Does the Lubbock County Jail Have to Be Air Conditioned? Here’s What Texas Law Says
If you've lived through a Lubbock summer, you already know that air conditioning isn't exactly what most of us would consider a luxury.
When it's 105 degrees outside and your steering wheel is approximately the temperature of the surface of the sun, A/C becomes pretty important.
That's why a court battle over air conditioning inside Texas prisons has gotten plenty of attention. But if you're wondering what all of this means for inmates at the Lubbock County Detention Center, as many have inquired, there's an important distinction.
Lubbock County Jail Is Different From a Texas Prison
First, the Lubbock County Detention Center is a county jail, not a Texas Department of Criminal Justice state prison.
That distinction matters because Texas already requires county jails to maintain reasonable temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees in occupied areas.
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So Lubbock County doesn't need to wait for a federal judge to establish a basic temperature standard at its detention center. County jails already operate under a standard that state prisons generally do not.
And that's where this story gets interesting.
A Federal Judge Is Considering a Major Texas Prison Order
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is considering a lawsuit over extreme heat in Texas state prisons.
Pitman previously found that housing prisoners in extreme heat without adequate cooling was "plainly unconstitutional," but he did not order TDCJ to immediately air-condition every prison. The case subsequently went to trial, and as of September 2026, a final statewide order requiring air conditioning throughout the prison system has not been issued.
The plaintiffs want Texas ordered to air-condition its prison system by the end of 2029.
That's a very different thing from saying, "A judge just ordered every Texas jail to install A/C."
He hasn't.
Texas Says Cooling Every Prison Would Cost $1.5 Billion
Then there's the price tag.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice estimates fully cooling its prison system would cost approximately $1.5 billion. TDCJ has requested $298 million for the next two-year budget, which the agency says could add more than 15,700 air-conditioned beds. Nearly two-thirds of Texas' 104 state prisons currently aren't fully air-conditioned.
TDCJ also uses heat protocols from April 15th through October 31st, including priority air-conditioned housing for some heat-sensitive prisoners, access to respite areas, cold showers and chilled drinking water.
What Does This Mean in Lubbock?
For Lubbock residents, the easiest way to understand this is that we're talking about two different sets of facilities.
The Lubbock County Detention Center is already covered by Texas county-jail temperature standards. The big federal lawsuit concerns state prisons operated by TDCJ and whether the state must provide substantially more air-conditioned housing across that system.
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So if somebody tells you, "A federal judge just ordered the Lubbock County jail to install air conditioning!!!"...that's not what happened.
The bigger question still awaiting a final answer is whether a federal court will require Texas to do for its state prisons something Texas already requires of county jails like ours:
Keep occupied areas from getting hotter than 85 degrees.
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