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Escape renews calls for prison agency shake-up
By PEGGY O'HARE
After facing serious questions about how 900 prohibited cell phones were smuggled into Texas prisons this year, along with drugs and weapons, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found itself on the defensive again Tuesday while trying to find an inmate who escaped despite being shackled to a wheelchair.
TDCJ officials could answer few questions about how convicted rapist Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr., 49, escaped Monday from a prison van in Baytown after pulling a gun and handcuffing two transport officers, stealing their three guns and walking away. He remains on the loose today.
Nor could prison officials explain how Comeaux obtained the gun he pulled on the officers or how he convinced medical personnel that he needed a wheelchair for the past decade.
The chairman of the Senate corrections committee said the incident shows Gov. Rick Perry needs to shake up the state prison system and its oversight board.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, received a threat a year ago from a death row inmate using a smuggled cell phone. Whitmire said Perry and the TDCJ cracked down on contraband shortly after that. But Monday's escape shows the system has again become lax, Whitmire said.
“Maybe it's time with top state leadership to consider a major shake-up in TDCJ,” Whitmire said. “It's time for the governor to take what should be the next step in making certain the chairman and TDCJ and his director and staff understand what zero tolerance really means.”
The inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Tuesday the state prison system, with its 154,000 inmates and 114 facilities, has “basically a good record.”
“There's obviously improvements to be made in any given circumstance,” John Moriarty said. “In my experience, what the prison system does, they do learn from their mistakes, they take action and make changes.”
The search for Comeaux, now wanted for escape and aggravated kidnapping, was centered in the Houston and Baytown areas, Moriarty said Tuesday.
Investigators would not reveal whether bloodhounds picked up Comeaux's scent during the search, how far the scent traveled or where it led. There is nothing to indicate Comeaux got access to a car, Moriarty said.
Moriarty revealed that the TDCJ had investigated Comeaux's mobility several years ago and whether he really needed to use a wheelchair, but medical personnel signed off on the inmate's need for the device.
“We rely on the doctors to tell us what inmates need, and (the prisoner) was adamant that he needed a wheelchair,” said TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Allegedly was paralyzed
Authorities have said he was supposed to be paralyzed on his left side.
Officers have spoken to his immediate relatives in the Houston area. Moriarty would not say whether Comeaux has tried to contact them.
Awards totaling up to $15,000 have been announced for information leading to Comeaux's capture.
Comeaux escaped Monday morning as transport officers tried to move him in a TDCJ van from the Estelle prison unit in Huntsville to the Stiles Unit in Beaumont. He was shackled to a wheelchair, a TDCJ report said.
When the van reached Highway 105 in Conroe, Comeaux pulled a pistol, overtaking the officers and firing a warning shot.
Comeaux then forced the officers to drive him to Baytown and stop the van near Lee College. Comeaux handcuffed the officers together and forced them into the back of the van. He put on one officer's gray uniform and black boots, then stole a 12-gauge shotgun and two semi-automatic pistols before fleeing on foot, leaving his pistol behind. The officers were discovered an hour later.
TDCJ - Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr.
Chronicle reporters Harvey Rice, James Pinkerton and Ericka Mellon contributed to this report.
peggy.ohare@chron.com
Escape renews calls for prison agency shake-up
November 11, 2009
25 pounds of pot in fruit crate at Texas prison
EDINBURG, Texas — A police department's gift of fruit to a Texas prison turned out to contain 25 pounds of marijuana.
The illegal harvest was discovered by inmates at the Segovia Unit unpacking the crate.
Edinburg police Chief Ruirino Munoz says the fruit originally came from a produce truck that also had about 1,000 pounds of pot.
Loads of legitimate produce that yield drugs are often barred from being delivered to the intended location.
Munoz says the Segovia Unit near Edinburg accepts such food donations, which are inspected by police before being sent to the prison. Munoz says this time the marijuana apparently was missed by officers and drug-sniffing dogs.
Prison spokesman Jason Clark says inmates who reported finding the drug on Friday were strip searched to make sure nobody kept any of the marijuana.
Information from: The Monitor, http://www.themonitor.com
25 pounds of pot in fruit crate at Texas prison
Copyright 2009, The Associated Press.
Texas sex offender still at large after escaping during prison transfer
December 2, 2009
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A convicted sex offender who escaped from Texas prison guards during a transfer is drawing the attention of legislative leaders.
Texas prison system spokeswoman Michelle Lyons told The Associated Press that Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr. was still on the run Wednesday.
State Sen. John Whitmire of Houston, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, on Tuesday called for more answers on how the 49-year-old inmate was able to flee.
Comeaux was in a wheelchair Monday when he pulled a gun on two guards as he was being transferred from a prison in Huntsville to a unit in Beaumont. Both guards were released unharmed after being forced to drive to the Baytown area, where Comeaux took off on foot.
Comeaux was serving life in prison for aggravated sexual assault out of Brazos County.
Texas sex offender still at large after escaping during prison transfer
Inmate electrocuted on work detail
The Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Texas—A Texas prison inmate has been electrocuted while performing maintenance work on an underground water main outside the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Thirty-nine-year-old Todd Hughes was on a crew working on a broken water line at what's known as the Walls Unit Tuesday afternoon when he was electrocuted apparently by an adjacent electrical line. A second inmate on the crew was hurt and treated at the unit infirmary.
Prison officials said the agency's Office of Inspector General is investigating.
Hughes had been in prison since July 2007 and was serving a seven-year sentence for intoxication manslaughter from Orange County.
Inmate electrocuted on work detail
Water use likely to rise this year
* By Doug Myers
The explanation was simple.
Sprinklers were running Friday at the corner of North 12th and Pine streets in Abilene. The city has launched a public awareness campaign urging consumers to conserve water. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is Abilene’s biggest water user, records show.
“With food service, laundry, bathing and restroom facilities for this number of people, the water usage will be high,” Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said, referring to inmates and others at Abilene’s two state prison facilities.
To say the least.
Having used nearly 240.7 million gallons over a one-year span that ran from September 2008 to August 2009 — thanks to its Robertson and Middleton units — the TDJC is Abilene’s biggest water user, according to city records obtained through a public records request.
Overall, as the city has launched a public awareness campaign urging consumers to conserve, residential, commercial and industrial/institutional waters users are projected to use 5.7 billion gallons of water this fiscal year, up from nearly 5.6 billion gallons in calendar year 2008 and nearly 5 billion gallons during extremely rainy calendar year 2007.
Usage at TDCJ outdistanced Dyess Air Force Base’s nearly 236.7 million gallons, Coca-Cola’s 94 million gallons, Abtex Beverage Corp.’s 67.1 million gallons and Abilene Independent School District’s 66.9 million gallons, records indicate.
Clark attributes TDCJ’s high usage in Abilene to the approximately 5,000 offenders — as well as 900 employees — at the two prison units. The Middleton Unit also does all laundry for the Robertson Unit, Clark said.
TDCJ’s water usage at its Abilene prison units hasn’t come cheaply, costing more than $600,000 during the studied 12-month period — or roughly $1,600 per day, according to figures provided by Wayne Lisenbee, the city’s assistant director of water utilities.
Another entity with a hefty water bill is Abilene ISD, consuming an average of 183,184 gallons each day over the year ending Aug. 31.
Like TDCJ’s Clark, AISD Superintendent David Polnick said the sheer number of people in the system drives up water usage.
Noting that AISD has nearly 20,000 students and staff members, Polnick said, “That is a lot of hand washing and restroom use and a lot of dishwashing in the cafeterias as we serve breakfast and lunch.”
While the biggest users are in the industrial/institutional class, the largest chunk — about 56 percent — of the projected 5.7 billion gallons to be used this calendar year in Abilene are residential users.
While it is unclear what the four highest residential water customers used over the previous 12 months because of a law granting them confidentiality, the fifth-highest user — a local doctor who didn’t seek to remain secret — used 1.5 million gallons. That amounted to 4,156 gallons a day. Efforts to reach him for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
Of the top 10 residential users, seven sought anonymity through provisions of the law. The eighth- and ninth-ranked highest residential users used about 1.3 million gallons each, records show.
The 3.2 billion gallons residential customers are projected to use outdistances the 1.8 billion projected to be used by commercial users and 700 million projected to be used by industrial/institutional users, according to city projections.
The sheer amount of water used in total by its residential customers is a major reason why the city recently launched a campaign — using billboards and commercials — to encourage consumers to conserve and not waste a drop of water.
The city’s public service announcements focus on “simple things that residential customers could do to reduce waste in and around their homes,” Lisenbee said.
According to Lisenbee, conservation is “one piece” of a comprehensive water management strategy. Others, Lisenbee said, include reuse of treated wastewater, coordinated use of the reservoir systems, water production efficiencies and pricing strategy, among other things.
“Conservation is the one piece that the consumer can participate and directly impact the longevity of water supplies,” Lisenbee said.
Lisenbee said it’s important the city conserve to ensure there are sufficient water resources to provide for future growth.
The city’s effort hasn’t been lost on water users, including those with the TDCJ and AISD.
Clark said the TDCJ has taken steps to conserve water, including replacing 306 shower heads with “economizer shower heads,” which use 1.5 gallons of water per minute — with some having timers. TDCJ has also wrapped steam line pipes at the facilities with insulation to “help with evaporation and conserve energy as well as reducing the amount of water required when heat isn’t lost,” Clark said.
Clark said TDCJ has an active program statewide to reduce utility costs and the amount of usage and continually encourages all manners of conservation.
Additionally, Polnick said AISD takes measures to conserve water, including not watering non-athletic grounds.
“As we renovate buildings, we install more efficient toilets and faucets,” Polnick said. “Conservation of all natural resources takes education, and I believe that the children of today are very conscious of conversation because of the emphasis put on this by parents, schools, and even the media.”
Meanwhile, city of Abilene officials are expected to decide in the coming months — as the city attempts to blend conserving water with selling water to make ends meet — whether it has enough effluent water to sell to the Tenaska “clean coal” plant proposed for near Sweetwater.
Tommy O’Brien, the city’s director of water utilities, said the study on Tenaska’s average 1 million-gallon-a-day request for effluent water is projected to be presented to the Abilene City Council by the end of the year or beginning of next year.
Lisenbee said whether there is enough water for Tenaska is an “excellent question” that is “being studied and considered right now.”
“We will have the answer to that key question when the study is concluded,” Lisenbee said.
Helen Manroe, manager of Tenaska Business Development, said Tenaska’s request is “very modest by power company standards,” noting its proposed dry cooling process is “very efficient” and will require an average of 1 million a day as opposed to the west cool plant process that requires 10 million gallons of way a day.
Manroe said Tenaska’s plan is to use effluent water, as opposed to more treated drinking water.
“We’re still moving forward,” Manroe said, noting the plant has hired an engineering firm and is continuing with its air permit requests. “We’re continuing to do all the things we need to.”
Manroe said the city’s decision on whether it has enough water to sell to Tenaska is “certainly something that we’re highly interested in.”
Manroe said the company is looking at making the $3 billion investment, which will result in 1,500 jobs at peak construction and 100 full-time jobs once the plant goes live.
Manroe said Tenaska has some other water options, but “our focus is on the city of Abilene” and reaching a deal with Key City leaders.
Manroe said a major selling point is the amount of money the city will get from selling the effluent water — cash that the city could use for “the benefit of the citizens of Abilene.”
Lisenbee said the city is evaluating how to provide Tenaska with the requested 2,000 acre-feet per year of municipal treated effluent at the peak delivery rate of 2 million gallons per day.
“Until the evaluation is complete, the city does not have additional information to provide,” Lisenbee said.
New prisons lockdown under way
By Mike Ward
More than 35,000 convicts at 14 of Texas’ toughest prisons have been
placed on lockdown status in a new crackdown on contraband smuggling
— the largest in months, officials just confirmed.
The shakedown involves cell-by-cell searches and is the most
significant such action in Texas’ prison system in almost a year,
since Gov. Rick Perry ordered a lockdown of all 112 state prisons in
October 2008 after a death row inmate used a smuggled cell phone to
call — and later threaten to kill — the state senator who heads a
legislative prisons committee.
“We’re doing cell searches, and the units will remain locked down
until we complete that,” said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice that operates the state
corrections system.
“The units we have locked down are the ones that have the most
contraband seizures … from inmates and on visitors. The goal is to
keep contraband out.”
Prison officials identified the prisons as the Polunsky Unit that
houses death row outside Livingston, the Ferguson Unit in Midway, the
Lewis Unit in Woodville, the Michael, Beto and Coffield units near
Tennessee Colony, the Central Unit in Sugar Land, the Clemons Unit
near Brazoria, the Scott Unit in Angleton, the Darrington Unit in
Rosharon, the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, the McConnell Unit in
Beeville, the Connally Unit in Kenedy and the Allred Unit outside
Wichita Falls.
All are maximum-security prisons, Lyons said.
Today’s crackdown came after Senate Criminal Justice Committee
Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, blasted prison security earlier
this month after discovering a threatening letter attributed to death-
row inmate Richard Tabler posted on a Web site, blogginginmates.com.
In November 2008, Tabler threatened to kill Whitmire and this
reporter in a letter mailed to prison investigators. Tabler had
called Whitmire the month before and Whitmire had summoned
authorities, who busted Tabler, his mother and sister for contraband.
The subsequent shakedown of all state prisons resulted in the seizure
of dozens of cell phones and other contraband, including more than
two dozen cell phones and cell gear from death row — arguably
supposed to be the most secure part of the prison system.
In a lockdown, convicts are kept locked in their cells and routine
operations and programs are suspended as special teams of
correctional officers conduct a cell-by-cell search for contraband
and other prohibited items. Such shakedowns can take several days to
complete.
New prisons lockdown under way
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Prisoners soon won't have to check out through Huntsville
New law allows inmates release from any unit.
