A federal judge has officially ordered the state of Texas to install air conditioning in all of its prisons by the end of 2029, CNN reports. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued this 150-page order on Tuesday, marking a significant turning point for a long-standing legal battle over the extreme temperatures inside state lockups.
Summer temperatures routinely climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Texas. The ruling addresses this directly, with Judge Pitman declaring that the current lack of climate control in many facilities violates the constitutional right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishments.
