SETTLEMENT IN NAVASOTA PRISON SUIT

  

A settlement has been reached granting accommodations for inmates in a Texas State Prison near Navasota.

According to KAGS-TV, the settlement is the product of a lengthy legal suit, in which Texas inmates sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, claiming the Wallace Pack Unit was too hot for some inmates’ health.

According to the station, the TDCJ agreed to air condition the entire Wallace Pack facility and ensure that the over 1,000 inmates involved in the lawsuit stay in air conditioned accommodations for the duration of their sentences. The state legislature must approve the cost of the air conditioning.

In 2014, six inmates in the Wallace Pack Unit sued the TDCJ, saying the heat inside the prison was detrimental to their already frail health.  U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison ruled in favor of the inmates in July 2017 and ordered the TDCJ to address the issue.

In Judge Ellison’s ruling, last summer, he said the TDCJ, which has had complaints about heat in prisons in the past, was “deliberately indifferent” to the risks that excessive heat posses on its vulnerable inmates.