By Mike Ward
Today the countdown begins to the end of one of the Texas prison
system's oldest practices: the long ride back to Huntsville for
release for most convicts who are finishing their sentences.
It has been a staple of prison life for decades, perhaps well over a
century, so that the prison system could verify the identity of all
prisoners, in person, before they were given their freedom, a bus
ticket home and $50. Texas is the last state in the nation to handle
releases that way.
But thanks to cutting-edge recordkeeping and fingerprint technology,
and a new law passed by the Legislature last spring, prison officials
are working to establish at least six regional centers where convicts
will be released. Or, officials can release them from the prison
where they finish their sentence.
The new system — designed to save money — has to be in operation by a
year from today. Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle
Lyons said Monday the change could happen sooner. Prison officials
are evaluating which facilities will serve as release centers, she said.
Last year, a majority of the more than 42,000 prison convicts who
were released came through the historic 1849, red-brick-walled
Huntsville Unit — although all women were turned out from a prison in
Gatesville, as they have been for years. The prison system houses
about 12,000 women and 143,000 men.
Lyons and other prison officials said Huntsville and Gatesville would
still be used as release centers.
The savings — officials are not sure of a figure — will come from not
transporting tens of thousands of convicts to Huntsville or
Gatesville for release. Thousands of such trips take place annually
in a fleet of buses that the prison system has on the road daily to
move white-uniformed convicts between lockups, to medical
appointments and to court.
On average, more than 2,100 convicts are on the road each day in 80 buses and vans, Lyons said.
"There's a lot of reasons to make this change: It will save money; it
will help inmates' re-entry; 49 other states do it this way," said
state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, who authored the bill changing
the tradition.
"Not only can they release them from regional centers, they can also
release inmates from other prisons. It will be a good thing," Madden
said.
Despite that optimism, there has been quiet grousing from local
officials who are not eager to have convicts discharging in their
communities, even waiting to catch a bus out of town.
In fact, when Texas embarked on a prison-building binge two decades
ago that tripled the size of the corrections system, local officials
in many cases were assured that no convicts would be released in
their area. "I've heard that ... and it will have to be taken into
account when they designate the release points," Madden said.
At the same time, Houston officials have complained for years that
many released convicts take the bus from Huntsville to Houston, then
stay to commit new crimes rather than continuing home. Prison
officials said a law requiring that convicts be paroled to their home
counties has thwarted such activity in recent years.
State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and veteran chairman of
the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said the change makes sense.
"It's been nuts to take prisoners from 112 units and haul them all
the way back to Huntsville from El Paso, then let them out and buy
them a bus ticket back to El Paso. This change represents a huge step
forward. There's no reason for that long ride back to Huntsville to
continue."
mward@statesman.com
Find this article at:
August 26, 2009
3,900 stimulus checks went to prison inmates
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
WASHINGTON — The federal government sent about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each this spring to people who were in no position to use the money to help stimulate the economy: prison inmates.
The checks were part of the massive economic recovery package approved by Congress and President Barack Obama in February. About 52 million Social Security recipients, railroad retirees and those receiving Supplemental Security Income were eligible for the one-time checks.
Prison inmates are generally ineligible for federal benefits. However, 2,200 of the inmates who received checks got to keep them because, under the law, they were eligible, said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration.
They were eligible because they weren't incarcerated in any one of the three months before the recovery package was enacted.
"The law specified that any beneficiary eligible for a Social Security benefit during one of those months was eligible for the recovery payment," Lassiter said.
The other 1,700 checks? That was a mistake.
Checks were sent to those inmates because government records didn't accurately show they were in prison, Lassiter said. He said most of those checks were returned by the prisons.
"We are currently reviewing each of those cases to determine whether or not the recovery payment was due," Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. "Where we determine payment was not due, we will take aggressive action to recover each of these erroneous payments."
The Boston Herald first reported that the checks were sent to inmates.
The inspector general for the Social Security Administration is performing an audit to make sure no checks went to ineligible recipients, spokesman George E. Penn said.
The audit, which had already been planned, will examine whether checks incorrectly went to inmates, dead people, fugitive felons or people living outside the U.S., Penn said.
The $787 billion economic recovery package included $2 million for the inspector general to oversee the provisions handled by the Social Security Administration. The audit is part of those efforts, Penn said. There is no timetable for its conclusion.
The federal government processed $13 billion in stimulus payments.
About $425,000 was incorrectly sent to inmates.
3,900 stimulus checks went to prison inmates
Copyright 2009, The Associated Press
Prisoners get stimulus checks in error
Associated Press
AUSTIN — More than 200 Texas state inmates were sent federal economic
stimulus checks even though most were ineligible to receive them.
Most were intercepted by prison officials, but nine inmates were
allowed to keep money because they were eligible for the payments.
The federal stimulus included $250 checks for anyone who received
Social Security, Veterans Affairs or Railroad Retirement Board
benefits between November 2008 and January 2009.
Incarcerated convicts generally are ineligible to receive federal
benefits checks, officials said. Those who weren’t in prison between
November 2008 and January 2009 could legally accept them, Social
Security Administration officials said.
Prisoners get stimulus checks in error
Web Posted: 08/15/2009
Investigations opened into Hondo inmate death
By Vianna Davila
Two criminal investigations have been opened into an inmate death at
a state prison in Hondo.
So far, no one has been charged in the July 13 incident at the Torres
Prison Unit, but a correctional officer has been recommended for
dismissal because the crime scene was improperly secured, said Jason
Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
According to officials, a fight broke out between inmates
Vonghrachane Saykham and James Valdez while they were in a prison
common area. Valdez, 25, allegedly struck Saykham, 50, several times
in the head, Clark said.
Saykham, in prison on a murder charge, was airlifted to University
Hospital, where he died July 18. Valdez was later transferred to the
Connally Unit in Kenedy while an investigation continues.
Investigators arrived to find prison guards had cleaned up the scene,
which prompted a second probe, said Inspector General John Moriarty.
The Office of Inspector General investigates all serious TDCJ inmate
altercations.
Moriarty would not name suspects in that case, but the TDCJ's Clark
confirmed that Sgt. Larry McBride had been recommended for dismissal
July 30 because of “policy violation related to securing the crime
scene” after the fight.
Investigations opened into Hondo inmate death
Hutto detention center to change direction
By Miguel Liscano
An Obama administration official announced this morning that the government will stop sending families to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor — where families are held while they await adjudication of their immigration cases.
The decision is part of a larger overhaul of the nation’s immigration detention system, said John Morton, who heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as assistant secretary of homeland security.
He said the Taylor facility will be converted into an immigration jail for women. It was not immediately clear how soon families now housed at the facility would be transfered to another facility.
“I don’t expect the transition to last very long,” Morton said. “You will very quickly see no more families going in to the facility and a thoughtful but fairly quick transition to a plan being put together for those families that remain.”
Detained families will now be housed at Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Pennsylvania. Morton said the facility, which is smaller than Hutto, will be filled to capacity and officials will look for alternatives to detention, such as supervised release, as possible options for some of the families.
“This change marks an important step in our ongoing efforts to enforce immigration laws smartly and effectively,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “We are improving detention center management to prioritize health, safety and uniformity among our facilities while ensuring security, efficiency and fiscal responsibility.”
The Hutto center, a 512-bed center run for profit by the Corrections Corp. of America through a contract with Williamson County, has been housing families since 2006. Opponents of the facility, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have lobbied Congress and held protests urging that the facility be closed, and citizens have spoken out against it before county commissioners.
“We’re encouraged that this step is being taken,” Jose Medina, spokesman for ACLU of Texas, said this morning. “And, of course, well also very interested on seeing how this issue of detaining female inmates is going to proceed.”
In 2007, The University of Texas School of Law’s Immigration Clinic and the ACLU of Texas won a settlement in a federal suit that accused the government of violating the rights of minors held at the center.
The settlement agreement ordered enforceable standards at the center, including requirements that families be able to spend an unlimited time together in their rooms with the door open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., eliminating scheduled head counts and ordered five hours of schooling per day for children, among other things. That agreement was scheduled to expire Aug. 29..
Morton said the impending expiration of the settlement at the end of the month did not directly have an effect on today’s announcement.
But, “obviously, the concerns that were raised there did play a part in our overall assessment of whether or not the use of this facility to detain families made the ultimate sense,” Morton said. “At the end of the day, it was my judgement that we could use that facility to a much higher and more productive use.”
Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis said the administration’s move would take the pressure off the county, which he described as acting as the middle man between the federal government and Corrections Corp. of America.
Williamson County receives about $15,800 a month under its latest 2-year contract with the company, which commissioners voted to renew in December.
Hutto detention center to change direction
July 23, 2009
Expanding ranks of Texas lifers part of national trend
Texas has both life sentences which are eligible for parole (most of them) and also life without parole (LWOP). The latter in Texas is only a sentencing option in capital murder cases and as of 2008, just 71 Texans had received LWOP sentences, according to the report, while 8,558 offenders (6.1% of TDCJ's total inmate population) were serving life sentences in Texas adult prisons but will ultimately be eligible for parole.
"However," as the Sentencing Project correctly notes, "eligibility does not equate to release and, owing to the reticence of review boards and governors, it has become increasingly difficult for persons serving a life sentence to be released on parole."
Six states and the federal government have only LWOP sentences, says the Sentencing Project. The total number of people nationally serving life sentences quadrupled in the last 25 years, with just 34,000 total prisoners serving life sentences in 1984 and more than 140,000 in 2008.
Among Texas lifers, 43.5% are black, according to the report, 33.8% are white, and 22.0% are Hispanic. There are 422 juveniles mixed into the totals for Texas lifers - about one in 20 out of all life sentences. Three of those juveniles are sentenced to life without parole, but going forward that penalty was abolished for juveniles by the 81st Texas Legislature. Out of those 422, thirteen juvenile girls are serving life sentences.
Notably, California uses life sentences much more liberally than Texas, particularly for juveniles but really for everybody. In a prison system just a little larger than ours (serving a population that's 60% greater, it should be added), a whopping 20% of all California prisoners are serving life sentences compared to just 6.1% in Texas. Of the more than 34,000 lifers in California, 10.8% are in for LWOP.
Does anyone wonder why California is cutting prisoners loose because it can't afford to incarcerate them all?
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Labels: LWOP, TDCJ
07.13.09
America's Jail Crisis
HOUSTON -- Out the 20th floor window of the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, the sprawl and elevation of buildings look like the campus of a law enforcement university, filling up the northeast corner of downtown. A juvenile justice center as big as a hospital. Two high-rise courthouses. An overrun booking tank. Beneath it all, tunnels run like veins through the complex, filled with inmates shuffling to hearings from the third biggest jail in America.
An average of 10,000 inmates were held per day in the Harris County Jail in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, not including an additional 1,100 bused six hours to and from northern Louisiana. With an average stay of 45 days in three drab detention facilities, the jail is consistently overcrowded.
"This really wasn't built for this," says John Dyess, chief administrative officer of the sheriff's office, which oversees the jail. "I don't know if we can build our way out of where we are today."
Money may decide the issue. A stunning 25% of Harris County's annual $1.5 billion budget goes to law enforcement, with more than $750,000 a day spent on detainees. A shortage of guards means the jail shells out $35 million a year on overtime; some guards are topping out at $100,000 a year in total pay.
Houston is far from alone. Amid budget crises, falling tax revenue and national unemployment approaching 10%, jails--usually city- or county-run holding facilities for those serving short sentences or awaiting trial--saw their populations grow nearly twice as fast as state and federal prison populations during the first half of the decade, according to a 2008 report by the Justice Policy Institute. The report says that local governments spent $97 billion on criminal justice in 2004, up 347% since 1982, while detention expenses climbed 519% to $19 billion. Between 2006 and 2008, Harris County's jail population grew 21%, adding 1,900 more mouths to feed three times a day.
In 2000, there were 621,149 people in America's local hoosegows; by midyear 2008 there were 26% more, or 785,556 inmates housed at an average 95% of rated capacity.
Los Angles County has the largest daily jail population, 19,836, twice as much as in Harris County, followed by New York City. Rounding out the rest of the 10 biggest jail jurisdictions are Cook County, Ill.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; Philadelphia; Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Dallas County, Texas; Orange County, Calif., and Shelby County, Tenn.
From behind the brick walls in Houston, doctors write $1 million in prescriptions a month; dentists pull 330 teeth. Women are lined up shoul der-to-shoulder to fold bright orange clothes that come out of a battery of dryers that can handle 170 pounds of laundry a load. Men prepare 35,000 meals a day and 13 million meals a year at an average of 88 cents a plastic tray. A recent day's potatoes were wheeled into the kitchen on a crate stacked seven rows high, past a guard and an inmate shouting at each other--apparently the golden rule of not getting within "sight and sound" of female inmates was broken. Tensions are high since a brawl a few days before.
The $200 million spent on detention a year "puts a strain on resources" for other programs, says Dyess. But counties are legally obligated to provide a safe place for inmates and guards.
Harris County has failed several jail standard tests and was recently cited for excessive use of force, inmate deaths, and poor medical and mental care (the jail says it serves as the biggest mental health facility in Texas).
The National Association of Counties is calling on communities to invest more into pretrial services so that people charged with non-violent offenses who don't need to be confined can be quickly vetted for 20 community programs and the mentally ill can be put under health care services or, if needed, placed in a secure health facility. In Harris County, for instance, some people are detained for speeding tickets, yet potentially could be among those who cost about $485 a day for a bed in a local hospital.
"Many people are in jail because they are too poor to post bail," says Donald Murray, senior legislative director for justice and public safety for the association. "If you have a first-class pretrial program, a county is often in a better position because they can carefully analyze the individual, can figure out better what needs to be done."
