Latest news with #HouseBill3006
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
A bill to air-condition all Texas prisons likely to fail again in the Senate
For a third consecutive time, a bill requiring prisons to have air conditioning has likely died in the Texas Senate. House Bill 3006, by state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, which would have required the installation of climate control in phases by the end of 2032, passed the House in early May. Still, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick never assigned it to a Senate committee, letting the bill miss a key deadline to advance it through the chamber. The contents of the bill could still be attached to another as an amendment or as part of a budget stipulation, but it is unlikely this late into the legislative session, which ends Monday. 'I will say this time was different. The other times the lieutenant governor referred it [to a committee], and it was the chairs of the finance committee who refused to grant it hearings,' said Amite Dominick, the founder and president of the Texas Prisons Community Advocates. 'This time, the lieutenant governor hasn't even referred the bill for a hearing to any committee, and we haven't heard why, beyond he is holding several bills hostage.' The bill would have mandated that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice purchase and install climate control systems to ensure temperatures are maintained between 65 and 85 degrees in certain areas. The installation would have occurred in three phases, capped at $100 million per phase, and completion is set for 2028, 2030, and 2032. Even with the state staring down a constitutional violation over its hot prisons, the future of air conditioning in these facilities is again uncertain. Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said in an emailed statement earlier this year that the supplemental appropriations bill will include the $118 million TDCJ requested to fund approximately 11,000 new air-conditioned beds. It also will include $301 million to construct additional dorms — which the prison agency requested to accommodate its growing prison population — and those new facilities will all be air-conditioned. 'They've tapped those funds for expanding the prison system. So not only are they understaffed and they can't handle what they currently have, but they are going to use the funds for air conditioning to expand the facilities,' said Dominick. This session, four prison heat-related bills filed by House members were given some hope when they were assigned to the House Corrections Committee: HB 1315, HB 2997, HB 3006, and HB 489. However, Canales' bill was the only one to make it out of the committee. 'For years, there has been a huge understaffing crisis in the Texas prisons, a crisis that will not be fixed until there is air conditioning. I encourage anyone who questions these bills to spend five minutes in one of these prisons. Officers are suffering along with the inmates,' said Erica Grossman, a Colorado attorney who represents inmates who are suing Texas over its lack of air conditioning in state prisons. Even with the money in the supplemental appropriations bill, officials from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees the state's 101 prison facilities, have said they need millions more to get to the at least $1.1 billion the agency says it will need to fully air condition its prisons. Since the House Corrections Committee wrote in its 2018 interim report to the Legislature that TDCJ's heat mitigation efforts were not enough to ensure the well-being of inmates and the correctional officers who work in prisons, lawmakers have tried to pass bills that would require the agency to install air conditioning. None of those bills made it to the governor's desk. During that time, TDCJ has been slowly installing air conditioning. The department also has added 11,788 'cool beds' and is in the process of procuring about 12,000 more. The addition is thanks to $85.5 million state lawmakers appropriated during the last legislative session. Although not earmarked for air conditioning, an agency spokesperson said all of that money is being used to cool more prisons. Still, about two-thirds of Texas' prison inmates reside in facilities that are not fully air conditioned in housing areas. Indoor temperatures routinely top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and inmates report oppressive, suffocating conditions in which they douse themselves with toilet water in an attempt to cool off. Hundreds of inmates have been diagnosed with heat-related illnesses, court records state, and at least two dozen others have died from heat-related causes. The pace at which the state is installing air conditioning is insufficient, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in a 91-page decision in late March. The lack of system-wide air conditioning violates the U.S. Constitution, and the prison agency's plan to slowly chip away at cooling its facilities — over an estimated timeline of at least 25 years — is too slow, he wrote. An internal investigation also found that TDCJ has falsified temperatures, and an investigator hired by the prison agency concluded that some of the agency's temperature logs are false. Citing that report, Pitman wrote 'The Court has no confidence in the data TDCJ generates and uses to implement its heat mitigation measures and record the conditions within the facilities.' Even so, Pitman did not require the state to install air conditioning in his ruling; instead, he forced the plaintiffs to proceed with a trial before a judge. 