Bernie Tiede, arguably living convicted murderer, is leading a lawsuit to force the state to .
County jails in Texas must be kept between 65 and 85 degrees, but state prisons air conditioned. That amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, according to Tiede and a coalition of lawyers and advocacy groups.
Their expanded lawsuit, announced Monday, accuses prison leaders of hiding evidence that inmates have died due to the extreme heat and demands the AC be installed in the dozens of state-run prisons that currently lack it.
Tiede, a mortician whose murder of an 81-year-old widow was immortalized in was after he sued the state in federal court.
This legal challenge expands on his previous suit. The advocacy groups on the amended complaint include Texas Prisons Community Advocates, Build Up, Inc., Texas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants and the Coalition for Texans with Disabilities.
鈥淟etting people suffer or die in prisons because of dangerous temperatures disregards our basic humanity,鈥� Dean William, a former leader of the Colorado and Alaska prison systems, said in a press release released Monday.
State law does not require prisons to have AC. As of summer 2022, just 31 of the 100 state-run lockups had air conditioning in all prisoner housing areas. Temperatures inside the state鈥檚 non-air conditioned units , according to state data. Some reached as high as 106 degrees that month.
Tiede is currently serving his 99-year murder sentence at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has defended its , which include providing prisoners with extra water and access to cool 鈥渞espite鈥� areas. The agency says no one has died from the heat since 2012.
Spokesperson Amanda Hernandez said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. She said two new webpages were recently launched on "enhanced heat protocols" and tracking the construction of 13,714 additional air conditioned inmate beds in state prisons.
"Core to the mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is protecting the public, our employees, and the inmates in our custody," Hernandez said.
This isn鈥檛 the first time Jeff Edwards, the suit鈥檚 lead attorney, has sued the state over the heat inside prisons. In 2018, at a prison for elderly and medically vulnerable inmates after Edwards led a coalition of inmates who sued over the conditions.
The 鈥� a fraction of the original estimated cost and cheaper than the $7.3 million the state spent to fight that lawsuit.
State lawmakers have waffled over whether to cool state prisons. Last year, the Texas House passed a bipartisan , but the legislation failed in the Senate. And while budget writers included some funding in for prison 鈥渄eferred maintenance鈥� projects in the state鈥檚 most recent budget, .
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