The Justice Policy Institute says eight out of 10 people in jail earned less than $2,000 a month before they were locked up. Nearly two-thirds of the people behind bars are waiting for trial, while the length of pretrial detention has increased. Meanwhile, between 1986 and 2005, violent crime arrests climbed 25%, while drug arrests jumped 150%, 82% of them in 2005 for possession (about half for marijuana). And an estimated six out of every 10 jail inmates have a mental disorder, compared to201-in-10 in the general population.
A guard in the 225-bed psych ward here sits near a sign that illustrates how to cut away a noose. Beneath it, a safety knife is held in a container for emergencies. Deputy Simon Ramirez Jr., 54, talks about how he's evolved from relying on the use of force in his youth to a more cerebral approach, as he and other guards in the ward "compete with the voices" in inmate heads. Many of his clientèle are homeless and arrive on repeated criminal trespassing arrests.
"A lot of these people just have to be by themselves," Ramirez says. "Nobody wants to build a mental health hospital. They use jails to warehouse people who have mental health issues."
State prisons aren't faring much better, with corrections nationwide costing more than $50 billion a year, according to a March report by the Pew Center on the States, called "One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections." The title comes from the r atio of people under some form of correctional control in the U.S.
As states operate in a drastic budget climate, jails and prisons stand to face cutbacks, despite harsher sentencing guidelines passed in the 1980s and '90s that have glutted cellblocks.
In 2008, the total jail and prison population reached 2.3 million, topping for the first time the ratio of one in every 100 adults.
Meanwhile, in the past 25 years, the number of people on probation and parole has increased from 1.6 million to 5 million. Many are caught in a revolving door: 40% of probationers don't complete their obligation successfully and more than half the number of parolees land back in jail after three years of being released. Yet the cost differences in 2008 are clear: $78.95 a day for a prisoner compared to $3.42 for supervising a probationer.
After an "extraordinary" 25 years of prison growth, the Pew report says "we are well past the point of diminishing returns."
"Serious, chronic and violent offenders belong behind bars, for a long time, and the expense of locking them up is justified many times over. But for hundreds of thousands of lower-level inmates, incarceration costs taxpayers far more than it saves in prevented crime."
Some states are changing. Georgia, for instance, bolstered the authority of probation officers to impose administrative sanctions on violators in certain circumstances. The theory is that quicker punishment for those who break the rules of their release will cut down on the chances of more serious crimes that lead back to prison.
A pilot program of four Georgia courts has freed up probation officers to supervise more and spend less time waiting for a judge in court. It's also cut jail time for inmates waiting for a court appearance by more than 70%. Total savings? $1.1 million between 2006 and 2008. Harris County burns through that in two days, but it's a start. The program became available statewide July 1.
From Forbes Magazine:
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Ruling gives courts access to prison trust funds
Money could be used to pay prisoners' court costs, fees.
By Mike Ward
Texas state prison convicts could soon see their trust funds — more than $33 million overseen by the state — getting tapped to pay overdue court costs and related expenses.
A recent Texas Supreme Court decision allows prison officials to withdraw funds from the inmate trust accounts without first notifying a convict.
Before that, officials said, convicts had to be alerted in advance so they could challenge the garnishment — and many did.
"This changes everything — and allows the counties to go in and collect back court fees and costs up front, and the inmate will have to challenge that after the fact," said Huntsville lawyer Bill Habern, who is familiar with the case. "That will be difficult."
In addition, he said, the debits will likely come as a surprise, because many convicts are not notified of their court costs until after they are in a prison cell, if then.
"Considering the economic situation, we expect the counties to start fleecing trust fund accounts," said Helga Dill, a Dallas-based prison rights activist. "Our concern is that the inmate is deprived of funds sent by family members who are in most cases poor. ... If an inmate can waive child support until he is released and has employment, then that should be possible with court costs as well."
Lest convicts worry that they could now wake up to find their trust funds emptied to pay old court costs, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said state law limits how much money in those accounts can be taken: only 20 percent of the initial deposit into a trust fund, and 10 percent of any subsequent deposit.
In all, prison officials said the inmate trust accounts contain more than $33.6 million — including about $17.6 million in cash and another $16 million that is invested in Treasury bills.
Although most of the accounts contain only a few hundred dollars, which convicts use to buy snacks, hygiene items and other commissary items, some funds contain much more — including inheritances and other payments they received after going to prison. As of last week. the largest account contained almost $234,000, and next-largest was more than $168,000, prison officials confirmed.
Lyons said that more than $13.5 million is being sought from the inmate accounts by court officials across Texas, though she did not know the total amount that inmates owe.
In contrast, only $1.9 million has been paid from the inmate accounts for various court fees and fines during the past 14 years, prison officials said.
That figure could increase dramatically if counties push ahead to collect unpaid court fees under the June 5 decision of Texas' high court. Such fees can range from about $25 to thousands of dollars, depending on the case and judges' discretion.
In the past, the trust funds could be tapped by a court order to recover overdue child support restitution and to pay some health care costs while in prison, among other things.
But officials had not been able to collect court costs in most cases because of a tangle of legal challenges and decisions. Appeals courts in Waco and Amarillo had declared the court costs to be part of the criminal case, meaning inmates had the right to challenge the garnishment in court, while San Antonio and Texarkana courts had ruled they were a collection process not subject to such notice.
"We agree that withdrawal orders are more civil in nature than criminal," the high court's decision says.
The ruling came in the case of Walter Harrell, serving prison time on drug charges. When court officials tried to collect $748 from his trust account to pay court costs and the costs of his court-appointed lawyer, Harrell objected.
The Supreme Court decision summed up the convict's position this way: "The State gave Harrell notice and an opportunity to be heard when it came to his liberty. However, when it came to his property, the State just took it."
While the decision indicates that lawbreakers know how much they owe when they leave court, Habern said that is often not the case. "That's a fallacy ... because many courts don't calculate the fees until some time after the case ends," he said.
"It's going to be a surprise, not a good one," he said. "My guess is it will cause some additional litigation."
Even so, county officials seem elated by the decision.
"We don't know exactly how much we are owed because some of these cases go back years and years. It's certainly something that we'll be looking at — especially with our budget the way it is," said Leroy Nellis, Travis County's budget officer.
In most cases, county officials said, they wait until a convict is paroled to collect the fees. As part of their parole, they have to get a statement of fees owed to the county where they were convicted, so parole officials can make sure they start paying them off.
In Houston, Harris County officials collected $107,000 from 156 parolees in April as part of a program to aggressively go after the fees. Only $38,000 was collected in February, the month before the program started.
In all of 2008, Harris County officials said, $111,605 was collected.
mward@statesman.com
Ruling gives courts access to prison trust funds
Texas plans to move some inmates from county jails
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Texas prison officials plan to cancel contracts to house up
to 1,900 state convicts in county lockups because the number of
convicts in state prisons has fallen.
Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice, told the Austin American-Statesman that officials plan to
move the convicts now housed in county lockups back into state
prisons by the end of August. Lawmakers, who directed the move,
anticipated the population decline and did not appropriate $28
million to continue leasing the contract beds.
The decrease in the Texas inmate population — part of a national
downtrend — coincides with an increase in correctional officers at
the state’s 112 adult prisons where the vacancy rate of guards has
dropped to about 5 percent. It’s the lowest numbers in more than a
decade for the state, which has long had a guard shortage.
Texas has just 1,262 correctional officer jobs now open, compared
with more than 3,700 openings just over a year ago. Officials say
more people have become guards because of pay incentives and the
struggling economy.
“It’s the economy. No doubt about it,” said state Sen. John Whitmire,
D-Houston. He chairs the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight
Committee that oversees prison operations.
Texas prison guards start at about $26,000 a year. After eight years,
the salary tops out at about $34,600. Even with the pay raises, Texas
still ranks low nationally in correctional officer pay. Last year, it
ranked 13th among 16 southern states, according to prison officials.
Prison officials said some remote prisons, such as those in Dalhart
and Fort Stockton, are operating more than 20 percent short on staff.
A year ago, Dalhart was struggling with a 38 percent vacancy rate
that forced officials in January 2008 to mothball more than 300 beds.
Brian Olsen, executive director of a union that represents some Texas
correctional officers, and Whitmire say the drop in the vacancy rate
should be an opportunity to upgrade the force.
Texas plans to move some inmates from county jails
June 08, 2009
Measuring public attitudes on criminal justice
Via The Crime Report, I was surprised to see the results of this Zogby Survey done on behalf of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Among the highlights:
• A majority of US adults believe that some crimes, for which offenders are currently incarcerated, do not demand time behind bars.
• Eight in ten (77%) adults believe the most appropriate sentence for nonviolent, nonserious offenders* is supervised probation, restitution, community service, and/or rehabilitative services; if an offender fails in these alternatives, then prison or jail may be appropriate.
• Over three-quarters (77%) believe alternatives to incarceration do not decrease public safety.
• More than half (55%) believe alternatives to prison or jail decrease costs to state and local governments.
• US adults more often think alternatives to incarceration are more effective than prison or jail time at reducing recidivism (45% vs. 38%).
• Respondents cited a variety of reasons they believe justify sending fewer people to prison or jail, including expense, overcrowding (danger to guards, danger to inmates), the ability of proven alternatives to reduce crime, and the fairness of the punishment relative to the crime.
Another striking result from that poll found a lack of public confidence in the effectiveness of prison at altering behavior: "More than half (54%) do not think that serving time in prison or jail reduces the likelihood that a person will commit more crime in the future, while about two-fifths (38%) hold the opposite view."
Meanwhile, Steve Hall from the Stand Down Texas Project alerts us to a separate poll by CNN concerning attitudes about the death penalty that suggests a very different public sentiment, though I think the question was framed in a biased way. For starters, before asking the pro or con question, the only example of an executed inmate given to the poll-taker was a serial killer who murdered 8 women in Connecticut, a particularly heinous crime that's not representative of the average death row inmate's case. (In Texas, even accomplices can be convicted of capital murder under the "law of parties.")
CNN's poll found 53% of Americans favored the death penalty for murder, while 43% preferred life without parole (the only choice offered besides "not sure").
The findings, though, are extremely suspect regarding their application to real-world policy because the options didn't include the most common sentence in murder cases - incarceration that's LESS than LWOP and frequently leaves the murderer parole-eligible after a certain, minimum sentence, if they can convince the parole board they're no longer a continuing threat.
In 2007, according to TDCJ's annual report (pdf) Texas state prisons received 1,078 offenders convicted of charges of homicide (p. 18). Only 37 of them received sentences of LWOP, while just 14 went to death row. So that's a pretty biased way to frame the question if the goal is to present realistic policy alternatives.
RELATED: Poll: Tough on crime messages don't resonate with critical swing voters.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Labels: Public Opinion
May 31, 2009
Texas prison cell-phone scandal making national news
The latest issue of Wired magazine includes a feature on the problem of cell phone smuggling in Texas prisons by Vince Beiser, highlighting the much-ballyhooed case where a death-row inmate began calling state Sen. John Whitmire, launching a statewide lockdown that revealed dozens more phones at units statewide.
Though certainly there are cases out there of prisoners using phones to commit crimes, and Wired runs through the most frequently cited examples, most cell phone use, of course, is to stay in touch with family and friends not to "order hits" or commit new offenses. Still the issue certainly constitutes a security threat, most immediately because it contributes to guard corruption, a point the story emphasizes:
The easiest—and probably most common—way mobiles are moving into prisons is in the pockets of guards and other prison staff. "There's no question that corrupt officers are involved," says Texas inspector general [John] Moriarty. The risk is small, the payoff big. Correctional staff coming to work are typically searched only lightly, if at all, and a phone can fetch a couple thousand dollars. One California officer told investigators he made more than $100,000 in a single year selling phones.
Deep into the article after listing several stories of crimes related to illegal cell phones, the tone changes when Beiser begins to talk about solutions:
There's no question that prisoners are using cell phones to foment all kinds of mayhem. But investigations have established that most calls placed on contraband mobiles are harmless—just saying hi to family and friends. Whatever their crimes, most convicts have parents, children, and others they're desperate to stay in touch with. Letters are slow, and personal visits often involve expensive, time-sucking travel. Some prisons have public phones for making collect calls, but access is limited, conversations are often monitored, and phone companies often charge much higher rates than on the outside.
Texas prison officials quoted in the story agreed part of the solution must be expanding legal communication between inmates and their families:
the most compelling reason to let inmates ... talk to their families isn't that it's nice for them or even their mothers. It's that it could reduce crime and save the public a bundle by cutting recidivism. Most of the more than 2 million men and women behind bars in the US will eventually be released, and decades of research show that those who maintain family ties are much less likely to land back in jail. Every parolee who stays straight saves taxpayers an average of more than $22,000 a year.
Even tough-on-crime Texas has embraced that logic. The state has long refused to allow phones of any sort for inmates in its prisons, but this year officials are installing landlines. "Once they're in place, we expect a decrease in the problem," Moriarty says.
Wired's story was followed up by pieces in Time magazine and on CNN referencing Texas' cell phone smuggling woes.
The best solution here, unfortunately, must come from the federal level: A 1934 law bans state and local governments from jamming broadcast signals and would have to be altered by Congress, according to officials at the FCC.
See related Grits coverage:
Senate committee examines reasons for contraband smuggling
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Labels: contraband, phone service, TDCJ
May 25, 2009
Drug war corruption deja vu
I had a serious deja vu moment last night watching 60 Minutes' expose on a bizarre case involving a multijurisdictional drug task force in Missouri in which some 20 people were arrested in an undercover drug sting before it unraveled in a web of lies and scandal.
Anyone who followed the "Tulia" case in Texas would be hard-pressed not to think of convicted perjurer and former police officer Tom Coleman, whose accusations sent dozens of people to prison before he was proven a liar and his victims were released and pardoned. (That nightmarish episode was also profiled on 60 Minutes a few years back.) A similar drug sting in Hearne, TX has been portrayed on the silver screen in the movie American Violet, which came out last month.