'We have rights as Americans. If we can kill people, torture people, because that is what this is, and put people to death with heat in the states that we live in and have that be okay, then the Constitution doesn't mean anything,' said Grossman. Dominick said, unfortunately, the best options to get Texas prisons air-conditioned would be for the court system to force the state to install them. 'When I initially chose what our organization was going to focus on with limited resources, I purposely didn't choose legal because I thought it was going to take longer and because of the excess money that it's going to cost the taxpayers, and lawsuits. I believe I was naive at the time,' she said. The court case is currently on an expedited schedule. Still, whatever the judge decides will likely end up in an appeal potentially extending the state's deadline for installing air conditioning for several years. 'I think anything that indicates that (lawmakers) are being humane to prisoners may decrease the likelihood of them staying in office. It's simply not a priority for them,' said Dominick. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas House advances bill requiring A/C in prisons; proposal's fate uncertain in Senate
The Texas House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday night to require air conditioning across the state's prison system, marking the third time in five years that the lower chamber has approved such a measure. The Senate has declined to take it up in the previous two sessions. The 89-43 vote comes less than two months after an Austin federal judge declared extreme heat in Texas prisons to be 'plainly unconstitutional' and warned lawmakers that he expects to order the state to install permanent air-conditioning systemwide. It also took place hours before a midnight cutoff for the House to pass bills originating in that chamber. House Bill 3006 is expected to face an uphill battle in the more conservative state Senate, which has repeatedly declined to hear similar proposals. Democratic state Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg, a criminal defense attorney, said he filed the bill because the constant, sweltering heat in lockups is 'inhumane' and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. 'Many people are not violent offenders,' he told the American-Statesman. 'They surely didn't get sentenced to death. But we're killing them. We're cooking people.' Over 60% of Texas inmates are being held on violent offenses, 15% on drug-related offenses and 9% on property offenses. The average prisoner is 41 years old, according to Texas 2036, a center-right policy think tank. Texas Department of Criminal Justice Director Bryan Collier has acknowledged that heat was a factor in three inmates' deaths from multiple causes in 2023. Prison guards and staff members also continue to fall ill from heat exposure, and the system struggled with a turnover rate of 26% in 2023, one of the hottest years in recent Texas history. HB 3006 outlines a three-phased approach that would require TDCJ to install climate control in one-third of its facilities by 2028, another one-third by 2030 and the final third of the facilities by 2032 — but only if it receives the funds to do so. The agency would be mandated to solicit competitive bids from private contractors to complete the project, and the cost would be capped at $100 million per phase. Canales described visiting the minimum-security prison in his hometown on a broiling Texas summer day, where the odor of male sweat is so strong that 'you can taste it' and where prisoners flood their cells with toilet water, then 'take turns lying in it' overnight to cool down. In a yearslong legal battle over the climate control in Texas prisons, plaintiffs are asking the court to require the state to maintain cell temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees, a similar range as Texas jails and federal prisons are required to maintain. Nearly 70% of cells in the state prison system lack air conditioning, according to a court filing in the lawsuit. On the state's current trajectory, it would take at least 25 years to ensure all cells are climate-controlled, which is "insufficient under the Eight Amendment," U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found in his March ruling on a request for a preliminary injunction. Pitman urged Collier to prepare for an adverse final ruling that would require Texas to air-condition all cells, and he recently scheduled a jury trial for March 2026. TDCJ has installed nearly 48,000 "cool beds" in its system so far and is in the process of procuring 12,000 more. The agency received $85 million for additional air conditioning installation in 2023 and is requesting another $118 million for the next bieennium, which it says would allow for 16,000 more air-conditioned beds. That would bring the total number to 78,000 in a system that housed nearly 133,000 inmates in 2023. Even if a bill requiring A/C does not pass the Senate, it is likely that the prison system will receive more state funds to install air conditioning. State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, told the Texas Tribune that the state budget will include the $118 million the TDCJ has requested to install around 11,000 additional cool beds over the next two years. The state will