Updated at 7:45 p.m. on March 12, 2019, with photographs and coverage from the "Beat the Heat" Awareness event and at 6 p.m. on March 20, 2019, with information about upcoming debate and comment from the organizing group.

AUSTIN — Criminal justice advocates had challenged state lawmakers to spend three minutes in a hot mobile prison cell set up at the Texas Capitol last week.

Problem was, it turned out to be not so hot after all. As lawmakers shuttled between committee hearings and constituent meetings, it's unclear if any accepted the challenge, and volunteers struggled to keep the wooden box heated on the rainy afternoon.

Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates, a group of inmates' families and other supporters, hosted the "Beat the Heat Awareness Event" with the support of FAMM, a national criminal justice advocacy group. Casey Phillips, TPAA founder and president, said she believed the event was a success.

"Even though, do to some unforeseen circumstances the 'mock cell' was unable to reach the anticipated temperature, it still heated up enough to where some people couldn't stay inside the entire 3 minutes. But, honestly it wouldn't have matter if it was the anticipated 120 degrees because not one lawmaker accepted the challenge," Phillips, whose husband, Justin Phillips, is serving time on drug charges at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, said after the event.

"I'm left to wonder why? Just because they have on a suit and tie doesn't make them more important than any of us. We all breathe the same air. Three minutes of your time is nothing compared to the number of people that have lost their lives. "

Rep. James White, who chairs the House Corrections Committee, did not accept the challenge to try out the mock cell. But at a listening session hosted by the advocates that afternoon, he told them change would only come if they convinced lawmakers to provide the funding and guidance to the state prisons agency.

"Since 1854, the prisons have been hot. ... Hot air in committees will not address this problem," White, R-Hillister, said. "It's holding the Legislature and the governor accountable and giving the agency what they need."

Rep. Carl Sherman, Jr., D-DeSoto, and Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, also attended the listening session. Along with Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, and Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, the two men men are authoring bills to require the temperature at state jails and prisons to be kept between 65 and 85 degrees. Canales' bill will be debated in the White's committee on Wednesday.

Of the just more than 100 state-run secure facilities, about 3 in 4 lack climate control in areas where inmates live and sleep.

Seventy-nine employees and prisoners became ill between January and October 2018, an increase of nearly 13 percent since the same period the year before. At least 23 people have died behind bars from extreme temperatures since 1998, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

1 / 11Representative Carl Sherman speaks during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 2 / 11Representative James White speaks during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 3 / 11Senator Jose Menendez speaks during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 4 / 11Robert Lilly, who was incarcerated in the Wallace Unit asks a question during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 5 / 11Stephanie Kingrey (left) and Steve McCollum speak about their father, Larry McCollum (pictured), who died of heat stroke while he was incarcerated at the Hutchins Unit in Dallas County, during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 6 / 11Correctional Officer Elizabeth Dean, who works in the Holliday Unit in Huntsville, Texas, speaks during a press conference held by Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the John H Reagan State Office Building in Austin. The organization set up a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 7 / 11From left, Casey Phillips, founder and president of Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates; Robert Lilly, who was incarcerated in the Wallace Unit; attorney Tamika J. Solomon; and Savannah Eldrige, whose brother and step-son are both incarcerated at the Allred Unit, step in to a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Austin. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates set up the cell, and challenged people to spend three minutes inside.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 8 / 11Savannah Eldrige (left), whose brother and step-son are both incarcerated at the Allred Unit, and Robert Lilly, who was incarcerated in the Wallace Unit, step in to a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Austin. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates set up the cell, and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 9 / 11Legislative Aid Jennifer Russell of Houston (center) puts on a protective vest like those used by correctional officers before stepping in to a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Austin. Correctional Officer Elizabeth Dean (right), who works in the Holliday Unit in Huntsville, Texas, helps Russell put on the vest. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates set up the cell, and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 10 / 11Legislative Aid Jennifer Russell of Houston wears a protective vest like those used by correctional officers as she steps in to a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Austin. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates set up the cell, and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 11 / 11Rev. Ron Stief (left) reads a thermometer with Legislative Aid Jennifer Russell of Houston (right) inside a heated, mock prison cell outside the state capitol on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 in Austin. The thermometer read around 90 degrees. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates set up the cell, and challenged people to spend three minutes inside. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

The agency claims no one has died of heatstroke in years, but an in-custody death report from December stated that an inmate at the Michael Unit in East Texas died in July from "environmental hyperthermia," according to the Texas Tribune. The agency contests the report, the Tribune wrote last month, saying the autopsy on inmate Robert Earl Robinson was not completed.

A judge has already ordered that temperatures at one prison, the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota, be kept below 88 degrees after inmates sued over the extreme heat. Now several other inmates at other units are suing.

"We have a response to do what's right so no one else has to suffer and die in our custody. That's our responsibility," Sherman said at the news conference. "We should look at this as a ministry — that they are rehabilitated, not annihilated."