The Missouri case added an even more bizarre twist: The main cop in the story turned out to be an impostor, a fake who got a phony badge off the Internet, printed up his own business cards and convinced the small-town cops he represented a federal agency. Unreal.
This let's you know that locals elsewhere don't provide any more supervision for drug task force officers than did the folks in Tulia and Hearne. We got rid of these troublesome pseudoagencies in Texas and it's about time the rest of the country followed suit.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Labels: drug policy, drug task forces
Inmate hangs himself
Publication Date: 05/15/09
A convicted rapist and murderer committed suicide Tuesday at an area
prison, state prison officials said.
Bennie Cleveland, 51, reportedly hanged himself in a single-person
cell at the William P. Clements Jr. Unit.
Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
said Cleveland was found about 11 a.m. hanging in his cell. Guards
cut him down and an automated external defibrillator and CPR were
used in an attempt to save his life.
Cleveland was pronounced dead a half hour later in the unit's medical
unit.
Cleveland had been in prison for 25 years. He was serving a life
sentence for capital murder with a deadly weapon and rape.
Clark said the case will be investigated by TDCJ's Office of
Inspector General, which reviews all in-custody deaths.
"There does not appear to be any foul play involved," Clark said.
This is the second suicide at the prison this year.
- Staff writer Sean Thomas
Click here to return to story:
© The Amarillo Globe-News Online
May 09, 2009
'Writ Writer' film wins ABA award
Congratulations to Susanne Mason for winning a "Silver Gavel" award from the American Bar Association for her documentary film, "Writ Writer," chronicling the history of Texas prison inmate and famed jailhouse barrister, the late Fred Cruz.
The film aired on PBS' award winning Independent Lens series and earlier this year was screened at the Texas Capitol.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Labels: Arts
TDCJ to stock up on paper masks and gloves in preparation for possible swine flu troubles.
By: Tonya Peters
TDCJ has now taken a more proactive step in preparing for the worst as it pertains to swine flu. In a positive move to benefit employee/offender health, TDCJ has begun to stock up on paper masks, and plastic gloves as a move to help prevent the swine flu from entering TDCJ prisons.
Last week TDCJ spokesperson Michelle Lyons issued a statement to the Backgate stating that TDCJ was segregating offenders that exhibited the symptoms of the swine flu within TDCJ, while at the same time couldn't offer a plan that would pinpoint employee precautions being developed to protect against the illness. After our article detailing the issue, TDCJ has now inacted a plan to attack the illness before it can enter the prison.
Employees will now have the ability to protect themselves should the virus show up on their unit. This is a move that may have already been in the planning stages, or it may have been the attention we brought to the issue. Either way it's a job well done for the TDCJ administration. As of right now, there are no confirmed cases of infected offenders within the TDCJ, but two counties that conatin several TDCJ facilities have had confirmed civilian cases reported.
******
In an update; TDCJ has reinstated all inmate visitation statewide beginning this upcoming weekend (May 9th, 10th)
Beeville inmate remains hospitalized after fight
By Elaine Marsilio
BEEVILLE — A 35-year-old inmate remained in stable condition Monday
morning after a weekend fight in the McConnell Unit in Beeville,
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said.
Jeremy Sadler was flown by helicopter about 5:30 p.m. Saturday from
the prison to Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, HALO-Flight officials
said. Sadler was believed to have facial fractures, head lacerations,
a broken arm and missing teeth.
He was one of two inmates assaulted, officials said.
The three attackers identified have been isolated from the general
prison population, pending disciplinary hearings, officials said. The
Office of Inspector General is investigating.
Sadler is serving a 20-year sentence from Tarrant County for driving
while intoxicated and burglary.Another inmate, Daniel Ange, was
treated at the unit medical facility for head lacerations, officials
said. Ange is serving a five-year sentence for burglary in Brazoria
County.
Contact Elaine Marsilio at 886-3794 or marsilioe@caller.com
Beeville inmate remains hospitalized after fight
Indictments in prison contraband probe
By Mike Ward
A Polk County grand jury today indicted death row convict Richard Lee Tabler, his mother and sister and a former death row offender for alleged cell-phone smuggling that sparked a statewide controversy and lockdown of all state prisons.
Tabler was also indicted on a felony charge of retaliation, for threatening to kill state Sen. John Whitmire after the veteran lawmaker reported cell phone calls from Tabler to police and got the convicted Killeen killer busted. Whitmire chairs the Senate committee that oversees Texas’ prison system.
At the same time, a former guard and two convicts were also indicted for bribery amid allegations they paid the guard more than $1,100 over a few months to smuggle tobacco into the Polunsky Unit, where death row is located.
“We are sending a message with these indictments,” said Special Prosecutions Chief Gina DeBottis, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Our investigation is continuing.”
DeBottis said Tabler, 30, was indicted along with Lorraine Tabler, 60; Tabler’s sister, Kristina Martinez, 36, of Salado, on charges of possessing contraband in a state prison — a third-degree felony crime that carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Tabler is accused of using another inmate’s cell phone to make calls, and his mother and sister are accused of buying minutes for that phone — authorities said the minutes are a “component” of a cell phone that is illegal in a prison.
The contraband charges are second-degree felonies and can mean up to 10 years in prison. The retaliation charge will be enhanced to a second-degree felony because of Tabler’s criminal past, DeBottis said, and will could bring a life sentence.
Tabler was condemned to die for two Killeen slayings in 2004. His execution date has not been set.
Indicted on similar contraband charges by the grand jury Michael Roy Toney, 43, who prosecutors said was on death row at the time but has since been granted a new trial. He was convicted in the Thanksgiving Day 1985 bombing in Fort Worth that killed three people.
After Tabler was busted last October, Gov. Rick Perry ordered Texas’ 112 state prisons locked down and searched from top to bottom for cell phones and other contraband. In the following weeks, officials found dozens of cell phones, drugs, tobacco and other items.
DeBottis said at least two cell phones and related gear were confiscated from Toney during shakedowns on death row.
In cases unrelated to the death row investigation, the Polk County grand jury indicted former correctional officer Betty Clements, 30, and convicts Darnell Page, 43, and Terrance Holland, 35, on bribery charges.
Prison officials said Page is serving life for on drug and robbery charges from Houston. Holland is serving a 20-year sentence for drug possession, robbery and car theft convictions in Jefferson County, officials said.
DeBottis said the inmates over several months last year allegedly arranged to have money wired to Clements — $1,175 in all — to have Bugler tobacco smuggled to them inside the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, in Polk County east of Huntsville.
On one occasion, DeBottis said, one of the inmates sent Clements a text message on her cell phone to confirm he received the contraband.
Reached by phone late this afternoon, Whitmire applauded the indictments. “People should be held accountable,” he said.
“All this should remind us of how this state should maintain a zero tolerance for all contraband in our state prisons, and how we need to secure our prisons — whatever it takes,” Whitmire said.
Get more Legislative coverage inside the Virtual Capitol
Indictments in prison contraband probe
What is TDCJ doing about Swine Flu?
As of 4/28/09
TDCJ is focusing on efforts to keep swine flu out of
the system.
Offenders entering through intake units will be kept
separate from the general population until we can be sure they are
not carrying the virus.
Employees and visitors are being observed for
signs of illness before allowing them onto the units.
At the present time, visitation is not being stopped, but potential
visitors who may be carrying the virus will not be allowed on the
unit. If you are sick or have any of the following signs and
symptoms, you should not attempt visitation:
Fever over 99.5 degrees
It is important to be honest in your responses to any questions about
your health when you attempt visitation.
If you have these symptoms but do not admit to them so that you can visit, you may be threatening the health of your incarcerated loved one as well as that
of all other offenders in TDCJ.
You may be asked to wash your hands before entering the unit. If TDCJ
staff observe you having possible flu symptoms, you may be asked to
leave before visitation is over.
We are stressing the importance of good handwashing with offenders
and staff because that is the single most important thing a person
can do to reduce their risk of catching swine flu, until a vaccine is
available.
We have increased our surveillance for flu-like illnesses and testing
for influenza on the units so that we can detect the entry of swine
flu into the system.
If swine flu does enter TDCJ, we are prepared to treat infections and
to take additional measures to reduce the chances of spread within
the units and between units.
We are continuously re-evaluating our control measures and staying
abreast of recommendations from the Department of State Health
Services and the centers for Disease Control and Epidemiology to be
sure we are doing all we can to protect the health of our staff and
of the offenders.
Houstonian in prison counts hours until first free breath in 22 years
By ROMA KHANNA
HUNTSVILLE — In the 22 years that Gary Alvin Richard sat in prison
for a rape that forensic tests now suggest he did not commit, his son
grew from a boy of 9 to a man of 32, with two young children of his own.
Richard’s mother died, as did his father and brother.
And Richard himself, living under the weight of a life sentence in a
1987 Houston rape, became resigned to dying alone behind bars.
“I told my myself I was not going to have a life for living — that I
was not going to have any family left — if they ever let me out,”
Richard, 53, told the Houston Chronicle during an interview Tuesday
at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Huntsville Unit on what
may have been his final day locked up in a Texas prison.
Richard, soft-spoken and barely audible over the prison din, wiped
tears from behind the black-framed bifocals that dominated his face
beneath a receding and graying hairline. He spoke about time he has
lost, the faith he has found and the peace he has made with his ordeal.
“It was God’s will for me to be sent here. I probably would have
ended up back in prison or dead,” he said, referring to his past
convictions for dealing drugs and theft. “I have gotten ahold of my
life. I am not angry.”
Richard will return to the Harris County Jail Wednesday and should be
released Thursday after prosecutors and his defense attorney ask a
judge to set him free on bail. Lawyers then will weigh what to do
with his case, a case crumbling in light of new evidence that
discredits tests from the Houston Police Department crime lab that
helped secure his conviction.
Both sides agree Richard should be released but differ on whether the
recently completed tests clear him.
Faulty HPD forensics
Richard’s lawyer, Bob Wicoff, said the evidence proves his client’s
innocence. Prosecutors concede that the analysis of Richard’s body
fluids contradicts 1987 crime lab evidence, but say it is too early
to tell if his is a case of actual innocence.
Richard is untroubled by the uncertainty.
“God has brought me this far and he is going to take me the rest of
the way,” he said.
If cleared, Richard would be the fourth Harris County man with a
conviction overturned because of faulty forensics from HPD’s crime lab.
Richard received a life sentence in the kidnapping and rape of a
Houston nursing student. Prosecutors built a case on the victim’s
identification of Richard, made some seven months after the attack,
and on the now-discredited crime lab evidence.
His case is receiving new scrutiny as part of a review of 160 cases
with questionable blood-typing, or serology, evidence from the crime
lab. Lawyers discovered that in Richard’s case HPD analysts obtained
two sets of conflicting results, but reported only the conclusions
favorable to the prosecution.
They also discovered that the physical evidence from the crime,
samples from the victim and her clothes, had been destroyed,
eliminating the possibility of DNA testing. So, Wicoff and
prosecutors agreed to less a discriminating analysis.
Those tests, completed Friday, show Richard is not a match for the
evidence, prompting lawyers to summon him back to Houston.
Too far away for family
Richard described his time in prison as isolating. He served much of
his sentence at a prison near Wichita Falls, too far for his family
to visit. He had not seen any relatives in seven years when he was
returned to the Harris County Jail three weeks ago to give a saliva
sample for the new tests.
There, he saw his son for the first time as an adult. He met his
grandson and granddaughter. He also reconnected with his ex-wife, Zoe
Woodard, whom he called a constant source of support.
The couple, sweethearts since junior high, remained married through
the first 15 years of Richard’s sentence, until Woodard wondered if
he ever would be set free. She remarried, but currently is separated
from her second husband.
“Can you imagine the heartache I felt every time I got a letter and
he was denied something or was sick or was in pain and I can’t do
anything about it?” said Woodard, who lives in Houston and hopes to
reconcile with Richard when he is released.
“He is my son’s father,” she said. “And I love him and I knew he was
innocent. How could I not?”
What’s next?
Richard’s plans for his freedom are simple. He wants to visit his
parents’ graves and take his granddaughter on the fishing trip she
requested when they met.
“I never been fishing, but we will learn together,” he said, smiling.
He has not thought about the money he could receive in state
reparations — possibly as much as $1 million — if he is exonerated.
“That is the furthest thing from my mind,” Richard said. “I have been
poor all my life. I just want to get to know my family, just try to
live my life for God.”
roma.khanna@chron.com
Houstonian in prison counts hours until first free breath in 22 years
Apr. 26, 2009
How Texas inmates get contraband
BY DEANNA BOYD
Prison wardens love calls like this.
On the phone was the mother of an inmate who, at her son’s request,
sent a cellphone and money order to a P.O. box, apparently unaware
that it’s illegal for him to have a phone.
"Her son was telling her he wasn’t getting good cellphone
reception," said Inspector General John Moriarty with the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice. "Being a good mother, she called the
warden and said, 'Can you move my son? He’s got bad cellphone
reception.’"
The warden promptly answered, "Absolutely. Who is your son?"
Busted.
But more often than not, officials say, finding contraband in jails
and prisons is a daunting task. Inmates will go to great lengths to
hide contraband, even concealing it in their orifices.
"It’s a constant assault on the security operations," said Moriarty,
who recalls how an X-ray once exposed that an inmate had hidden a
cellphone and charger in his rectum. "That’s what the prison system
has to deal with — the constant daily assault on beating the
security to get stuff in."
Inmates caught with contraband can face at least third-degree felony
charges.
In 2007 and 2008, the Special Prosecution Unit, which prosecutes most
crimes in Texas prisons, accepted about 280 cases involving
prohibited substances in a correction facility, including tobacco,
cash, drugs and cellphones. In 191 of those, inmates were defendants.
