Texas Spends $7 Million Fighting Demand To Add Air Conditioning To Dangerously Hot Prison . . . Then Installs The System For $4 Million

Texas recently settled a legal fight over its failure to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station — a facility long deemed dangerously hot in the summer. In the wisdom only known to bureaucrats, the state spent $7 million to fight the lawsuit and ultimately paid $4 million to simply put in the air conditioning system.

Rather than simply focus on the obvious need for the system, Texas went to court to blindly defend against the reasonable demand.  Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier insisted that the cost was originally pegged at $20 million. If so, the Department has equally poor logistic as it does litigation judgment.  Even before the litigation, the cost had dropped mysteriously to $11 million and then later to $4 million. However, the state still spent $11 million due to its decision to litigate the matter and spend more than $7 million on the lawsuit.