Four nonprofit prisoner-rights groups filed a complaint Monday in an Austin federal court alleging that Texas prisons' widespread lack of air conditioning violates the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The organizations joined a lawsuit filed last summer by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who argues he suffered an acute medical crisis after being housed in a Huntsville cell where temperatures exceeded 110 degrees. Tiede, a convicted murderer who served as inspiration for the... Read this story