The rest were against correctional officers and civilians, often
relatives and friends of inmates, said Gina DeBottis, executive
director of the unit. Inmates caught with contraband also risk
internal discipline, such as visitation restrictions and loss of
"good time" privileges.
In Tarrant County, jailers find contraband daily through shakedowns
of the various housing units, ranging from minor things like more
books than allowed to homemade weapons, said Alan Dennis, supervisor
of confinement housing.
Dennis said officers have found contraband tucked inside bags and
secured with a string, then flushed in the toilet or tucked into air
vents. Inmates later pull the string to retrieve their goods.
Most commonly, Dennis said, officers find extra food stored away. "A
lot of times they try to make homemade alcohol, so they will save
fruit and bread products to make that," he said. "They are very
ingenious."
A few times prison officials get lucky, Moriarty said, like when an
inmate in Beaumont used his illegal cellphone to call 911 and
complain about an officer with whom he’d had an altercation. "A lot
them are not rocket scientists," Moriarty said.
DEANNA BOYD, 817-390-7655
How Texas inmates get contraband
10 years in prison for one rustled cow?
By Mike Ward
Saddling up to lasso a growing problem with rustlers, the Texas Senate today approved a bill that would jack up the penalties for stealing livestock.
In a state that once hanged rustlers, the brief debate focused only on whether the new penalties were too harsh.
Senate Bill 1163 makes the theft of any cattle, horses or exotic livestock punishable by up to 10 years in a state pen — er, prison.
Rustling is now a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in a state jail.
Under the measure, the theft of 10 or more goats, pigs or sheep is a third-degree felony, as well. Under that: Still a state jail felony.
“The problem with rustlers is increasing, especially in my district in the Texas Panhandle,” said state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo. “One of the problems it that the evidence is often eaten or done away with … We want to stop this dead in its tracks.”
According to the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, 6,404 cases of rustling were reported in Texas in 2008, compared with just 2,400 the year before.
Seliger said rustling penalties are tougher in Oklahoma, New Mexico and other surrounding states. “That may be why it’s increasing here,” he said.
Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, questioned whether making a third-degree felony was too much.
“Up to 10 years in prison for one cow?” he asked.
“This will deter rustling,” Seliger said.
The Senate agreed, voting 29-2 for final passage of the measure.
Uresti and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, voted no.
In a statement after the vote, Larry Gray, executive director of the cattle raisers group, applauded the Senate vote.
“Cattle theft is very active in Texas, especially during tough economic times,” he said.
“While stealing a car or television will get a thief pennies on the dollar, stealing cattle can return actual market value within hours. A thief can steal one cow, take it to the auction the same day and receive the value of that animal.”
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10 years in prison for one rustled cow?
Categories: Criminal justice
New rules let prison inmates make regular calls
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
AUSTIN — Texas prison inmates are making routine phone calls for the
first time.
The Texas prison board was told Friday the first of a planned
systemwide program of telephone service to be available to most
inmates began working this week at the Henley State Jail in Dayton,
east of Houston. The system is being phased in this year throughout
the 112 units of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the
nation’s second-largest corrections agency.
Under terms of a contract with a Kansas telecommunications firm, the
country’s most restrictive telephone policy for state prisoners is
ending for an estimated 120,000 inmates who will be allowed up 120
minutes of prepaid and collect calls each month.
Three more prisons — Vance, in Fort Bend County; Luther, in Grimes
County; and Hobby, in Falls County — are to have phone service next
week and should be among 13 brought up in April.
Texas is the last state to bar routine phone access for inmates. Most
Texas prisoners now are allowed one five-minute collect call every 90
days, and only with a warden’s permission and only with a prison
officer present to monitor the call.
The new system will allow inmates up to 15 minutes per call to
friends and family on an approved list of visitors. Inmates and their
families can prepay for telephone calls at rates of about 23 cents a
minute for in-state calls and 39 cents for out-of-state calls.
New rules let prison inmates make regular calls
Family of dead inmate suspects he was beaten
As relatives demand answers, Harris County investigates man's death
after jail transfer
By RENEÉ C. LEE
In response to concerns from a dead inmate’s family members, Harris
County officials are reviewing the sudden death of a man who died
last week after being transported to a state jail.
Freddie Lee Bell died March 18 at Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Texas
Medical Center. His death came five days after being transferred to
the Lychner State Jail from the Harris County Jail on March 13,
officials said.
Although a cause of death has not been determined, family members
said they believe the man was beaten to death.
“A man has been killed and we don’t know the circumstances,” said
Pastor Robert Jefferson, a coordinator of the Houston Ministers
Against Crime, a group that focuses on criminal justice issues. “His
mother has been crying out. Our beef is that no one has called to
tell her what has happened.”
Bell, 31, was transferred to state jail to serve an eight-month
sentence for possession of a controlled substance. Texas Department
of Criminal Justice officials said he was vomiting when he came off
the transfer bus. He was taken to the jail infirmary where medical
personnel didn’t find any problems.
He was later transferred to Memorial Hermann after complaining of
stomach problems, said TDCJ spokeswoman Michele Lyons.
Lyons had said Bell’s preliminary cause of death was gastrointestinal
bleeding, but an official with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s
Office on Tuesday said the cause of death is still pending.
Harris County sheriff’s officials said they have reviewed all
medical, detention, and inmate grievance records and did not find
anything that indicated Bell was ill or had complained about being
sick. They also have interviewed the jailers who had contact with
Bell and transported him to the state jail and found nothing out of
the ordinary, said spokesman Paul Mabry.
“We want to make sure this was nothing more than an unfortunate
death,” Mabry said. “We want to make sure everything happened by the
book.”
Meanwhile, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has expressed
concern over not learning of the inmate’s death until Tuesday.
Donna Hawkins, a district attorney’s office spokeswoman, said her
office will investigate why officials weren’t notified sooner. The
office traditionally investigates all deaths that occur in police
custody, she said.
The Office of Inspector General is also investigating the death but
couldn’t be reached for comment.
At the news conference Tuesday afternoon, Bell’s family presented
more than a dozen pictures of what they say is Bell’s bloodied and
beaten body.
Family members say they took the photos after the body was released
to the funeral home. In the photos, a man's face is swollen and
bruised and he has bite marks and open wounds on his body.
“What in the hell happened to my son in the care of the system?”
Betty Bell said. “Somebody killed my son and beat him to death like a
dog.”
renee.lee@chron.com
Family of dead inmate suspects he was beaten
Officials investigate inmate's death after transfer to jail
By ANITA HASSAN
Authorities are investigating the death of an inmate who died five
days after being transferred to a state jail facility, Texas
Department of Criminal Justice officials said.
Freddie Lee Bell, 31, sentenced to eight months in a state jail for
possession of a control substance, died on March 18 shortly after
midnight at Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Texas Medical Center, said
said TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Bell was transfered to the Lychner State Jail from the Harris County
Jail on March 13, Lyons said.
“When he came off the transfer bus, he was vomiting,” she said.
The inmate was immediately taken to the jail infirmary where medical
personnel could not find any problems, Lyons said.
At some point, after complaining about stomach problems, Bell was
taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital.
His preliminary cause of death was determined to be gastrointestinal
bleeding, Lyons said.
No further information was immediately available.
The case is being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General.
anita.hassan@chron.com
Officials investigate inmate's death after transfer to jail
Illicit goods keep flowing into prisons
300 employees reprimanded from '03 to '08
By LISA SANDBERG and MATT STILES
AUSTIN — Knives and drugs, cell phones and smokeless tobacco. Even
McDonald’s hamburgers.
Texas prisons were a virtual bazaar of prohibited and illicit goods
smuggled in by guards and correctional employees who rarely faced
harsh punishment when caught, according to a Houston Chronicle review.
Nearly 300 employees, many lowly paid correctional officers, were
reprimanded for possessing prohibited items at 20 prison units with
the most pervasive contraband problem between 2003 and 2008, records
show.
Of the 263 employees disciplined solely for contraband, about 75
percent, were given probation. Thirty five were fired; 26 received no
punishment at all. One of the 263 was criminally prosecuted for the
contraband, but served no prison time.
Contraband trafficking, one of the biggest security problems facing
the state’s 112-unit prison system, gained national attention last
fall when a death row inmate used a smuggled cell phone to threaten a
prominent lawmaker.
The phone was used by fellow death row inmates to place nearly 3,000
other calls.
John Moriarty, the prison system’s inspector general, called
contraband “the biggest security problem the prisons face.”
Until recently, guards found introducing contraband into the system
were more likely to be handed minimal penalties rather than fired and
the punishment varied widely, a newspaper review of five years of
disciplinary records shows. In 47 cases in which an employee
attempted to deliver contraband to an offender, only seven cases
resulted in dismissals, according to the analysis.
Firing not automatic
Top prison officials have called for zero tolerance in stamping out
prison contraband, though it “doesn’t mean someone is terminated,”
said the prison system’s spokeswoman, Michelle Lyons.
“It means it’s addressed and is dealt with accordingly. In some
cases, depending on the contraband, the fitting punishment is
probation or suspension,” she said. “In more serious cases, where the
facts support that the person intended to introduce contraband to an
offender, then it’s dealt with possibly by termination.”
But in 2003 a correctional officer at the Estelle Unit was given 10
months probation and suspended for four days without pay after his
backpack turned up an assortment of knives, prescription drugs, a
cell phone, two electric razors, a box blade, a lighter, a set of
portable radios, cigarettes and cigars.
Another correctional officer with an otherwise clean record at the
Beto Unit got six months probation, simply for walking through a
metal detector with an unopened can of chewing tobacco.
A retired Estelle Unit prison guard said getting cigarettes into the
prisons was never a problem. “I used to walk behind the cell blocks
every night and would find cigarette ashes out there behind maybe a
third of the cell blocks,” said the former guard, who was once placed
on probation for being found on prison grounds with a bag containing
a paring knife, a spoon, scissors, an alarm clock, a deck of playing
cards and an ashtray.
Not all contraband is intended for inmates. “A lot of it is personal
use stuff,” Moriarty said. Officials must try to figure out whether a
guard simply forgot to unload his cell phone before entering a
prison, or intended to deliver it to an inmate, and pocket as much as
$2,000 for one destined for death row, he said.
Smuggling now harder
Lyons said changes instituted after the death row cell phone scandal,
such as pat-downs of everyond entering the prisons, have made it
harder for contraband to get in.
Still, more than 200 cell phones have been confiscated systemwide
since a lockdown for illicit items ended in November, including eight
seized from death row.
While contraband has been a problem for years, the issue received
scant attention until Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, received several
threatening calls from death row inmate Richard Tabler, a man linked
to four murders.
Low pay called a factor
Whitmire said last week that few inside the system would acknowledge
the problem until he found himself on the line with a death row
prisoner. Now, the lawmaker is calling for a no-tolerance policy
regarding contraband.
He said staffing shortages have forced prison administrators to
compromise in both discipline and hiring practices, adding, “There
are instances where they are hiring people with matters in their
background who normally wouldn’t be hired.”
He said rank-and-file officers’ salaries — their base pay is capped
at $34,000 annually — contribute to the problem. “The low pay
certainly would make those who are susceptible to being dishonest
cross the line.”
One legislative proposal would give correctional officers as much as
a 20-percent raise — at a two-year cost of at least $400 million.
Pressing prosecutions
Brian Olsen, executive director of the Texas branch of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union that
represents prison workers, said the contraband problem could persist
unless guards receive professional wages.
Still, he said most officers follow the rules, and others get into
trouble for “trafficking” in seemingly harmless items, such as candy
and soft drinks. “There are going to be bad officers,” Olsen said. “I
don’t think it’s as rampant a problem as everyone says.”
The newspaper analysis found smokeless tobacco to be the most popular
contraband linked to correctional employees, followed by cell phones
and alcohol.
The Stiles Unit in Beaumont, the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony and
the Allred unit in Wichita Falls had the most documented incidents
involving workers and contraband.
At four units, Connally in Kennedy, Hughes in Gatesville, Estelle in
Huntsville and Smith in Lamasa, all employees disciplined for
contraband received probation, rather than dismissal. Six other units
gave probation to their staff for contraband in more than 80 percent
of the cases.
Gina DeBottis, head of the prison system’s Special Prosecution Unit,
has sought to prosecute 68 prison employees for contraband since
2003, filing more than 90 charges. At least nine cases were dismissed
after indictment for various reasons, and grand juries refused
charges in three other instances, records show. The rest are pending,
she said.
The contraband prosecutions include at least 26 cases involving
tobacco and another 17 related to mobile telephones. There were also
at least seven cases from allegations that inmates bribed prison
employees.
matt.stiles@chron.com
Illicit
goods keep flowing into prisons
TDCJ lawsuit settled
Mother to receive $85K
By Sean Thomas
State officials along with Texas Tech University have settled a
federal lawsuit stemming from the suicide three years ago of an inmate.
The $85,000 settlement will go to Mary Daniels, the mother of
Theodore Schmerber, who killed himself in October 2006 while on
suicide watch. Schmerber, 29, was serving a 15-year sentence for
murder at the William P. Clements Jr. Unit, northeast of Amarillo.
The settlement ends a 2007 lawsuit against guards with the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice, claiming they failed to adequately
supervise Schmerber, who was from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Neither
TDCJ nor the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center admitted
wrongdoing in the settlement. The lawsuit recently was officially
dismissed.
Jeff Edwards, who represented Daniels, said the lawsuit not only
provided justice for the family but may prevent future suicides.
Twenty prisoners killed themselves in 2007 while in state custody.
That number increased to 32 last year.
"To (TDCJ's) credit they examined the cells and made sure the manner
in which Schmerber committed suicide couldn't happen again," Edwards
said. "One of the reasons my client was willing to resolve the case
was because they were taking proactive steps.
"Anytime you show some light on a tragedy and the reason why it
happens to high-ranking officials, they are much more likely to
improve their training."
