The indoor temperature in at least 15 state-run jails and prisons exceeded 100 degrees last summer, according to data obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The heat was worst at a handful of units. The Stevenson Unit in DeWitt County was the hottest in July, with 12 days in three-figure digits. Inmates at two units in Falls and Taylor counties experienced seven days over 100 degrees last summer.
Inside inmate housing areas at Hutchins State Jail in Dallas County, the temperature exceeded 95 degrees for a total of 21 days in July.
The News obtained the indoor temperature logs, which the state recently required prisons to begin keeping, through a public information request and analyzed them for trends and patterns. The data shows that inmates and staff are exposed, at times, to dangerous levels of heat in the majority of the state’s unairconditioned jails and prisons, experts said.
Click here to read more on the heat in Texas prisons from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.
