Prison Board to Vote Nov. 6 on Cooling Six Units as Texas Appeals Heat Ruling

The nine members who govern the Texas prison system will vote Nov. 6 on installing air conditioning in inmate housing at six more units — their first such vote since a federal judge ordered the state in September to cool every prison it runs.

The six are Bradshaw near Henderson, Garza East in Beeville, Holliday in Huntsville, Lopez in Edinburg, Middleton in Abilene and Murray in Gatesville. All six sit in the “in procurement” column of the department’s own cooling list, which as of Oct. 1 counted 9,009 beds in procurement, 23,738 under construction and 7,695 in design. The agency says 38 units are fully air conditioned and 53 partly, and that money from the 2025 legislative session should add about 25,500 cooled beds, bringing the system to roughly 90,000.

That work now runs against a deadline the state is contesting. On Sept. 22 U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found conditions in uncooled Texas prisons unconstitutional and ordered the department to air-condition all 104 of its facilities by the end of 2029, start planning immediately and report every six months. He found credible evidence that at least nine people died of extreme heat between 2023 and 2025 and said cost would not excuse noncompliance. The department puts the bill at about $1.5 billion. Texas asked Pitman in an Oct. 8 filing to pause his order, and its appeal to the Fifth Circuit was reported Oct. 12. No decision on the pause had been reported as of Oct. 29, so the order stands. The board’s notice does not mention the case.

The rest of the agenda is the board’s usual load. Two board policies are up for revision, one of them the rules governing mail to and from people in prison, which Texas moved to scanning and tablets in 2023. Amendments to a rule on continuity of care for prisoners with mental impairments, disabilities or serious illness reach final adoption; the board’s June minutes describe the change as a title fix and formatting, not a change to the program. Three community-supervision standards go out for comment, along with three personnel directives on workplace discrimination, employee conduct and grievances. Also listed: eight land easements, a water well, two wastewater plants, purchases over $1 million and the annual investment policy.

Watch whether all six cooling projects are approved as presented, and whether anyone on the board says anything about the 2029 deadline while the state is in front of an appeals court trying to lift it. Reports from the inspector general, the independent auditor, the ombudsman and the office of inmate counsel close the meeting.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Eric Nichols — chairman; Austin; lawyer, former state deputy attorney general.
• Bill Welch — vice chairman; retired Air Force brigadier general and businessman.
• Sydney Zuiker — secretary; Houston; Crime Stoppers safe community director.
• Rodney Burrow, M.D. — Mount Pleasant; physician and pharmacist.
• Tom Fordyce — Mighty Oaks Foundation; former parole commissioner.
• Martin Garza — Mission; retired police chief and city manager.
• Faith Johnson — senior judge; former Dallas County district attorney.
• Sichan Siv — former United States ambassador to the United Nations.
• Nate Sprinkle — senior pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Rosenberg.

Roster from the agency’s board members page, checked October 29, and cross-checked against the governor’s February 2026 appointments of Garza and the reappointments of Johnson and Siv. All nine seats are filled and no change has been announced since August. The agency does not publish members’ hometowns except where a member’s own biography names one; cities shown come from appointment releases. Meeting contact: Jill Durst, (512) 463-5372.