Austin, Texas - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that extreme heat in Texas prisons is "plainly unconstitutional" – but fell short of requiring the state to immediately install air conditioning.

"The Court is of the view that excessive heat is likely serving as a form of unconstitutional punishment," US District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in a 91-page ruling.

"Regrettably, the Court must also acknowledge that it will take hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to install permanent air conditioning in every TDCJ [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] facility, and that ordering temporary air conditioning now would have the effect of diverting significant limited resources for a process that would neither be adaptable to a permanent solution nor likely even be complete before the Court’s preliminary (i.e. temporary) injunction would expire," Pitman added.

The judge said he expects the case will now move to a bench trial.

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The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by incarcerated former mortician Bernie Tiede, on whom the 2011 Richard Linklater movie Bernie is based. It was later expanded to encompass all people locked up in uncooled Texas prison facilities.

The complaint argues the heat in the state facilities – only about a third of which are fully air conditioned – amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Texas has more than 130,000 people incarcerated in state prisons – the highest prison population of any state.

An internal investigation, which examined record-keeping at the Mark W. Stiles Unit in Beaumont over the summer of 2022, found evidence of falsified temperature logs. The readings are used to determine when conditions in the prison are dangerous and when emergency measures should be implemented.

The lack of heat protections poses life-threatening risks to incarcerated people in a state where temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A Texas Tribune analysis found that at least 41 people died in uncooled prisons last year during a record-breaking heat wave.