Every summer, people in Texas prisons are locked in cells with no air conditioning while temperatures soar past 100 degrees. This isn't just uncomfortable, it's deadly.

At least 23 people have died from extreme heat in Texas prisons. Others drink toilet water or sleep on concrete floors soaked in sweat just to survive. In one recent federal court hearing, the state admitted that heat killed three more people last year.

Texas has over 100 state-run prisons and jails. About two-thirds still don’t have air conditioning. Meanwhile, state law requires county jails to stay below 85 degrees. Federal prisons in Texas must not exceed 76. But state prisons? There’s no heat limit. No required A/C. No basic protections.

That’s why we’re calling on the Texas Senate and Governor Greg Abbott to pass legislation that mandates air conditioning in all state-run prisons by 2032, as proposed in House Bill 3006. The Texas House already passed it. Now it’s up to the Senate to stop letting this bill die in silence.

Extreme heat in prison is not part of a sentence. It is cruelty, plain and simple. Denying people basic protection from deadly temperatures is unconstitutional, inhumane, and morally indefensible.

Sign the petition to demand that Texas lawmakers act now. No one deserves to die in an oven.

[Photo Credit: Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer via Dallas Morning News]