Link: https://19thnews.org/2026/09/women-advocated-air-conditioning-texas-prisons/

In 2022, a small group of formerly incarcerated women formed the nonprofit Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance to empower communities to challenge harmful practices within the criminal legal system. Since that time, they have put a spotlight on what they argue are dangerous conditions caused by extreme heat and cold in Texas prisons.

This week, Lioness, alongside two other organizations, won a major lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) after a federal judge ruled that the state must air-condition all Texas prisons by the end of 2029. This change would fall in line with rules that already require Texas county jails to maintain temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees.

In a 150-page order, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman noted that roughly 88,697 incarcerated people were housed in unairconditioned units heading into summer 2026, meaning TDCJ provides “cool beds” for only about 37 percent of its population.

“It has been said that the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its Prisons,” Pitman wrote. “As described below, the record in this case paints a clear picture: in a state where outdoor heat indexes exceed 130 degrees, inmates in Texas prisons are suffering — and in some cases dying — in extreme heat every summer.”

This, he argued, violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. For the Lioness staff who spoke with The 19th, the judge’s order was a long time coming.

“We’ve been laughing and crying and celebrating, and also, you know, preparing because we know that this is just one step in the fight,” said Marci Marie Simmons, director of communications for Lioness. Simmons spent a decade incarcerated in a Texas prison and is intimately familiar with summers inside prison walls made of concrete and steel.

“I remember laying in my bunk — we weren’t allowed to lay on the floor in that prison — and I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I will survive this,’” Simmons said.