Texas inmates soaking bedsheets in toilet water to cool off in unairconditioned prisons

Amid the ongoing heat wave, Texas prisoners are soaking their bedsheets in toilet water to prevent heat stroke in the state's unairconditioned correctional facilities, according to damning testimony shared Friday with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Only 30% of Texas' 100 prisons are air-conditioned, meaning inmates are taking desperate measures to stay cool, according to the Associated Press. In video from last week's TDCJ meeting in Huntsville, Janet Delk testified that for her husband and other prisoners, those desperate measures include using water from their cell toilets to cool off. "He said they take their shirts or their sheets at night and put them in the toilet so they can get them wet and then lay in them," Delk said.