Schmerber tore a blanket that was designed not to rip so that it
couldn't be used in suicide attempts. He then was able to tie it to a
light fixture because there was a gap between the fixture and the
ceiling. The fixtures have since been covered.
The two guards who were supposed to check on Schmerber every 15
minutes were put on probation for six months by TDCJ. One of those
guards no longer works for the department.
Texas Tech was involved because it provides health care to about 32
TDCJ facilities.
"He was diagnosed as a suicide risk and someone who needed to be sent
to a psych facility for stabilization (but wasn't)," Edwards said.
"He shouldn't have been there because he was actively suicidal."
Click here to return to story:
© The Amarillo Globe-News Online
1 in 22 adult Texans in corrections programs
By Mike Ward
Texas details from a new study released yesterday by the Pew Center on the States:
1 of every 22 adults in Texas is in prison, on parole or probation.
The national average is 1 in 33.
Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts and Ohio had the highest percentages of adults under correctional supervision.
In Texas, that amounts to 797,254 people — slightly more folks than were estimated to live in Austin in the 2007 U.S. Census update.
In the United States, the number of people on probation or parole nearly doubled to more than 5 million from 1982 to 2007. The total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million.
Bottom line: As Texas and other states lock more offenders in prison, they spend more taxpayer dollars to do so. And while state prison costs continue to increase, in tight budget times, states will have to make tough decisions about whether to continue growing their corrections systems at the expense of education, social programs and other areas of the budget.
In Texas, amid concern about that issue, lawmakers two years ago voted to greatly expand addiction-treatment and rehabilitation programs rather than build expensive new prisons.
So far, Senate and House leaders said last week, that initiative seems to be paying off — as the growth of the prison population in Texas has leveled off in recent months.
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1 in 22 adult Texans in corrections programs
February 16, 2009
Movie 'Writ Writer' to be screened at Texas capitol: How could the Lege help writ writers help innocent people get out of prison?
Quite a few of exonerated clients of (my employers at) the Innocence Project of Texas , most of whom have been freed based on DNA evidence years or decades after their original conviction, were ironically labeled "writ abusers" by the courts for their frequent, post-conviction habeas corpus appeals challenging their final conviction.
Those engaged in legislative oversight, legal advocacy or even adjudicating habeas writs should take advantage of an opportunity next week to see the film, "Writ Writer," if you haven't already. Learn more about the post-conviction writ process from the perspective of prisoners filing the documents and the in-prison writ writers who assist them. Via email I'm told that:
Representative Elliott Naishtat and the Austin Film Society are presenting a special screening of "Writ Writer" on Friday, February 27th, at 2:00 p.m. in the Texas Capitol Extension Auditorium, Room E1.004.
There will be a Q&A afterward, attorney Steve Martin (former chief counsel to the Texas Department of Corrections) will be joined by attorney Scott Medlock of the Texas Civil Rights Project, poet and prisoner rights activist Antonio Renaud, and of course Susanne Mason, the director and producre of "Writ Writer." We will discuss current prison issues with emphasis on prisoner litigation and reentry. Rep. Naishtat has invited legislators and their staffs, so if you haven't yet seen "Writ Writer" this is a great opportunity, and it's free.
For more information about the film, please visit; Writ Writer.
I've not yet seen this, so I'm definitely going to attend. The documentary focuses on storied Texas writ writer Fred Cruz, now deceased, whose quixotic career as a writ writer behind prison bars helped spawn a fascinating and rarely examined legal subculture.
Whenever I think of a pro-writ writers' legislative agenda, I think of Brandon Moon, a DNA exoneree from El Paso now living in Missouri; the forensics in his case were botched by the DPS crime lab in Lubbock. Once in prison, he took up the writ writer's mantle, telling the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when he got out that:
First, Texas prisoners have no right to receive information about their case, or anything else, under the Texas public information act, so Moon couldn't get access to the information he needed to combat the prosecution' s claims. ...
Second, inmate writ writers just aren't taken seriously in the courts, he said, and Moon couldn't get hearings on most of his motions before Sen. Ellis' new law allowed the new DNA testing. The New York Times quoted Moon on this point (if a bit out of context): "I had no method of enforcing procedures," he said. "I could file all the motions I wanted, but I couldn't get heard."
While many guilty people file similar writs of dubious merit, and surely it's difficult for judges to separate the wheat from the chaff, it's also true that within the flood of pro se habeas writs headed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals each year, some proportion of them, as was the case with so many of the "writ abusing" DNA exonerees, are actually innocent but cannot to a certainty prove it, or have already used up their appeals.
The Legislature has never seriously considered Moon's primary suggestion to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in Houston now four years ago: Give prisoners open records access to information about their own cases. Presently prisoners have no rights to request information under Texas' Public Information Act, about their own cases or anything else.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at;
Labels: DNA, Innocence, Open records, post-conviction writs
First prison phones connect March 30
By Mike Ward
Using voice-identity technology once used to order U.S. military air strikes, Texas on March 30 will begin allowing prison convicts to make legal phone calls for the first time — on old-fashioned, hard-wired handsets that promise to earn taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
Texas is the last state in the nation to allow an inmate phone system.
Prison officials announced today that the first eight phones will be activated at the Byrd Unit, the prison system’s primary intake and assessment unit in Huntsville. Within a month, five additional prisons will get hundreds more.
Only outgoing calls will be allowed. All of Texas’ 112 state prisons should have inmate phones ringing by September, when the final lockups are to be hooked up. That’s two months later than initial projections, a delay that officials attributed to planning delays. Ironically, the change comes as authorities officials are battling to rid prisons of smuggled cell phones and other contraband, an issue that came to light last October after a death row inmate called — and then threatened — a state senator with a smuggled cell phone.
For years, as other states installed inmate phone systems, Texas prison officials resisted such a move.
But two years ago, lawmakers changed state law to allow for prison phones as a way to generate revenue for state coffers and the Victim’s Compensation Fund.
Officials said they hope the new phone system will lessen the demand for smuggled cell phones, although that has not necessarily proven the case in other states that already have inmate phone systems.
Project manager Wendell Stewart and Paul Cooper, director and general manager of inmate phone systems for Embarq, the company hired to install and operate the phones, said the system will work like this:
¢ Convicts must be approved to make calls, and the numbers they are calling must be pre-approved by prison officials to ensure that no victims or their families are included.
¢ Each time they make a call, the system will validate the convict’s prison number, their “biometric voice print” — verify their voice — and the number they are calling.
¢ People who answer the calls will hear a recorded voice message alerting them that the call is coming from a prison, and giving them the option of accepting the call, declining it or blocking all further prison calls. Stewart said the system will allow for collect calls, or for calls pre-paid from an account into which family members can transfer money or convicts can transfer funds from their trust accounts. Inmates’ family members will be able to sign up online.
More than a million people are expected to register to receive calls from the 140,000 convicts who will be eligible to make them, Cooper said. “I have never encountered a project with as many details as this project,” Stewart said. Cooper told the Texas Board of Criminal Justice that the “biometric” aspect of the new system “was used in Vietnam in air strikes … to verify that the person asking for the air strike was approved to do so.”
Cooper said secure underground cables and other equipment are being installed in prisons, and crews expect to complete the work at a rate of about 15-18 prisons per month.
Board member Tom Mechler questioned whether a security lapse could occur if a convict called his mother’s house — an approved number — “and his mom is gone and his drug contact is at home.”
Prison officials acknowledged that calls could be answered by someone not approved to receive them, but they insisted such calls would be quickly detected by other security measures being built into the system.
All calls will be recorded, and the calls will be monitored on a sporadic basis by prison investigators, gang specialists and even wardens.
Wardens can turn off all phones if a problem arises, officials said. Mechler appeared assured by the detail, noting he was confident “we’ve taken every effort to make sure we’re doing everything right.” Added John Moriarty, the prison system’s inspector general: “I think we’ll have the most secure inmate phone system in the country.”
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First prison phones connect March 30
Prisoners Riot, Set Fire at Kinney County Detention Center
Written by DC Tedrow The Kinney County Detention Center in Bracketville remained in full lockdown yesterday after a Friday night riot, reports the Del Rio News Herald. According to a press release from the Kinney County Sheriff's Office, 30 prisoners refused to return to their cells from an indoor recreation area, and instead set fire to mattresses and clothing. Note that this isn't the first prison riot in Texas this month. On Dec. 12, prisoners at the Reeves County Detention Center rioted, taking two hostages and setting fire to the building. The media didn't offer any explanations as to why prisoners rioted in Bracketville, but I'm guessing the rioters at both facilities shared similar concerns. In addition, both are private prisons (GEO Group runs Reeves, and CEC runs Kinney County, according to their website). Is it possible that a for-profit prison cares more about its bottom line than it cares about providing humane living conditions?
Closing Hutto Prison for Children Requires Three Votes Posted by editor on December 22, 2008 TOMORROW, Tuesday morning, December 23, when most folks will be focused on the holidays, the Williamson County Commissioners Court will vote to extend their contracts for Hutto with ICE and CCA. Is there anything YOU or your organization can do write, call, fax and/or e-mail to stop such a decision that will only prolong the imprisonment and abuse of these innocent children? Is there any kind of mobilization at the Williamson Country Commissioners Court tomorrow that you could help with today? Below is a statement regarding the extension of Hutto...along with contact information. From Washington, D.C. to Washington State...please consider letting your voices heard. -- Jay J. Johnson Castro, Sr. By Mary Ellen Kersch WCCC Judge Gattis quoted in AAS re. TD Hutto vote: "Unless something jumps up and bites me, I will vote to renew" Bite him. Before Tuesday’s vote! Contact WCCC members and tell them to vote NO Hutto Renewal(See contact info below) Putting non-criminal families, including little children, in prison for infractions comparable to running a stop sign is immoral and un-American. Imprisoning people charged with no crime, while they await decision re. applications for citizenship and asylum, is NOT effective immigration policy, does NOT secure our borders, and has NOTHING to do with patriotism. It is a corrupt means to enrich an already wealthy corporation by exploiting the weakest among us! As partners in the contract for the most expensive method to effectively assure that non-criminal immigrants appear at their hearings, the Williamson County Commissioners Court (WCCC) exhibits a disregard for fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars during a national economic crisis. This prison is exempt from any governmental regulation and has no government oversight—and a continuing record of abuses. With the lapse of the only outside (court-ordered) oversight of this facility in August of 2009 those risks are greatly elevated in renewal. (Article in March 2008 NewYorker provides a good chronicle) Partnering with Corrections Corporation of American, with its less-than-admirable record of management, is a bad business practice, and exposes Williamson County taxpayers to financial risks from poor management, bad employees, and external lawsuits—all of which are beyond their capacity to control. (See attached “Letter to WCCC re CCA Business Practices.) Williamson County’s reputation has been damaged as a result of a number of specific offenses relating to the operation of the facility, as well as its very existence. Contract renewal would affirm WCCC’s approval of the disgraces of T Don Hutto and further damage our image locally, nationally, and internationally. Evidence presented at the September public forum (which WCCC boycotted) stated that T Don Hutto’s operation is probably a deterrent to future, clean, economic development in the area; renewal would send a very bad signal for the future of such growth; it is actually anti-economic development! This proposal fails the simple “risk vs. benefits” of any business undertaking. The less than $16,000 monthly maximum that Williamson County collects under this contract cannot be reasonably argued to compensate for the negatives that exist. WCCC has had a very rough record re. contracts to date; re-entering this partnership does nothing to convince citizens that WCCC has been learned anything from those previous costly contract mistakes. Please Contact:
Judge Dan Gattis: ctyjudge@wilco.org (512) 943-1550 Phone, email, by end of business Monday and tell them NO to Hutto! And broadcast this plea on behalf of good government and the babies in jail. Closing Hutto Prison for Children Requires Three Votes
Inmate's mom claims heightened security creates long wait for visitors
Dec 19, 2008 Security measures at Texas prisons have tightened in the wake of the cell phone smuggling scandal, and one inmate's mother alleges it's a problem, not just for employees but for visitors. "I don't object if it's for the security of the unit," she says of the pat-down searches and walk through metal detectors. But she claims lack of staff to handle the process means visitors to the Connally unit in south Texas have waited several hours to gain admittance. The north Texas mom, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said she drives five hours to see her son, only to wait up to three hours in the car for a two-hour visit. But Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, checked with unit officials who said there's no problem. "Because of the new security protocols put in place, it does take a little bit longer for visitors to get in but we've not been made aware of any major issues," he said. Inmate's mom claims heightened security creates long wait for visitors
Perry pardons 7 for past crimes
Associated Press AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry on Friday granted pardons to seven Texans after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended their clemency. Ronald John Ursin, 78, of San Antonio, received a full pardon for his indecent contact with a child conviction in 1991 after the victim and the woman who accused him said their accusations were fabricated during a child custody battle. He had been sentenced to 10 years probation. Also receiving full pardons from Perry were: — Jerry Wayne Crownover, 54, of Arlington, who was convicted in 1997 of making a terroristic threat during an altercation with his brother, a Class B misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail. — Wesley Baker Davis, 79, of Amarillo, who was convicted in 1947 of knowingly passing a forged check when he was 18. He was sentenced to five years of probation. His pardon included restoring his firearm rights. — Marlyn Ann Linguist, 52, of Cedar Hill, who was convicted in 1976 of unlawful carrying of a weapon and theft when she was 21. She was sentenced to three days in jail on both charges. — Nicholas Villa Marquez, 39, of Comanche, who was convicted in 1989 of a misdemeanor when he was 20. He was sentenced to six months' probation and paid $725 restitution. — Ruben Eduardo Ramirez, 32, of Galveston, who was convicted in 1996 of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. He paid a $500 fine. — Thomas Clyde Reedy, 59, of Denton, was convicted of burglary in 1971 when he was 22. He was sentenced to five years probation.
