State of Texas: Families, inmates raise concerns about dangerous heat for Texas prisoners

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A 35-year-old inmate died of cardiac arrest on the morning of June 23 while mowing a field at the Goree Unit in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed Tuesday.

TDCJ identified the deceased inmate as Tommy McCullough from McKinney, Texas.

McCullough's family is seeking more information as they raise concerns over the conditions during the summer heat.

"We received a call yesterday afternoon that he passed away due to a heat stroke because he was made to stay out mowing even with heat advisory and very minimal water," McCullough's sisters said. "If you have a loved one in the Texas prison system, please check on them."

In Texas' state jails, the inmates are sentenced to just two years or less. But every summer, former inmate Maggie Luna remembers, the women inside worried their short sentences may take their life.

"All of these women that were suffering with me had not a lot of time, and they feared that they were getting death sentences," she said. "Several times I told my mom, 'I hope I make it out of here.'"

Her jail is one of the 70% of units within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that do not have full air conditioning. As much of Texas braces through record-setting triple-digit temperatures, current and former inmates are describing dangerous and disturbing conditions inside their cells.

"It is suffocating. It's terrifying just to feel like you're cooking. I remember asking my bunkie, 'Do you think our brains are frying?'" Luna said.

She was released in 2016 after serving two years in the Lucille Plane State Jail for drug possession.

"Some days, we wouldn't have water," Luna recounted. "I saw a lot of women have seizures because of the heat. It is inhumane. We were like feral animals locked in this giant cage."

Several emails sent from inmates and obtained by Nexstar express similar challenges within the last week.

"I'm having a really hard time breathing right now," one inmate wrote. "It's so humid you can't breath...we were in AC for shakedown yesterday all morning and when we came back it was 118 degrees in here and going from AC to that made me sick to the point I threw up my electrolyte drink and I just felt sick and nauseous all day...not sure how long ima last here in the heat."

"We are still not getting water," another wrote. "They don't give us respite at all. It's very hot, we only have one big fan. They don't give us respite showers AT ALL."

Of the 100 units TDCJ operates, 14 have no air conditioning. Fifty-five units have "partial" AC, meaning they have "respite areas" such as cooled chapels, but do not provide AC in the cellblocks.

TDCJ said they provide water, ice, fans and air-conditioned respite areas to help inmates. They also rank inmates on a "heat sensitivity score" to prioritize the most at-risk people for cooled housing.

"Core to this department's mission is protecting the public, our employees, and the inmates in our custody," TDCJ Communications Director Amanda Hernandez said. "We take numerous precautions to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for those incarcerated within our facilities. These efforts work."

Some lawmakers at the Texas Capitol have tried and failed to take further efforts. Rep. Carl Sherman, D-DeSoto, filed legislation in the last legislative session to mandate universal air conditioning in Texas' prisons. It passed unanimously out of the House Corrections Committee but did not receive a debate in the full House.

"We as a state are all complicit in this. If we're paying our tax dollars to house individuals who have been incarcerated under the custody of the state, and they're in conditions that are worse than our animal shelters. I think we're accountable for that," he said. "We have the resources and we still have surplus, but there is not a will to provide AC in the housing units. So, you know it's intentional."

Sherman places the bulk of the blame on the Texas Senate, which has never shown the political will to change the air conditioning standards.

In April, Sen. Brandon Creighton told Nexstar the upper chamber has a ways to go on the issue.

"Texas was a thriving state before air conditioning was even created," he said. "So our families outside of the penal system and the prison system lived in the state of Texas for decades and decades and decades before air conditioning was even a thing. So we have to balance the cost of that, we have to meet court scrutiny...but at the end of the day, we've got a little ways to go on that one."

Yet some are concerned even the safety precautions TDCJ provides are not being delivered. Dr. Amite Dominick keeps regular contact with inmates as the president of Texas Prison Community Advocates. She worries "there's just no relief."

"The incarcerated people are not receiving water like they should be receiving it. They're not getting showers. People are just passing out there. I'm hearing an uptick in seizure activity from incarcerated individuals and their family members...there's nothing for them," she said. "There's supposed to be respite areas that some units are saying doesn't exist, even though they have to legitimately exist. What I'm hearing is there's not enough staff to go around to fill the water buckets. And there's no ice in these waters. Folks are just excruciatingly miserable right now. They're hurting."

