Name: Spurred by The News’ inquiries, Texas prisons will release heat logs at state lockups
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Spurred by The News’ inquiries, Texas prisons will release heat logs at state lockups

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6:00 AM on Apr 23, 2021 CDTThe Texas Department of Criminal Justice will release outdoor heat readings taken at its prisons after The Dallas Morning News inquired about secrecy surrounding the records.The state prisons department , many of which have no or only partial air conditioning. In 2019, it began refusing to make public the hourly measurements taken outside its facilities, citing ongoing lawsuits. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton backed the agency, denying a records request submitted in October.But after The News obtained three years of temperature readings from all state facilities and asked the prison agency to answer questions about its decision to withhold the information, the department reversed its policy on Thursday.“The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is aware of the release of outdoor heat logs that had been provided confidentially. As a matter of transparency and to ensure that the information being reported by The Dallas Morning News is accurate, TDCJ will release all outdoor heat logs from 2018-2020,” Spokesman Jeremy Desel said in a statement.Desel added that after consulting its lawyers, the department “will choose to release these logs in the future.”Lawmakers backing applauded the about-face, saying transparency is vital to the public’s understanding of conditions behind bars.“The reversal in policy is a good thing, but we should have never been here to begin with,” Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, said. The move, he added, “appears not to be voluntary in nature but perhaps their hand seems to have been forced.”The agency should still do more, Canales said, by taking and releasing indoor heat readings.“Knowing what the temperature is outside is an indicator of the temperature inside,” Canales said. “Knowing the accurate temperature inside these facilities is a matter of life and death.”Related:State standards call for temperatures at county jails to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees. But prisons in Texas are not required to have AC.One in five of the state’s 100 lockups have no AC and 49 are only partially air conditioned, according to the prisons department. There are 34,000 air-conditioned beds for the roughly 117,000 inmates incarcerated systemwide.The agency says it implements special protocols during heat waves, such as providing inmates extra water, showers and access to so-called respite areas. In addition, Desel said 97% of inmates the department defines as particularly vulnerable to elevated temperatures have been moved into the cooled areas.This is a big reason why the department says no one has died due to a heat-related illness since 2012, he added.But in the previous 14 years, more than 20 prisoners died from the heat. Dozens of inmates and guards fall ill every year, internal reports show. Last year, .The conditions have led to a string of lawsuits, including one that ended in a settlement agreement to install AC for some sick and elderly prisoners. The department also announced it would install AC in one more prison in East Texas.Afterward, the prisons department stopped taking readings inside most of its facilities.At the time, the department said it was difficult to get accurate readings inside and continued to measure outdoor temperatures to know when heat protocols should go into effect.Desel said the state prison system continues to battle 17 heat-related lawsuits.For at least the past year and a half, the department has cited its ongoing legal disputes as a reason for withholding the heat readings taken outside its prisons. Paxton twice backed the agency’s decision — in December 2019 and again last fall — to keep the records secret.Despite the prison agency’s refusal to release the heat logs, The News obtained a copy of the records from a source who asked not to be named due to sensitivity of the issue.In response, the prisons department promised to release years of outdoor heat logs and said it would not ask Paxton to keep secret any future requests for this information. It did not answer questions about whether it had begun taking internal heat readings and whether that information, if it exists, would be public.The hundreds of pages of records show prison staff continue to take outdoor temperature readings at each facility once per hour. At Hutchins State Jail in Dallas, for example, the logs show that temperatures in July peaked at 102. With the humidity, it felt more like 114 degrees.Because the agency no longer takes readings indoors at most units, it’s unclear how hot it felt for the roughly 2,000 men inside the aging facility.Rep. Jeff Leach, the Republican co-author on a bill to require prison cell blocks be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, said the prisons department’s decision to release the outdoor heat logs was positive.“Transparency is always, always a good thing. It leads to more accountability which leads to better policy,” Leach said. “I’m glad TDCJ has taken the position it has and look forward to working collaboratively and aggressively to ensure our criminal justice system is strong, fair and effective.”But Amite Dominick, a longtime advocate for AC in prisons, was only cautiously happy.“It’s great that they are going to release those readings,” Dominick said Thursday. “But they need to start taking the temperatures inside to really get a true picture of what it’s like.”Rep. Carl O. Sherman, Sr., Leach’s co-author, echoed Dominick’s concerns.“The reality is that temperatures outside, on any given day, are available on any weather app,” Sherman, D-DeSoto, said Thursday, adding, ”Let’s be honest with ourselves and with all Texans. We have an issue here and it is time to correct it.”Related:On Wednesday, the House Committee on Corrections debated the handful of bills that would require AC in state prisons. While the members have not yet voted on the legislation, Canales said he expects his bill to pass soon and make its way to the House floor — the first time he believes a prison AC bill will be debated by the full chamber.“We’re cooking people,” Canales said during the committee debate Wednesday. “It’s hot. And I’m getting hot under the collar thinking we’re sitting on our hands and people are unnecessarily suffering.”As in past years, .Canales’ bill asks lawmakers to set aside no more than $100 million every two years for the cost. He argued the state could save money in the long-term by avoiding more costly lawsuits and providing better conditions for inmates and correctional officers alike.While the price tag may look steep, Canales insisted lawmakers could find the cash if they decided to.“I don’t think we have a money problem,” he said. “We have a ‘give a damn’ problem.”Get email alerts on breaking news stories as soon as they happen.By signing up you agree to our

6:00 AM on Apr 23, 2021 CDTThe Texas Department of Criminal Justice will release outdoor heat readings taken at its prisons after The Dallas Morning News inquired about secrecy surrounding the records.The state prisons department , many of which have no or only partial air conditioning. In 2019, it began refusing to make public the hourly measurements taken outside its facilities, citing ongoing lawsuits. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton backed the agency, denying a records request submitted in October.But after The News obtained three years of temperature readings from all state...

Spurred by The News’ inquiries, Texas prisons will release heat logs at state lockups

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