Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Over 200,000 incarcerated people face deadly summer heat in California and Texas.

Imprisoned people are forced to drink and bathe with water they describe as over-chlorinated, slimy, and foul-smelling.

Texas state prisons incarcerate more than 4,500 people in two-person cells the size of a parking space for nearly 24 hours a day.

“They were destroying me,” said one person placed in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s “Program for the Aggressive Mentally Ill Offender.”

To prevent more people from being infected with COVID-19, defense attorneys are calling for courts to release people.

John Hummel was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. The court, citing the current health crisis, has postponed the execution for 60 days.

Guards at the Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont are alleged to have led the victim to a hallway where there were no security cameras.