The U.S. criminal justice system is collapsing
By Paul Craig Roberts The Christmas season is a time to remember the unfortunate, among whom are those who have been wrongly convicted. In the United States, the country with the largest prison population in the world, the number of wrongly convicted is very large. Hardly any felony charges are resolved with trials. The vast majority of defendants, both innocent and guilty, are coerced into plea bargains. Not only are the innocent framed, but the guilty as well. It is quicker and less expensive to frame the guilty than to convict them on the evidence. Many Americans are wrongfully convicted, because they trust the justice system. They naively believe that police and prosecutors are moved by evidence and have a sense of justice. The trust they have in authorities makes them easy victims of a system that has no moral conscience and is untroubled by the injustice it perpetrates. Lt. William Strong, son of a military family, tired of his wife’s unfaithfulness and filed for divorce. The unfaithful wife retaliated by accusing Strong of rape. There was no evidence of rape, but Strong was deceived into a plea bargain. Once Strong entered a plea, he was double-crossed and given 60 years. Christophe Gaynor took an adolescent skateboard team to New York City for a competition. One of the kids attempted to buy illicit drugs. Gaynor threatened to tell the boy’s parents, and the boy preempted Gaynor by accusing him of sexual molestation. Gaynor was openly framed in the Arlington, Virginia, court system. Americans, or perhaps more accurately some Americans, were horrified by the photographs showing the torture of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib by the US military. The Senate Armed Services Committee has issued a report which concludes that the torture policy originated at the highest level of the Bush administration. Those Americans with a moral conscience have reeled under further revelations -- the torture of Guantanamo detainees, the transport of people seized by US authorities to Third World countries to be tortured. We have to ask ourselves why American service men and women and CIA operatives delight in torturing people about whom they know nothing? It has been well known since the Stalin era that torture never produces accurate information. Yet, US soldiers and CIA personnel jumped at the green light given to torture by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and the US Department of Justice. Why weren’t our soldiers shocked instead at the immorality of their leaders? One answer is that the US military no longer operates according to a code of honor. Military discipline in the traditional sense does not exist. The ethos of the US military has degenerated into kick-ass macho. Major General Taguba, who, instead of covering up the Abu Ghraib scandal, attempted in his report to hold the US military to its traditional principles, was forced to resign from the US Army. Another answer is that the work of torture, like police work and prosecutorial work, attracts brutal people who enjoy inflicting harm on others. The two Republican female US attorneys in Alabama who framed Democratic Governor Siegelman enjoyed ruining Siegelman and bringing grief to his family. Deborah Davies of the BBC’s Channel 4 undertook a four-month investigation of the torture of American prisoners inside American prisons. Videos taken by sadistic prison guards and videos recovered from surveillance cameras reveal horrible acts of torture and even of murder of prisoners by prison guards. An American prison reformer told Deborah Davies: “We’ve become immune to the abuse. The brutality has become customary.” Few Americans seem to be disturbed as these inhumane and illegal practices continue unabated. Americans continue to see themselves as the salt of the earth, the “indispensable people.” “Law and order conservatives” have a great responsibility for this evil. Just as “law and order conservatives” created hysteria among the people about crime, they created hysteria about terrorists. Hysterical people condone great evils and arm government with power in the mistaken belief that it will protect them. What kind of people have we become when we exercise no oversight over a criminal justice [sic] system that destroys the lives of innocent people and locks them away in prisons to be tortured by sadistic guards? Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct. Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal The U.S. criminal justice system is collapsing
Inmates sue over post-Ike conditions at Beaumont unit
Associated Press BEAUMONT — More than 130 federal lawsuits have been filed by state inmates who claim that living conditions after Hurricane Ike violated their civil rights. The suits have been filed by prisoners living in the LeBlanc Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Beaumont, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. The cases originally were joined together as a single lawsuit, but Judge Keith Giblin ruled they should be handled individually, in part because of the security quandary that might arise if all plaintiffs appeared in court at the same time. Giblin also expressed concerns that the inmates plan on representing themselves in court. In a 26-page handwritten complaint, the inmates say the prison was evacuated of prisoners before Hurricane Gustav's arrival and should have evacuated prior to Hurricane Ike as well, since meteorologists were forecasting a much more severe storm. The plaintiffs contend that by having to ride out the storm in prison, many inmates suffered psychological trauma. The lawsuit also says that for three days after the storm some inmates continued to drink and use the facility's water, unaware it had been contaminated by salt intrusion. Forcing inmates to remain at the unit during the storm and allowing them to drink the water afterward violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, the lawsuit alleges. A call to a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was not returned to the Associated Press on Sunday. A statement on the department Web site says power at 41 facilities was quickly restored through the use of generators. It said the "Stiles, Gist and LeBlanc facilities were notified to boil water for a short time after the city's water system was inundated with salt water from the storm surge." No serious injuries to staff or inmates were reported by any of the state's prisons as a result of the storm, the release also notes.
November 23, 2008 Has TDCJ learned the right lessons from death row cell phone scandal? An article by Mike Ward in the Austin Statesman today ("Cell phones hard to find on death row," Nov. 23) makes me fear Texas prison administrators haven't learned the right lessons from the recent rash of contraband discoveries (particularly cell phones) on death row: "A year ago, we were amazed to find an inmate with both a cell phone and a charger up there," John Moriarty, the state prison system's inspector general, said Thursday. "They have 24/7 to think of ways to hide cell phones so we can't find them. This is our biggest, most complex challenge right now: tracking these phones down." ... In all, a total of 18 smuggled cell phones were found on death row in just 30 days — five since a massive lockdown and shakedown of all prisons was completed last week. I'm surprised to see the inspector general say this wasn't a big problem a year ago when TDCJ discovered 484 cell phones during FY 2007 - fewer than this year (743 through Oct. 20), but still a sizable number. TDCJ administrators quoted in Ward's article focused mostly on how easy it is for inmates to hide items, and indeed, inmates are notoriously clever at concealing contraband. But that observation ignores a much more important fact when we're talking about death row: Only prison staff can bring contraband there in the first place, no matter how ably prisoners hide it. Death rown inmates never have face to face contact visits and could only, possibly receive contraband from staff. "People are asking, 'How could they miss those all those phones when they did a search?' Moriarty said," but that ignores the bigger question staring the inspector general in the face: How did the phones get on death row in the first place? Regular readers know TDCJ's system-wide lockdown began when death row inmate Richard Tabler called Sen. John Whitmire's office, setting off a firestorm of media criticism and searches at every TDCJ facility. Cell phones were discovered at 22 units (out of around 112), and 46 officers were caught bringing cell phones into various units when pat downs were implemented, the Inspector General testified recently to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee (which Whitmire chairs). But so far, only Tabler and two of his family members are facing charges despite so many staff directly implicated in smuggling in the contraband, Ward reports. Two questions loom as the agency moves forward: Will we see prosecutions of staff who smuggle cell phones in addition to inmates and family members paying for their minutes? Relatedly, will TDCJ take steps to reduce staff corruption besides a proposed 20% pay hike for staff, and what will such efforts look like? Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at; Labels: contraband, TDCJ
Officials say inmate threatened lawmaker, reporter after cell phone bust
By Mike Ward Richard Lee Tabler, the convicted killer who made headlines last month for chatting up a state senator from his death row cell on a smuggled cell phone, has threatened to kill the lawmaker and a reporter who broke the story, officials confirmed today. Prison investigators said Tabler, 29, wrote a letter to them outlining the threats to state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that oversees prison operations, and this reporter. Inspector General John Moriarty confirmed the letter, and said the written threats are being investigated. “We’re taking this very seriously,” he said, noting that imprisoned convicts could possibly have someone on the outside carry out their threats. After receiving the letter, investigators raided Tabler’s death row cell at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston and seized a variety of items, Moriarty said. Threatening a witness in a criminal case is a felony crime, officials said. Complicating any prosecution is the fact that Tabler already is under a death sentence, officials said. “Let’s see you put the (expletive) senator and Mike Ward in protective custody for their (expletive) lies,” states a copy of Tabler’s letter that was shown to the American-Statesman. “Don’t (expletive) with me about my family … Mark my (expletive) words.” Moriarty said Tabler has been upset about the arrests of his mother and his sister in connection with investigation into how he obtained a cell phone on death row. They were arrested on charges that they bought minutes for his phone to allow him to make calls. Tabler was sentenced to death for shooting two men in their car near Killeen in November 2004, prison records show. Bell County officials said Tabler, a onetime construction worker and cook, was a suspect in two other murders. Officials say inmate threatened lawmaker
TDCJ Officials on Whitmire's Hot Seat November 13, 2008 Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice officials are taking a beating this morning from Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, regarding the agency's efforts to keep contraband from coming into state prisons. Whitmire has been on the agency since receiving a string of phone calls this fall from a death row inmate who'd had a cell phone smuggled to him on the row. Reportedly, the inmate's mother worked with a prison guard to get the phone inside. The department says now it will pat down everyone entering prison -- including guards. But Whitmire is wondering why officials didn't already have such a policy in place. "Were you aware of the degree and amount of contraband [entering the prisons] and covered it up? Whitmire asked. Or is it that officials just didn't know about all the contraband? "I'd suggest that a 'yes' to either is bad." TDCJ Officials on Whitmire's Hot Seat
November 03, 2008 No final word yet on TDCJ lockdown results I've not seen a recent update on results from the TDCJ statewide prison lockdown searching for cell phones and other contraband since this report from AP nearly a week ago declaring: Illegal cellphones were the target in a shakedown of the huge Texas prison system, but the first full week of the inch-by-inch inspections has yielded an assortment of contraband, prison officials said Monday. More than 120 prohibited phones and phone components have been seized, they reported. That includes 63 phones, 56 chargers and five SIM cards that swap information among phones. But officers also turned up 61 weapons, 52 tobacco stashes and 14 stashes of money — all prohibited for the approximately 155,000 inmates in the state’s 111 prisons. During lockdowns, inmates are confined to their cells and may not have visitors. Inspections at about 15 units are complete, and the lockdowns there have been relaxed, a prison spokeswoman said. Particularly startling was the number of weapons found, which was many times the number reported seized annually in recent years (see this Grits post). Only ten prohibited weapons were found in 2007, and only 8 in all of 2008 before the latest lockdown and search. Since 2003 it's been a felony to bring contraband onto Texas prison units, but the problem worsened since then and nearly everyone agrees most of contraband -especially cell phones getting into hard to reach places like death row - comes mostly from inmates bribing corrupt guards. Six years later, the main solutions proposed have nothing to do with boosting penalties (since we've already done that), instead focusing on limits on what guards can bring to the unit, pat downs going in and out of each shift, pay hikes for guards, and expanded (legal, monitored) phone access for prisoners. They're also installing metal detectors (before now only 22 units had them), but they had metal detectors at the Polunsky unit and they've found 22 cell phones in that unit on death row in 2008 alone! Meanwhile, more cell phones have been found this year at the Stiles unit in Beaumont than any other facility, and now that unit has generated what so far is the state's highest profile conviction - a former guard was sentenced to four years for contraband smuggling. The Inspector General from TDCJ recently testified to a state senate committee that it was difficult to secure convictions against TDCJ staff, so one wonders if recent media coverage about cell phones on death row has changed to some degree how people feel about such misconduct? Finally, from Cat's Meow, we get a little TDCJ lockdown humor:
RELATED: Texas Prison Bidness has a post on contraband smuggling at a private prison unit in Mineral Wells and lets us know the Senate Criminal Justice Commitee will hold a hearing on interim charges related private prisons on Nov. 13.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at;
October 27, 2008 Contraband Update The Texas prison system remains on lockdown searching for contraband; here are a few interesting details from recent coverage. For starters, the blog Texas Prison Bidness informs us that private prisons have contraband smuggling problems, too, while the Houston Chronicle published an interesting story about how cell phones are smuggled into supposedly secure facilities. The Austin Statesman reports that searches have been expanded to staff leaving prisons as well as those entering them: At first, everyone going into Texas prisons was being searched as part of a massive contraband sweep. On Friday afternoon, officials ordered everyone leaving to be searched, too. The reason: At one Beaumont prison, officials reportedly found guards carrying out cell phone chargers — presumably to keep inmates from getting caught with them. The same story has this astonishing tidbit letting us know that nearly 1/3 of the state's cell phone smuggling problem occurs in one unit: With more than 2,800 convicts and 776 employees, the Stiles Unit has the worst problem with smuggled cell phones. Since January, 180 cell phones have been seized there, of the more than 600 statewide, according to agency statistics. We also hear more about employees' negative reaction to new policies: At some prisons, officials who didn't have permission to speak publicly said the pat searches are triggering dozens of grievances and formal complaints, including some in which female employees alleged that male searchers improperly touched their breasts. At others, employees have complained they are not being allowed to bring in lunches and other personal items they had previously, said Brian Olsen, executive director of a labor union that represents some Texas correctional officers. Another story from the Dallas News gave some interesting data on Texas prison contraband that surprised me, particularly the very low totals for the number of weapons found system-wide: Item 2007 2008*
Prohibited alcohol 2 - 8 Of course, not all contraband is harmful, even if it's prohibited. The same News story was accompanied by this photo of a "Prisonopoloy" board game created by a TDCJ inmate that was confiscated four years ago which now is housed in the Texas Prison Museum. It's a pretty impressive artifact:
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at;
Prison officials expand contraband search
