“They’re killing us in here!”
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Houston Tona Southards Naranjo told a stunned crowd at a press conference  July 18 in Austin at the Texas state Capitol: “He was my only child. Jon Anthony Southards was a loving son. Texas murdered him in the heat. We need desperate change. And we need it today, this hour, before the sun sets on

The press conference was an emotional gathering where families whose loved ones have died in the prison heat spoke, cried, pleaded and begged for Texas to stop the killing. It began a day of activism called “85 to Survive,” referring to the highest temperature allowed by law in city and county jails. But the state prisons had no boundaries on temperatures. It has been documented that they have gone as high as 150 degrees in Texas prison cells.

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After leaving the Austin event, Angie Agapetus, a leader of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, commented: “It seems that going to prison in Texas can be a death sentence for anyone. The heat is only going to get worse, and Texas must address this issue immediately. Air conditioning is not a luxury but a necessity. The deaths are murder and activists will fight until we stop them,”

The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement plans to have speakers at the August 25 meeting of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice which governs the whole prison system. They will also protest outside of the meeting regarding the death by heat as well as the unconscionable price gouging in the commissaries.

Related: Cleveland: Another death in the county jail