The Texas Department of Criminal Justice asked state lawmakers for $298 million over the next two years to add air conditioning to more than 15,700 prison beds. The request represents a fraction of the estimated $1.5 billion needed to cool all state prisons, where indoor temperatures can exceed 100 degrees during summer months.

TDCJ officials described the funding as delivering significant progress toward safer conditions in facilities that house thousands of inmates without climate control. Previous legislative sessions provided $85 million in 2023 and $118 million in 2025, which added roughly 29,000 cooled beds and pushed the system total past 80,000.

The budget proposal arrives amid a federal lawsuit challenging the lack of air conditioning as unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman previously ruled that housing inmates in extreme heat violates constitutional standards, and a trial earlier this year examined whether the state's phased approach amounts to deliberate indifference.

TDCJ outlined a longer-term two-phase plan that anticipates obligating $774 million in the 2028-29 budget cycle and another $730.7 million afterward to complete the work across remaining facilities. The agency has emphasized fiscal stewardship when requesting funds from the Legislature.

Inmate advocates criticized the latest request as insufficient and argued it will leave many inmates exposed to dangerous conditions. At least 10 heat-related inmate deaths occurred between 2023 and 2025, according to allegations in the lawsuit.

Lawmakers have repeatedly declined to mandate full air conditioning through legislation, even as they approved targeted funding for incremental improvements. The full $1.5 billion estimate reflects rising costs and the scale of retrofitting dozens of older prisons built without modern climate control systems.