also allocate $3 million for new dorms, which would be air conditioned, she wrote in the statement, the Tribune reported. Huffman did not respond to Statesman requests for comment. State Rep. Richard Hayes, R-Hickory Creek, said he voted against the proposal because he believed a federal judge had already required the state to install air conditioning in prisons. He also doesn't believe all prisoners need climate control, though he said some populations do. "We didn't have A/C when I was a kid," Hayes told the Statesman, adding that some military facilities also lack air conditioning. Canales, the House's second-most conservative Democrat as per the Texas Tribune's 2023 rankings, disagrees with lawmakers who view installing A/C as 'soft on crime.' Heat can increase aggression and cause disorientation among inmates, he said, making them more difficult to control for guards who also struggle in sweltering temperatures. 'It's not soft on crime,' Canales said. 'It's stupid on crime.' This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House overwhelmingly passes bill to require A/C in state prisons
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill requiring air conditioning in all Texas prisons wins preliminary House approval
The Texas House gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill requiring prisons to have air conditioning by the end of 2032. Lawmakers passed 89-43 House Bill 3006 by Terry Canales, D-Edinburg. If the Legislature or the federal government allocates funding, it will require the installation of climate control in phases to be completed by the end of 2032. The bill must go through one more round of approval in the House before it can clear its last hurdle in the Senate. 'The bill targets key housing units and medical spaces, kitchens, and administrative offices in state prison facilities to ensure the most critical spaces are temperature-controlled,' said Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., D-Eagle Pass, a co-sponsor of the bill, told lawmakers. The bill mandates that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice purchase and install climate control systems to ensure temperatures are maintained between 65 and 85 degrees in certain areas. The installation will occur in three phases, capped at $100 million per phase, and completion is set for 2028, 2030 and 2032. This session, four prison heat-related bills filed by House members have been referred to the House Corrections Committee: HB 1315, HB 2997, HB 3006, and HB 489. However, Canales' bill was the only one to make it out of committee. Officials from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which oversees the state's 101 prison facilities, asked lawmakers for $118 million over the next biennium to install air conditioning in about 11,000 units. Even if lawmakers grant that request, millions more will be needed to get to the at least $1.1 billion the TDCJ says will be needed to fully air condition its prisons. Since the House Corrections Committee wrote in its 2018 interim report to the Legislature that TDCJ's heat mitigation efforts were not enough to ensure the well-being of inmates and the correctional officers who work in prisons, lawmakers have tried to pass bills that would require the agency to install air conditioning. None of those bills made it to the governor's desk. During that time, TDCJ has been slowly installing air conditioning. The department also has added 11,788 'cool beds' and is in the process of procuring about 12,000 more. The addition is thanks to $85.5 million state lawmakers appropriated during the last legislative session. Although not earmarked for air conditioning, an agency spokesperson said all of that money is being used to cool more prisons. Still, about two-thirds of Texas' prison inmates reside in facilities that are not fully air conditioned in housing areas. Indoor temperatures routinely top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and inmates report oppressive, suffocating conditions in which they douse themselves with toilet water in an attempt to cool off. Hundreds of inmates have been diagnosed with heat-related illnesses, court records state, and at least two dozen others have died from heat-related causes. The pace at which the state is installing air conditioning is insufficient, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in a 91-page decision in late March. The lack of system-wide air conditioning violates the U.S. Constitution, and the prison agency's plan to slowly chip away at cooling its facilities — over an estimated timeline of at least 25 years — is too slow, he wrote. Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said in an emailed statement that the supplemental appropriations bill will include the $118 million TDCJ requested to fund approximately 11,000 new air-conditioned beds. It also will include $301 million to construct additional dorms — which the prison agency requested to accommodate its growing prison population — and those new facilities will all be air-conditioned. An internal investigation also found that TDCJ has falsified temperatures, and an investigator hired by the prison agency concluded that some of the agency's temperature logs are false. Citing that report, Pitman wrote 'The Court has no confidence in the data TDCJ generates and uses to implement its heat mitigation measures and record the conditions within the facilities.' First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
