A federal judge has ordered Texas to install air conditioning throughout its prison system by Dec. 31, 2029, ruling that extreme heat in uncooled facilities amounts to unconstitutional punishment. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not done enough to protect incarcerated people from dangerous temperatures. In a 150-page order, he cited evidence of injuries, deaths and prolonged suffering during Texas summers and said the agency’s failure to adopt a workable installation schedule showed “deliberate indifference.” Pitman directed TDCJ to immediately create and carry out a plan covering every state prison. Just over one-third of the agency’s 104 facilities were fully air conditioned as of Sept. 1, according to TDCJ data. The ruling follows a 2025 decision in which Pitman found that excessive heat in Texas prisons was likely “unconstitutional punishment.” At that time, he declined to require temporary air conditioning, saying it would not provide a permanent solution and was unlikely to be completed before the preliminary order expired. The new deadline is likely to reshape the state’s upcoming budget debate. TDCJ has requested $289 million for prison air-conditioning projects in the 2028-29 budget cycle, along with $591.8 million for expansion dormitories equipped with climate control. The agency says the combined projects would provide more than 21,000 additional cooled beds. Those requests are substantially below the amount TDCJ previously indicated it could commit to the work during the next budget cycle, a discrepancy Pitman highlighted in his ruling. The agency said it was reviewing the decision and did not immediately provide further comment. TDCJ reported 53,676 cooled beds in its prisons as of Sept. 1. It expects that number to exceed 61,000 by the end of 2026 and approach 90,000 by early 2028. At the same time, the state’s incarcerated population is projected to surpass 150,000 people. Heat-related deaths have been a central issue in the legal fight. TDCJ has acknowledged at least 23 heat-related deaths in its facilities from 1998 through 2012, though Pitman wrote that the total was probably an underestimate. Prisoner-rights advocates attribute at least 10 additional deaths between 2022 and 2025 to extreme heat, including three cases in which autopsy reports identified heat as a possible contributing factor. The agency disputes that broader estimate and has said some deaths could instead be explained by overdoses or other medical conditions. The order is the latest development in a long-running struggle over prison conditions in Texas. In 2014, incarcerated people at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station sued over severe heat at the geriatric facility. A settlement eventually required permanent air conditioning there. A broader lawsuit began after Bernie Tiede, an incarcerated person who experienced a medical emergency during extreme heat, joined a complaint initially filed in 2023. The case expanded to cover people held in every uncooled TDCJ facility. Texas law requires county jails to remain between 65 and 85 degrees, but repeated efforts to impose similar climate-control requirements on state prisons have failed in the Legislature. Pitman’s ruling now places a court-enforced deadline on the state, making funding, construction capacity and oversight central questions for lawmakers and prison officials.