Texas Prisoner’s Lawsuit Seeks Relief from Heat in Un-Air-Conditioned Prisons
by David M. Reutter
A suit filed by a Texas prisoner alleging that stifling heat in his cell threatens his life was allowed to proceed against Defendant officials with the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on June 14, 2024, when the federal court for the Western District of Texas denied their motion to dismiss Bernie Tiede’s complaint.
Tiede, 65, suffers from diabetes and hypertension, serious medical conditions which, combined with the heat inside his Estelle Unit cell, caused him to suffer something like a ministroke, he claimed. Of Texas’ 100 state prisons, only about 30% are fully air conditioned. The remainder have partial or no air conditioning, leaving indoor temperatures to climb dangerously high—often exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, advocates say.
Those from four advocacy groups—Texas Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, Inc., Coalition for Texans with Disabilities, Inc., Texas Prisons Community Advocates, and Build Up, Inc.—joined Tiede in filing his amended complaint on May 7, 2024, seeking an injunction to force TDCJ Director Brian Collier to remedy the excessive heat conditions. The suit alleges that environmental conditions in Texas prisons without air conditioning violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
At issue for the Court in this case was TDCJ’s assertion that Tiede and co-Plaintiffs had not suffered a direct injury and so lacked standing to bring the suit. But the Court noted that advocate Plaintiffs represent an estimated 85,000 TDCJ prisoners whom they claim are “at risk of suffering from a number of heat-induced illnesses—including heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat rash, nausea, and vomiting—due to unit temperatures that routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.”
Moreover, while Tiede has since been moved to an air-conditioned cell, he called that a “voluntary cessation” of Defendants’ alleged unconstitutional behavior which “does not moot his request for relief”—because it could easily be resumed by TDCJ. The Court agreed, also rejecting Defendants’ other arguments and denying their motion to dismiss. See: Tiede v. Collier, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105904 (W.D. Tex.).
Tiede, a former mortician, is serving a 99-year term for the fatal 1996 shooting of Marjorie “Marge” Nugent, 81, his wealthy paramour who was 43 years his senior. Her corpse was found in her home food freezer nine months later by her son and granddaughter. The bizarre story was dramatized by filmmaker and native Texan Richard Linklater in his 2011 black comedy, Bernie, which also led to the discovery of new evidence that briefly freed Tiede in 2014. He was resentenced to his current term in 2016.
“Bernie and the tens of thousands of inmates remain at risk of death due to heat-related sickness and being subjected to this relentless, torturous condition,” Linklater said.
TDCJ insists that there have been no heat related deaths in its prisons since 2011. But researchers at Brown University, Boston University and Harvard University concluded otherwise in a November 2022 report, finding that extreme heat possibly contributed to 13%, or 271, of the deaths that occurred in Texas prisons without air conditioning between 2001 and 2019. TDCJ recently created webpages to highlight its efforts to install more air conditioning and to explain steps taken to mitigate the effects of extreme temperatures on prisoners and staff, including providing fans and cooling towels and granting access to “cool down” areas.
The author of this article resides in a south Florida prison where the state Department of Corrections (DOC) allows prisoners to wear less clothing in summer months and provides ice water several times a day. DOC has also installed more fans in open-bay dorms, but in cells housing one or two prisoners—where tens of thousands of prisoners are confined—there is no relief after curfew or during other lockdowns from heat and humidity that is grueling.
Tiede originally filed his suit pro se, but he and fellow Plaintiffs are now represented by attorneys with O’Melveny & Myers, LLP and Winston & Strawn LLP, both in Houston; Edwards Law in Austin; the Law Office of Jodi Callaway Cole in Alpine; as well as Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell and Holland, Holland Edwards & Grossman, LLC, both in Denver. The case remains open, and PLN will update developments as they are available. See: Tiede v. Collier, USDC (W.D. Tex.), Case No. 1:23-cv-01004.
Additional source: AP News