Urban League Leaders Demand Authorities Address "Inhumane" Condition in Texas' Sweltering Prisons

NEW YORK, AUSTIN, & HOUSTON (December 22, 2023) -- Declaring “no one deserves to be baked alive,” Urban League leaders this week implored federal authorities to investigate the “shocking and inhumane” treatment of people incarcerated in Texas’ sweltering detention facilities. 

The leaders also called on state authorities to establish a commission to investigate Texas prison deaths and to call a special legislative session to address the installation of HVAC. 

At least 135 people died in Texas prisons during this year’s historic global heatwave between June 1 and August 12. Between 2001 and 2019, 271 people incarcerated died in Texas prisons likely due to heat related illnesses and a lack of air conditioning. That prison death rate is 30 times the national average. 

More than two-thirds of Texas’ 100 prisons don’t have air conditioning in most living areas,  wrote National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial, Austin Area Urban League President and CEO Quincy Dunlap, and Houston Area Urban League President and CEO Judson Robinson III, citing a Texas Tribune analysis. 

“Every summer, thousands of officers and tens of thousands of prisoners work and live inside concrete and steel buildings without ventilation. While temperatures are routinely in the triple digits outside, the thermometer reading often rises even higher inside.” 

The leaders directed their request for a state commission and special legislative session to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and the members of the Texas Senate.  They also called for investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.