This summer, Texas hasn’t escaped the climate-crisis-driven heat waves that are cooking the rest of the country, with June bringing the highest temperatures ever recorded in the cities of Laredo, Del Rio, San Angelo, and Junction, while this July may be the hottest month in world history, according to climate scientists. And it’s even worse inside Texas prisons.
Roughly 70 out of the state’s 100 prisons don’t have widespread air conditioning – many lack any form of AC – according to an investigation from Texas Tribune. This leaves inmates to suffer through heat so severe it’s often fatal, according to incarcerated people and criminal justice advocates.
