Danger in the water: Report exposes widespread water contamination in Texas prisons

Thousands incarcerated in Texas’ prisons may have been exposed to lead, arsenic, and other dangerous contaminants.

by Emmett Sanders, March 14, 2025

An organization in Texas has sparked concerns with a new report finding that the water in many of the state’s prisons is likely dangerous to drink. Texas Prisons Community Advocates (TPCA) is a grassroots advocacy organization whose work (like their 85 to Stay Alive campaign) focuses on exposing dangerous and inhumane prison conditions. Their new report examines the results of water samples taken from the state’s prisons by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state’s agency for environmental oversight. TPCA examined publicly available records of samples that were taken across 16 Texas prison water systems between 2019 and 2023. Overall, dangerous metallic and bacterial contaminants including lead, arsenic, e. coli, and more were detected in more than 90 samples. Thanks to this report, a bill (SB 1929) has already been introduced in the Texas legislature that would require more frequent and thorough water testing in Texas prisons.

The study was spurred by dozens of letters TPCA have received from incarcerated people detailing unaddressed concerns and suspicious illnesses. The major findings of the report include that:

• 38% of TDCJ water systems sampled tested positive for lead.
• Arsenic, which can cause skin, bladder, and lung cancer, as well as Copper, Coliform, and E. Coli were also found in multiple TDCJ water systems across the state.
• Of the 16 TDCJ water systems sampled, 15 received notes of violations from the TCEQ between 2019 and 2023.
• Overall, the study estimates more than 30,000 incarcerated people may have been affected by contaminated water in the 16 TDCJ water systems sampled alone.

The findings here echo those of other studies and reinforce what advocacy groups like Fight Toxic Prisons have long been saying: Prisons are built in ways that prioritize confinement over environmental safety for the people they confine. Water contamination in prisons is particularly problematic as incarcerated people rarely have the means to follow boil orders and are often given insufficient amounts of water during crises. Bottled water can be unavailable or cost-prohibitive. This can leave many with no choice but to drink, prepare food with, and bathe in water with contaminants that can cause cancer, kidney and liver failure, and death. Last year, in recognition of the right of people in prisons to be free from environmentally hazardous conditions, members of Congress introduced the Environmental Health in Prisons Act, a bill that would offer greater protections, increase oversight, and improve conditions for federal prisoners.

No prison sentence should include being forced to drink contaminated water, and neither incarcerated people nor their families should be forced to deal with long-lasting consequences that can not only undermine their physical and mental health, but can economically devastate families and communities as well. Access to clean water is a human right that must be honored for people behind bars.

Prison Policy Initiative’s Advocacy department is proud to have supported TPCA in their efforts to expose the prevalence of contaminated water in Texas prisons by helping to locate data, navigate data sources, review drafts, and provide graphics and other support like one-page fact sheets of the report’s findings. If you are a community-based advocate or legislator and would like to speak to the Advocacy department about helping with a criminal legal system reform project, please use our contact form and select the topic “Organizations and elected officials looking for advocacy assistance.”

For further information on environmental hazards in prisons, consider the following resources:

• Heat, floods, pests, disease, and death: What climate change means for people in prison
• Prisons are a daily environmental injustice