As of Thursday, TDCJ told Nexstar four inmates have required medical care beyond first aid for heat-related injuries so far in 2023. Nine staff members have also had heat-related illnesses.

They also report the department has added air conditioning to 3,598 beds since 2019. They also have an ongoing project to add air conditioning to 5,861 more beds this year.

"Each summer we continue to refine and improve our practices," Hernandez said. "What has not changed is our commitment to do all that we can to keep staff and inmates safe."

McCullough’s family said he had been complaining of excessive heat and insufficient access to water on the week of his death.

The family has requested an autopsy to determine the official cause of death. They were advised the results could take up to two weeks.

“We love you TJ and we will seek justice for you,” McCullough’s family said.

Second special session brings potential for progress on property tax relief

Lawmakers will get back to work this week, trying to reach a deal on property tax relief. Governor Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to the Capitol last Wednesday.

The House and Senate have been at odds for months, each passing plans with different approaches to cutting property taxes. And little changed on the first day of the second special session.

The House Ways and Means committee passed a tax relief plan to spend nearly $13 billion dollars to lower school property tax rates. That's Governor Abbott's preferred plan; he calls it a step toward permanently eliminating property taxes.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved a plan that includes a $100,000 dollar homestead exemption. It would potentially save homeowners close to $1,400 dollars per year, almost double the savings from the House plan.

The Senate plan is similar to ones that the chamber has passed before, only to fail to advance past the House. That led one lawmaker to question what comes next.

"What can we as a body do differently this time in our negotiations with the House to get us to yes?" asked Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin.

Part of the answer to that question came later in the day when Lt. Governor Dan Patrick revealed the potential for a discussion with House Speaker Dade Phelan. That did not happen in the previous special session.

"Members, I want you to know that I did reach out to the speaker last night, sent him a text and said the best way to resolve this is face-to-face," Patrick said after the Senate approved its plan.

"There are a lot of well-intentioned people representing a lot of different plans and the best is to sit down and meet face to face," Patrick added, saying that Phelan agreed to a meeting, which could happen in the coming week.

Senators also approved a major addition to the chamber's property tax relief plan. Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, added an amendment to include funding for bonuses for Texas teachers.

The amendment includes $2,000 for teachers in districts with 20,000 students or more. The plan calls for $6,000 for teachers in smaller districts. The property tax plan along with the amendment passed the Senate with unanimous support.

Texas looming large as race for the White House heats up

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted his first presidential rally on the Rio Grande River on Monday, he made a promise to deliver on an immigration policy the state's top Republicans sought all legislative session.

"The states should be permitted to send people back," said DeSantis, the second-most-popular candidate for the Republican nomination. "As president, we are going to fully deputize all state and local governments to be able to enforce immigration law. You will be able to have that authority."

In the audience was Texas State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, who carried major legislation that would have asserted Texas' powers to police the federal border. His House Bill 20 would have established the Border Protection Unit, deputizing state police to use force against unauthorized immigrants independent of the federal government. It failed late in the legislative session among concerns that it would amount to an unconstitutional insubordination of federal power.

But the prominence of the Texas border in national Republican politics has fueled calls to significantly change federal immigration laws. The 10 challengers to former President Donald Trump are competing to own this issue.

"It's not surprising that he's coming at a time when immigration is likely to be a major issue to bring voters out to the polls in the presidential election. So coming to Eagle Pass and coming to Texas makes a lot of sense," said Dr. Richard Pineda, director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies at the University of Texas in El Paso. "He could have easily gone to Arizona or California, but he may not have found the same politics."

Pineda argues that Abbott's high-profile actions to patrol the Texas border make it the most desirable stop for GOP hopefuls; both to capitalize on the issue and to intimidate Abbott away from the race.

"I've long said that I think that Governor Abbott is still considering a run for the White House. And I think that having DeSantis come to Texas [is] a strategic decision," he said. "This visually looks good to then use in other parts of the country to say, 'Look at me, I'm on the border. I know what's going on. I'm the best choice to handle this.'"

DeSantis is not the only one catering to border states, of course. His calls for increased state authority echo promises made by Trump made just the night before.

"We will use all necessary state, local, federal, and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," said Trump to supporters in Oakland County, Michigan on Monday night.

That kind of increasingly powerful rhetoric is expected to rise as the 11 candidates jockey for attention from the most conservative factions of the country. But the message is not always catered to the venue. As Pineda explains, although DeSantis was in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday, he was speaking to Iowa and New Hampshire. And that message will not always resonate with the people in those border communities.

