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Amid lawsuits, new autopsies link Texas prisoner deaths to extreme heat

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Prison rights advocates say that heat-related deaths are a major problem, and they think they can show it. Now, in Texas, prison officials say that heat has not killed any inmates since 2012, but newly released autopsies show that high temperatures behind bars likely contributed to several deaths just last summer. Lauren McGaughy of The Texas Newsroom has our story.

LAUREN MCGAUGHY, BYLINE: Elizabeth Hagerty was sick. From her prison cell in central Texas, she told her loved ones that she hadn't eaten for days. The heat was getting to her. On June 27, she told prison doctors that she had heat rash covering her whole body. She couldn't keep down fluids. They sent her back to her cell. The next day, she reached out to her partner's mother, Martha Romero.

MARTHA ROMERO: Her last email to me was telling me that she was so hot and she was hungry, and she just couldn't wait to come home, basically.

MCGAUGHY: She was one month shy of being released after a four-year sentence for assault. Two days after she emailed Romero, Elizabeth Hagerty was dead. Romero says the cause was obvious.

ROMERO: I do believe that heat played a major role in her death and that of other inmates, too.

MCGAUGHY: The Texas Newsroom recently obtained the autopsies of nine inmates who are named in a lawsuit against the state. At least three mention heat as a possible contributing factor in their deaths, but Texas prison officials reject that explanation. For example, they say a gastrointestinal problem, exacerbated by COVID, killed Hagerty. They do not count these as heat deaths unless heat was the primary or sole cause. Forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek says Hagerty's autopsy shows her symptoms included vomiting. The main cause of death was listed as low sodium in her body, but the report also says elevated environmental temperatures, obesity and diabetes may have been contributing factors.

JUDY MELINEK: The heat stress is going to play a role in that because you're also losing fluids from sweating as well, and so that's going to exacerbate the process and make you more likely to die.

MCGAUGHY: An expert witness in cases involving state prison systems, Dr. Melinek says Texas appears to be downplaying the role of heat in inmate deaths, including several fatalities that are part of an ongoing lawsuit.

MELINEK: People with preexisting medical conditions are at higher risk of death from their natural diseases during times of heat stress compared to people with no underlying diseases.

MCGAUGHY: Even as climate change makes summers here hotter and hotter, two-thirds of state prisons aren't fully air-conditioned. Temperatures inside inmate cells regularly top 95 degrees - or higher - during the summer. Two of the prisoners who died last year had core body temperatures of more than 100 degrees, according to their autopsies.

MELINEK: To say that those deaths were not caused by heat shows a lack of understanding of what cause-of-death determination means in the context of multiple factors.

MCGAUGHY: So why don't Texas prison officials acknowledge any heat deaths in more than a decade? Inmate rights advocates say it's because the state of Texas doesn't want to spring for prison air conditioning. Lawyer Jeff Edwards represents inmates and advocates suing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They argue the lack of AC amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

JEFF EDWARDS: TDCJ has a real issue here. They know that they have a dangerous condition in their prison system.

MCGAUGHY: Edwards wants Texas to admit they've been hiding inmate heat deaths, and his clients want AC installed across the entire prison system. The last time he sued over the heat, the Prison Department agreed to install AC at one prison. Since then, they've added nearly 9,000 beds with AC. That's part of the reason Texas is fighting this lawsuit. The state's lawyers say the Prison Department is doing enough by enacting new rules to protect inmates from the heat. They also argue they can't be sued because they're a state entity that has immunity. Edwards says the inmate autopsies will be key to proving the state is negligent when it comes to heat behind bars.

EDWARDS: The definition of indifference is knowing about a problem, knowing there's a solution and not fixing things.

MCGAUGHY: The Prison Department spokesperson declined a recorded interview. In written statements, she maintained the prison system is taking steps to mitigate the heat. Attorney Edwards will be in federal court this week to make his case. The head of the Texas prison system is expected to testify.

For NPR News, I'm Lauren McGaughy, in Austin, Texas.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Lauren McGaughy