Jennifer Toon was released from prison in 2018, but she never stopped thinking about the friends she left behind and the brutal summers they endure when temperatures in unairconditioned cells climb to well over 100 degrees.
Toon and her friend Lori Mellinger formed Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance in 2022 and soon after joined a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice demanding that the prison system provide temperature-controlled housing at all of its 104 units.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who already had deemed the prison system’s lack of AC a violation of the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, ordered that all Texas prisons must have AC by the end of 2029.
“In the face of clear evidence of risk — including ongoing injuries, deaths, and suffering every summer — Director [Bobby] Lumpkin’s failure to enact a meaningful, committed plan to install air-conditioning on the timeline that TDCJ has repeatedly indicated is possible is deliberate indifference,” Pitman said in his order.
Prison system spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez issued a statement Tuesday evening saying “the Texas Department of Criminal Justice respectfully disagrees with the Court’s ruling that TDCJ is deliberately indifferent, and will be appealing the decision.”
“TDCJ is committed to installing air conditioning in units and has increased the number of air-conditioned beds from 35,000 in 2018 to an anticipated 60,000 by the end of this year. This number will reach 90,000 in 2028,” she said.
“TDCJ has robust heat mitigation efforts in place to protect the safety of its population and staff. The agency continues improving heat mitigation measures to ensure they are effective, consistent and ingrained in operations.”
Prison officials acknowledged during a 10-day trial held in March and April of this year that they are working swiftly to install AC in each of its prisons but it’s expensive and takes time. The agency’s most recent legislative appropriations request asks for $289 million for the installation of prison AC. Agency officials said during the trial it would cost $1.5 billion to fully air-condition the whole system. About one-third of the state’s prisons are currently fully air-conditioned.
Lioness maintains that it also costs money to house people — about $86 per inmate per day — and the state agency could avoid numerous wrongful death lawsuits if it ensures that prisoners are housed in “humane conditions.”
TDCJ has reported that at least 23 people died from heat-related illnesses between 1998 and 2012. Advocates say at least 10 more prisoners died between 2022 and 2025 because of the high temperatures. TDCJ officials have disputed that figure, saying the causes could be drug overdoses or pre-existing medical conditions.
Erica Grossman, a Colorado-based civil rights attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a livestreamed Zoom call with the plaintiffs Tuesday evening that she’s not impressed by the response from TDCJ and not surprised that an intent to appeal has already been announced.
“They say they’re committed to doing it but then they don’t do it,” Grossman said. “They continue to say the same thing over and over again with no support behind it, and it was contradicted by pretty much every witness who testified at trial. Going from the idea that everyone should just cook to death to, ‘OK, maybe not,’ isn’t that impressive to me and I feel like they have to do it in a much quicker time frame.”
The attorney added that Pitman’s 150-page order is a robust document that positions the plaintiffs well for an appeal. “If TDCJ wants to challenge this, they have to accept these findings,” she said. She also noted that attorneys in other states are already talking about the order and she expects to see legal challenges filed over the lack of prison AC in California, Florida and Louisiana.
The lawsuit demanding AC in all prisons was originally filed in 2023 by Bernhardt Tiede II, a 68-year-old man convicted in a 1996 East Texas murder and the namesake of the Richard Linklater film Bernie, based on a Texas Monthly story by Skip Hollandsworth.
Tiede was moved to an air-conditioned cell after having a stroke and the judge withdrew him from the suit, also removing a group that advocates for people with disabilities, saying its mission is not specific to prisoners. Former TDCJ Director Bryan Collier retired last year so he was removed as a defendant. The lawsuit is now filed as Lioness v. Lumpkin. Other plaintiffs include Texas Prisons Community Advocates and Texas CURE.
In 2014, inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit, a prison near College Station that primarily housed older inmates with medical conditions, sued the TDCJ over extreme heat and inadequate cooling. The lawsuit ultimately resulted in a class-action settlement requiring TDCJ to install permanent air conditioning at the Pack Unit but it didn’t cover facilities elsewhere in the state.
Texas law already requires county jails to maintain temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees, and federal prisons must have air conditioning. Some advocates argue that it’s not just about humane conditions for the prisoners; guards and staff are also subject to the brutal summer heat.
Lioness Communications Director Marci Marie Ray served 10 years in prison, spending every summer of her incarceration in an unairconditioned facility, according to court documents. She testified during the trial that she once watched an egg fry on the cement floor of a dayroom at Plane State Jail.
Ray said Tuesday she’s heard from incarcerated friends over the years since she’s been home that they are suffering in the heat and often don’t have access to cold water or respite areas. Prisoners have been known to cool themselves with toilet water and lie on the floor of their cells.
Two prisoners wrote to Lioness in June 2023 after witnessing the death of 37-year-old Elizabeth Hagerty at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville. Tona Southards Naranjo has testified several times before the Texas Board of Criminal Justice about the 2023 death of her son, Jon Anthony Southards, at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville. Naranjo wrote on social media Tuesday that she’s “speechless and humbly grateful” for the judge’s order.
“I am so thankful that relief is coming,” she said, directing her comments to her late son. “I hope you’re watching from above knowing that you’re still making a difference from the grave.”
Although these stories were spotlighted during the trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs say there are many other heat-related illnesses and deaths that have not been acknowledged by the state agency. State Rep. John Bucy wrote on social media Tuesday that “over 250 people have died from extreme heat in Texas prisons.”
Lioness community organizer Gini Pritchett said Tuesday that Pitman’s order was a huge win for the safety of Texans.
“Isn’t the heat part of the punishment? Not in this lifetime,” she said in a statement. “Being held in captivity is the punishment. Being isolated from your family is the punishment. Watching your children grow up in your absence is the punishment. Being strip-searched multiple times per day is the punishment. Being compelled to work for no pay is the punishment. What the punishment is not: Wondering if you’re going to survive the summer.”
She added that prison is still plenty uncomfortable even when an AC is blowing. “For the people saying it will never be implemented: We know this is not the finish line. Now watch us,” she said.
Grossman acknowledged that an appeals process could set back the implementation by at least a year.
“They’ll move to stay the order pending the appeal, and we’ll fight that,” she said. “I don’t know when the Fifth Circuit [Court of Appeals] will decide that. I wish I could give you a better timeline of what is likely to happen. There is a whole host of possibilities. This is an order. If it gets stayed pending an appeal, we’re looking at another year.”
Toon said when Lioness, now an incorporated 501(c)3 nonprofit with about 400 members, was originally approached to join the lawsuit, she was concerned about risk and potential retaliation. “We decided to take the risk because of our members,” she said. “The women and trans folks on the inside continued to write to us about their fears of literally dying from the heat and literally watching folks dying in the heat.”
“For women and gender expansive people, when we stick together, we win, and there is hope for Texas,” Toon said. “It truly is women and trans folks leading the way. I’m so extremely proud of all the courage that our inside members had.”
“This is personal,” she added. “These are not just names on a screen. These are friends. They are sons and daughters. The fight isn’t over. Now we make damn sure Texas follows the order. But today? We won.”
