Texas prison heat-sensitivity scoring fails to protect inmates as judge delays ruling

A federal judge has found Texas’s heat-sensitivity scoring system for prisoners to be arbitrary and ineffective, while heat-related deaths continue in un-air-conditioned cells.

Federal Judge Robert Pitman has characterized Texas’s heat-sensitivity scoring system for prisoners as arbitrary, inadequate, and ineffective, noting that it flags only about 10% of the 134,500 incarcerated individuals despite a recognized risk of serious heat injury. The score, derived from a computer formula based on medical conditions and medications, determines priority for the limited 52,000 air-conditioned “cool beds” but often excludes vulnerable inmates, such as a 90-year-old with hypertension.

Autopsy reports for three prisoners—John Castillo, Patrick Womack, and Elizabeth Hagerty—identified extreme temperature as a contributing factor in their deaths, though the prison system attributes the fatalities to underlying health issues. The case originated with Bernhardt Tiede, who suffered a stroke in a cell recorded at over 110 °F and sued the state, only to be removed from the lawsuit after a policy change prioritized inmates 65 and older.

A 2022 JAMA Network Open study estimated that extreme heat contributed to roughly 13% of deaths in Texas’s un-air-conditioned prisons between 2001 and 2019. The Department of Criminal Justice estimates that fully air-conditioning all 101 facilities would cost about $1.5 billion, a figure that underscores the financial challenges of addressing the problem.