Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ A federal judge has threatened to lock up Texas prison officials for violating his court order to place some inmates in air conditioning.

"We ought to have prison officials in prison at the same temperature." #txlege bit.ly/2I70MID

2/ Friday's hearing was the latest development in a five-year lawsuit over the heat in one of 75 Texas prison units that do not have air conditioning in inmate housing areas.

Texas has reported nearly two dozen prisoner heat-related deaths since 1998.

bit.ly/2I70MID

3/ In 2014, several inmates at the William Pack prison near College Station sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for keeping prisoners in uncooled housing where temperatures routinely surpassed 100 degrees. bit.ly/2I70MID

4/ The judge agreed in 2017 that the high temperatures were cruel and unusual punishment.

He ordered that the prison system place the men in the unit in air-conditioned housing.

He also ruled Texas had been deliberately indifferent. #txlege

bit.ly/2I70MID

5/ The judge applauded the department after a settlement was reached in 2018 to air condition the William Pack prison unit.

But he has since returned to issuing scathing orders and comments on the department’s violations of his order. bit.ly/2I70MID

6/ Friday’s hearing was set Thursday after the inmates’ attorneys filed a lengthy motion to find prison officials in contempt and fine them, claiming the agency repeatedly kept inmates in the settlement in sweltering temperatures. bit.ly/2I70MID

7/ No one from TDCJ or the Texas Attorney General’s Office appeared at the quickly set hearing, but Assistant Attorney General Leah O’Leary spoke at the hearing on the phone. She asked for more time to answer questions about temperatures and conditions. bit.ly/2I70MID

8/8 The judge set another hearing for Tuesday afternoon for TDCJ to update him on the situation and report temperatures from each of the 12 units housing inmates in the lawsuit.

Read more here. bit.ly/2I70MID