 26, 2025, the federal court for the Western District of Texas agreed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) was likely violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by holding most state prisoners in cells that are not air-conditioned. However, …
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More from this issue:
- $1.2 Million in Settlements Reached in Suit Over Sacramento Jail Murder, by Douglas Ankney
- Multitudes Caged for Failure to Pay Child Support, Driving Mass Incarceration, by Matthew Clarke
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Florida’s “Pay to Stay” Law: A Second Sentence for Former Prisoners
- Fifth Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Louisiana Officials Who Forced Prisoner to Work with Broken Surgical Screws in Ankle, by Anthony Accurso
- Study Finds Just 1% of Prisoner’s Eighth Amendment Claims Succeed
- Incarcerated Students Caught in Crosshairs of Trump War on Education Department
- Disbarred Cincinnati Defense Attorney Who Defrauded Prisoner Clients Gets Three-Year Sentence
- Wisconsin Prisoner Inhaled His Own Teeth in Fatal Beatdown
- South Carolina Conducts First U.S. Execution by Firing Squad in 15 Years
- Eleventh Circuit Revives Volunteer Pastor’s First Amendment Claim at Georgia Jail, by Douglas Ankney
- Trump Guts BOP Guard Union
- Los Angeles County Jails Record Almost One Death Every Nine Days
- Florida Prisoner Returns to Custody After Overturned Conviction Reinstated
- South Carolina Jailer Gets 10 Years for Sexually Assaulting Nine Detainees and Co-Workers
- Maryland Targets Highest-in-Nation Racial Incarceration Gap
- Idaho Warden Bought Execution Drugs on Roadside
- Connecticut Court Denies Access to Video of Prisoner’s Fatal Beat-Down by Guards
- Florida Prisoner Released to Die Settles With Centurion Over Ignored Prostate Cancer
- Wellpath Sanctioned for Discovery Violation in Suit Over Kentucky Prisoner’s Death, by Douglas Ankney
- Cruelty Is Now the Point for BOP
- New York Lifts Hiring Ban on Fired Striking Prison Guards, Announces Early Prisoner Releases
- Former Prisoner Appointed President’s Pardon “Czar”
- Oregon DOC Replaces Top Medical Staffers Amid Turmoil
- Rikers Island Staffers, Contractor and Detainee Sentenced for Smuggling
- Washington DOC On Hot Seat Over “Unexpected Fatalities,” Missed Autopsies
- 20 Charged in Nevada Prison Brawl That Left Three Dead
- Second Circuit Revives Connecticut Prisoner’s Challenge To Conditions In Virginia Lockup Where He Was Transferred, by Douglas Ankney
- Pittsburgh Lockup Accounts for 43% of Pennsylvania Jail TASER Use, Suit Filed
- Rikers Island Detainees Wait in “Black Hole” for Competency Treatment
- Mass Incarceration Weakens All Workers, by Eric Seligman, Brian Nam-Sonenstein
- Plans to Hold Migrants at Gitmo Hit Snag
- Third Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity to Pennsylvania DOC in Prisoner’s Challenge to 26 Years of Solitary Confinement
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- Virginia Bribes Prisoners Not to Set Themselves On Fire
- $2.95 Million Settlement for Untreated Pneumonia Death in Washington Jail
- Medical Copays Blamed for Reducing Prisoner Access to Healthcare
- New York Guards Indicted for Prisoner’s Murder
- Missouri Repeals “Pay-to-Stay” Law
- New Jersey DOC Sued Twice for Turning “Blind Eye” to “Pervasive” Drug-Smuggling Blamed for Prisoner Deaths
- $18,000 for New York Prisoner Who Alleged Guards Planted Shank in Cell
- Kansas Supreme Court Denies Compensation to Former Prisoner Whose Conviction Was Overturned
- Los Angeles County Pays $24 Million to Two Former Prisoners Wrongly Convicted as Teens of 1997 Murder, by Matthew Clarke
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- Two California Prisoners Accused of Strangling Conjugal Visitors
- Wellpath Prepares Plan to Exit Bankruptcy
- Texas Prison Heat Declared Unconstitutional
- $3.4 Million Settlement for Minnesota Jail Death Called “Real-Life Nightmare”
- BOP Jettisons Transgender Offender Manual
- Kentucky Jail Sued for Detainee’s Death, Prisoner’s Stillborn Child
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- News in Brief
More from these topics:
- Eighth Circuit Revives § 1983 Complaint Alleging Jail Detainees’ Death from Stroke was Due to Deliberate Indifference and Failure to Train, July 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Failure to Treat, Eighth Amendment, Failure to Train/Supervise, Deliberate Indifference.
- Alabama Barred from Executing Prisoner by Nitrogen Hypoxia, July 1, 2026. Totality of Conditions, Eighth Amendment, Death Penalty, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Wrongful Use of Force.
- North Texas Prison Evacuated After Carbon Monoxide Leak, July 1, 2026. Toxic Fumes/Chemicals, Eighth Amendment, Exposure to Cold, Water, Exposure to Heat.
- Tennessee Calls Off Execution After Botched Lethal Injection, July 1, 2026. Medical Misconduct, Pain, Staff Training, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Lethal Injection Method of Execution.
- Federal Court Partially Enjoins Enforcement of Georgia’s S.B. 185 Prohibiting Gender-Affirming Health Care in DOC, June 1, 2026. Medication, Failure to Treat, Injunctions, Transgender Medical Procedures, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Federal Jury Awards $2,500 to Male Wisconsin Prisoner Sexually Assaulted by Female Guard, June 1, 2026. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Guard Misconduct, Evidence, Prison Rape Elimination Act, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Pepper Spraying Incident Prompts Policy Change at Washington Women’s Prison, June 1, 2026. Guard Misconduct, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Settlements, Staff Training, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Federal Judge Upholds Infamously Brutal Farm Labor at Angola Prison, June 1, 2026. Racial Discrimination, Prison Labor, Exposure to Heat, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Deliberate Indifference.
- $250,000 Paid by Maine to Former Prisoner Held in Solitary Confinement—Which the State DOC Says Doesn’t Exist, June 1, 2026. DOC/BOP misconduct, Americans with Disabilities Act, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Fourth Circuit Revives North Carolina Prisoner’s Suit Blaming Lazy Guards for Assault by Detainee, May 1, 2026. Failure to Protect (General), Qualified Immunity, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Deliberate Indifference.

