Yesterday, HPPR reporteda story about rampant abuse and neglect in Texas’s juvenile prisons.
Today, The Texas Tribuneis reporting that inmates in more than 30 of Texas’s adult prisons may not have been provided with adequate heating during the brutal cold spell that recently blanketed the state.
The lack of adequate heating was reported by the inmates’ family members. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is pushing back against the charges, insisting that all Texas prisons were “operating with adequate heating.” Many of the buildings that make up the Texas prison system date back to the 19th century.
According to Cheri Siegelin, a spokeswoman for the Texas Correctional Employees Union, that means cold conditions are common in the prisons. “Some of [these prisons] are not meant to be in operation as long as they have been,” she added.