The Modern Brazen Bull: The Eighth Amendment and Air Conditioning in American Prisons
On July 19, 2018 inmate Robert Robinson died from environmental hyperthermia, essentially receiving a death sentence for burglary. Mr. Robinson’s incident was not unique, it was one of 56 heat related illnesses suffered by Texas prisoners in 2018. This is not a new issue. In 2014, 900 Texas inmates filed a class action lawsuit in which the Texas Department of Criminal Justice settled, agreeing to provide air-conditioning in the housing units to maintain heat indices at or