"I think the hardest part for me, as somebody on the border, is the sort of nature of dehumanizing the folks that are trying to cross into the United States. It is, in my mind, really dangerous," Pineda said.

While border policy is one big factor attracting candidates to Texas, campaign cash is another key reason.

"They're raising money in Texas. They're meeting with people in Texas who are making donations to their campaigns," said Dr. Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas.

Suri noted that with more than eight months to go before the Texas primary, candidates are trying to win support to keep their campaigns going.

"It's still very early, most people are not paying attention, even the most stalwart primary voters," Suri said.

"It's about fundraising. You need to have some momentum to convince people both rich and not rich to give you money," Suri added. "So that's really what it's about now. It's fundraising."

New Texas law will help first responders track overdoses

Lake Travis Fire Rescue (LFTR) Chief Robert Abbott knows the heartache — Families in his community including his department impacted by overdoses and fentanyl. 

"Hits home — I mean you start going, is this in my backyard — no, it's your front yard," Robert Abbott said. 

In 2021, his Assistant Fire Chief, Mike Prather, lost his son to a fentanyl overdose. Prather recalled a frantic call from his wife saying she couldn't wake up their son, Kyle. 

"I've been in the fire services for 23 years — here in my mind being a healthy 25-year-old kid — this could be an overdose. All I could think about was my wife was about to try to resuscitate her son the same way I've tried to resuscitate people for years." Prather said.

The department started raising awareness through PSAs about the tragic losses and the need to better track overdoses. 

"There wasn't any data that public safety agencies could easily see and access to see where these trends were emerging. And if there was ever an uptick in cases," Robert Abbott explained. 

KXAN investigators have detailed concerns over lack of tracking overdoses specifically fentanyl-related deaths for years.

Last year, LTFR started using the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program or ODMAP. The software tracks and reports in real-time overdoses, whether it was fatal or not, and if Narcan was used.

Less than a dozen agencies in Central Texas already voluntarily use the mapping tool.

"When we started using this about a year ago, we started seeing overdoses on the peripheral of our district which we weren't aware that the other departments were having," Robert Abbott said. "And in doing that we started to see where these little islands of need, and harm were happening — and we wanted to try to get ahead of that."

LTFR data shared with KXAN investigators shows since 2020, the number of suspected overdoses in the community has gone up 35%. 

"We did see overdoses increase in our area," Robert Abbott said. "While it may not have been at the rate that you may see in other communities, we did see a higher-than-average reported overdose data. And to respond to that we needed to know better what our neighbors were responding to as well."

He added that the software has helped them decide if social services are needed or if a Narcan location should be added for public access and if there's a stream of supply of opioids and fentanyl coming to their community. 

Robert Abbott has felt so strongly about the impact of ODMAP that he testified this past session in support of legislation to mandate using the software statewide. The bill was signed into law by Governor Abbott last month, and will go into effect on September 1. Texas is now among 10 states with similar legislation. 

"We need to be able to measure where overdoses are occurring. We know it's happening far too often across our state, but we need to be able to see you know, if there's concentration in a specific geographic area within a certain length of time, then that tells public health officials, first responders, law enforcement, that there's some issue going on there — and we need to intervene before there's more overdoses," said Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie.

Turner, who authored the House Bill, said he was initially concerned about privacy and making sure it's protected. 

"This database is not going to include names. It's not even going to include exact addresses," Turner added. "In no way is it going to jeopardize anyone's personal privacy. That's the last thing we would want to do. We want to use this information in the aggregate to be able to help protect the public health."

The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance was listed as against the legislation during the Senate public hearing. KXAN investigators have reached out for comment on why it opposed the legislation but have not gotten a response back.

ODMAP is already funded by the federal government and there are no costs for agencies wanting access. Only authorized users, which include public health officials, law enforcement and first responders can access the system.

"The magic in this whole platform is that it's only as good as what you put into it," Robert Abbott said. "So, if we're not putting a lot of data in that we know is happening, we know these other areas are having overdoses, they're just not being recorded in the same manner through the same vehicle. It has a rubber band kind of ripple effect on everybody else who's trying to do things to reduce the problem."

Robert Abbott said now that it's required by law, he believes the impact will be more wide-reaching. 

"Every one of these dots on a map is somebody who's struggling — somebody who is only moments away from dying," Robert Abbott said. "Ultimately, we want to see all those dots go away because that does represent a significant problem."