By Mike Ward At first, everyone going into Texas prisons was being searched as part of a massive contraband sweep. On Friday afternoon, officials ordered everyone leaving to be searched, too. The reason: At one Beaumont prison, officials reportedly found guards carrying out cell phone chargers — presumably to keep inmates from getting caught with them. "The warden there instituted searches for everyone going in and out ... and we're making that systemwide now until the lockdown is over," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "We don't want any (contraband) coming in. We don't want anything going out." Effective late Friday afternoon, anyone entering or leaving Texas' 112 state prisons and parole lockups had to undergo pat searches and a run through a metal detector — an unprecedented security step. Initial reports from prison officials indicated that at least two cell phone chargers were found on correctional officers leaving the Stiles Unit outside Beaumont overnight Thursday. Lyons confirmed that prison was the first to order the searches for those leaving, but said she had no details. With more than 2,800 convicts and 776 employees, the Stiles Unit has the worst problem with smuggled cell phones. Since January, 180 cell phones have been seized there, of the more than 600 statewide, according to agency statistics. Several weeks ago, correctional officers found more than 60 cell phones when they looked inside a new compressor as it was delivered. The latest step came as prison officials reported that 40 smuggled cell phones, 36 chargers and 5 SIM (cell phone) cards have been confiscated since the sweep began. The contraband sweep began late Monday and all state prisons were ordered locked down after death row inmate Richard Lee Tabler was busted for having a cell phone used to make 2,800 calls in a month. Tabler, 29, said he paid $2,100 to get the phone smuggled in. Authorities are investigating who smuggled in the phone. Tabler's calls included several to state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who heads a legislative committee that oversees prisons. Investigators suspect at least nine other convicted murderers on death row also made calls from the phone. Tabler's mother and sisters have been arrested on charges they bought minutes for his phone to allow him to make calls. If convicted, they face up to two years in a state jail. Friday's expansion of the searches came as employee complaints mounted. At some prisons, officials who didn't have permission to speak publicly said the pat searches are triggering dozens of grievances and formal complaints, including some in which female employees alleged that male searchers improperly touched their breasts. At others, employees have complained they are not being allowed to bring in lunches and other personal items they had previously, said Brian Olsen, executive director of a labor union that represents some Texas correctional officers. At the prison system's headquarters just north of Huntsville, the lockdown meant that trustees and porters who serve as janitors, office helpers and errand runners are not around. By Friday, that had some employees complaining that the lockdown was hampering normal operations, an assertion prison officials dismissed. mward@statesman.com; 445-1718
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Texas senator says prisons need to be tougher on contraband
October 24, 2008 Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, longtime chairman of the Criminal Justice committee, has known cell phones were being smuggled into Texas prisons for years. He’s raised the issue in public hearings; he’s raised it in private meetings. It’s one of the reasons the state is about to allow inmates access to pay phones. But nothing quite prepared Sen. Whitmire for the calls he received recently from a murderer on death row. “I had no idea the extent of it,” he said. He was so dismayed by his experience, in which confessed killer Richard Tabler was so brazen he called and left messages with Mr. Whitmire’s senate staff, that he convened an emergency meeting of the criminal justice panel to discuss the prison system’s “lax attitude on contraband.” In response, prison officials began a massive lockdown and sweep of the entire system, the first in almost a decade. But Mr. Whitmire says much more is needed. For instance, only 22 of the state’s 112 prison units have walk through metal detectors. “This is an opportunity,” he says. “Tabler was dumb enough to call me, which now has brought the full focus and attention of state government on the problem of contraband.” Phones are just one of countless forbidden items prison officials discover every day — even on death row where inmates are locked alone in spartan cells 23 hours a day. Minutes before Ponchai Wilkerson was executed in 2000, prison officials watched in stunned disbelief as he spit out a handcuff key while strapped to the gurney. Another condemned man, Leon Dorsey, was routinely found with everything from homemade weapons to alcohol during his eight years on death row, including 25 bottles of homemade spirits during one search in the months leading up to his August execution. Weapons are the biggest concern for prison officials — with good reason. When inmates get their hands on weapons, death or injury usually follows. In 1974, several inmates led by drug kingpin Fred Carrasco took 11 people hostage and held prison officials at bay for 11 days with the help of guns smuggled into prison in a hollowed out ham and bullets sneaked through in a can of peaches. Two hostages and two inmates died in a shootout. Other officers and inmates have died after materials such as typewriter rods were sharpened into knives known as shanks. At the Texas Prison Museum, a display case includes three fake pistols made by inmates planning to escape in the 1960s. The weapons are carefully crafted out of wood to look real, but “I guarantee you if somebody pulled one of these and stuck it at you, you’d raise your hands to the ceiling,” said director Jim Willett, a retired warden. Alcohol, like weapons, often is not smuggled in but manufactured behind bars. Mr. Dorsey’s stash of alcohol “was not, obviously, a bottle of Bud Light,” says Michelle Lyons, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman. “He probably filled some sort of bottle with an alcoholic beverage — it could have been any type of bottle we’re talking about, a container of baby powder or a container of lotion.” And the alcohol wouldn’t be quite the tasty brew found in the free world. Ms. Lyons recalled one inmate’s recipe using orange juice and peppermint sticks. “It’s drinkable,” she said and it could make the imbiber drunk. But, she added dubiously, “I don’t know how tasty it is.” Mr. Willett, who worked for TDCJ for 30 years, said he always had his staff search for alcohol, particularly around the holidays. “Look around the Christmas, New Year’s season,” he said. “If you got any sense about you, you better start checking your unit for alcohol.” Though prison officials take contraband seriously, particularly weapons and cell phones which may be used for criminal activity, not all of it is dangerous. Common contraband includes personal clothing, personal hygiene items and excess food. Not long ago, Ms. Lyons says a pet mouse was confiscated from an inmate. “He had gone to the infirmary and said he had an ear infection and got one of those little droppers you use, so he could feed the mouse,” which he kept in a box, she said. More unusual was a jar of brown recluse spiders kept by another inmate. Apparently, “He was trying to figure out a way to extract their venom,” Ms. Lyons said. “We don’t know where he got them. Don’t know if he got them outside during recreation, don’t know if spider eggs were smuggled in. We don’t know.” Mr. Willett said experience taught him never to underestimate the ingenuity of people with endless hours on their hands and nowhere to go. One of the favorite items among visitors to the museum is an intricately crafted board game dubbed “Prisonopoly.” The game was made with cardboard, tape and colored pencils and while it looks remarkably like its inspiration, Monopoly, the names of the game spaces were changed to reflect prison life. Instead of going to jail, the player goes to “ad seg” (solitary confinement); instead of starting at “Go” the game begins at “The Walls,” the unit where inmates are processed; and the spot known as Boardwalk in the real game is labeled Death Row. The board game, confiscated about four years ago, wasn’t dangerous, Mr. Willett said, but “you’ve got certain ways that inmates are legally allowed to have things — and this would not be one of them.” That’s not to say officials weren’t impressed. After it was discovered, the inmate begged the warden not to destroy it. “It took me forever to make it,” he said. “Can I send it to my mother?” The warden agreed — on the condition that he make a second one for the prison museum. He did, and Mr. Willet said after the inmate was paroled, he dropped by the museum to admire his handiwork.
Criminal contraband Item 2007 2008* Prohibited alcohol 2 8 Prohibited cell phone 484 743 Prohibited drugs 512 405 Prohibited money 80 105 Prohibited tobacco 111 99
Prohibited weapon (such as shanks and razor blades) *Through Oct. 20 Texas senator says prisons need to be tougher on contraband
More cell phones found in prisons
By LISA SANDBERG AUSTIN — Prison employees have recovered another 32 smuggled cell phones and cell phone parts as a systemwide sweep through the prisons for contraband entered its third full day Thursday. At least 59 cell phones, including three on death row, have been discovered since Gov. Rick Perry on Monday ordered a lockdown of the 156,000-inmate prison system. The massive search was sparked by the revelation that 10 death row inmates used a smuggled phone to make nearly 2,800 calls. lsandberg@express-news.net
A reporter's account of the prison cell phone controversy
By Mike Ward October 23, 2008 I'm returning the medal. On Tuesday, after a Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the controversy over cell phones in prisons, Oliver Bell, the chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, approached me with a pewter- color medal. Thanks for your cooperation with the two-week investigation into how death row convict Richard Lee Tabler got a cell phone, Bell said, shaking my hand. "Presented by the chairman for outstanding performance," the medal says. "I was just doing my job," I told him. It was no ordinary job. The story began two weeks earlier, when an anonymous man called the newspaper with complaints about how Tabler and another death row inmate, Bill Mason, were being treated. He said he knew them both well. He told my editor he was calling from death row, but there was no way to verify that. I told him I would check out the information. I was suspicious. Then, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee chairman, John Whitmire, D-Houston, called me to say he had received a similar call from someone claiming to be an inmate. After several more calls, Whitmire was convinced the caller was actually on death row. "I told him you thought it was a hoax, and he held out the cell phone so I could hear the clanging," Whitmire said. "It was prison." On a subsequent call, Whitmire said, the caller identified himself as Tabler, asked for help with his appeal and told the senator that he knew the names of Whitmire's daughters, their ages and where they lived. Whitmire called the police. John Moriarty, the prison system's independent inspector general, was soon on the phone with me. So, this guy called you, too? Yes. How many times? Two or three. Do you know who it is for sure? No. Conversations with my editors ensued. And with their blessing, I proceeded into a murky area of journalism: being on the inside of a big police investigation, waiting until the case broke (if the calls turned out to be legit) for a front-row seat to an exclusive. It was an easy call for me and my editors to make because we didn't even have the basic information needed for a story. Investigators would do their work. My job was to wait, watch and keep my mouth shut, so as not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation. In no way did I participate or help in their effort. Based on the initial discussion with the caller, I had requested prison interviews with Tabler and Mason. Both agreed — "I've talked to them. They're looking forward to talking to you," the caller said — but the trip to the Polunsky Unit, where death row is located, was canceled at the request of my editor, who thought we should stay away. In the next two weeks, the caller phoned Whitmire several times, me less frequently. During the conversations, I mostly listened to what the caller had to say, asking a few questions, such as how he had obtained a cell phone in prison. At one point, toward the end, he identified himself to me as Tabler. How do I know that? I asked. I can prove it, he said. I can get you all kinds of details, he promised. On Monday, when prison investigators arrested Tabler's mother at the Austin airport on a felony charge connected with the case, I was sitting in the baggage claim area — still waiting for the story to break. Tabler had called me during the weekend, but I had missed the calls. I asked investigators if calling him back would interfere. Not at this point, they said. We know he's in his cell and has the phone. So I called. I asked him about a shakedown in his cell several days earlier, and how the searchers had missed getting the phone. He said he had "sold" it (traded it, presumably) to another inmate. It was just a random shakedown, he said, and everyone had been eating peanut butter sandwiches ever since — a prison staple during such shakedowns. He asked me about a call I had received several days earlier from a prisoner advocate. I played dumb. He provided more details, specifics only I and the other caller knew. I asked him how he knew. "I know a lot," Tabler said. "Give me 15 minutes and I'll tell you what kind of car you drive, I'll tell you your Social Security number, all kinds of other things. I can pull up a police database" on a Blackberry, he bragged. Then, at 10:22 a.m., came a shout: "Stand away from the door." "What the (expletive)," someone, possibly Tabler, shouted. Clanging and banging noises ensued. The phone line went dead. Prison officials later said Tabler had barricaded himself in his cell for a brief period before giving up. The phone was found inside, partly disassembled. I wrote my story and filed it online. The big secret was out. That's how I came to be involved in a story I was covering, a rare and often uncomfortable occurrence for reporters, in an area where you can be accused of crossing an ethical line. All I did was research and write a story for the American-Statesman. Just like I told Mr. Bell. mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
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Second arrest in death row cell phone case
By Mike Ward A second person was arrested today in the ongoing crackdown on cell phones and other contraband in Texas prisons. Authorities said Kristina Martinez, the sister of condemned death row convict Richard Lee Tabler, surrendered to Killeen police on a charge of introducing contraband into a prison. Martinez, 36, of Salado, was released on $10,000 bond, prison officials said. Tabler, 29, on Monday was pulled from his death row cell at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston and detained after investigators alleged a cell phone he had smuggled into prison had been used to make more than 2,800 calls in a month. Investigators suspect at least nine other death row inmates may have been allowed to make calls. Tabler’s mother, Lorraine Tabler, 60, was arrested Monday as she arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and charged with introducing contraband into a prison. That charge, a felony, carries a penalty of two years in a state jail, officials said. John Moriarty, the prison system’s independent inspector general, said investigators have determined that both Lorraine Tabler and Martinez purchased minutes for the phone that Richard Tabler said he had smuggled in. Moriarty said additional arrests are expected in coming days. While prison investigators have remained mum on whether guards are under investigation, Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement Monday night that “a guard allegedly accepted a bribe to deliver a cell phone ” to Tabler. Categories: Criminal justice Second arrest in death row cell phone case
Lawmakers scold prison officials for security breaches after cell phone controversy
By Mike Ward October 22, 2008 State prison officials were publicly upbraided Tuesday by lawmakers who said that lax enforcement of contraband rules allowed Texas' highest-security prisoners to obtain cell phones. At an emergency hearing of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, Chairman John Whitmire demanded that officials start electronically jamming cell phone calls in prisons despite a federal law that prohibits the practice without permission from the Federal Communications Commission. "We've got a serious problem. I'm angry nothing has been done up to this point to stop the contraband you all knew was there," Whitmire, D-Houston, told top prison officials. "I am looking for urgency. ... If you can't do it, I'll work with the governor to find someone who can get it done." There was no indication Tuesday that prison officials planned to start jamming phones. The hearing came in response to the Monday bust of death row convict Richard Lee Tabler, 29, for possessing a cell phone that had been used to make 2,800 calls in a month — including several to Whitmire. Many other inmates also used the phone. Possession of cell phones in Texas prisons is a felony. In response, Gov. Rick Perry ordered the entire prison system locked down until all cells can be searched for contraband, a process that could take three weeks while convicts remain locked in their cells. The process will bring normal operations to a standstill, officials said. The top administrators of the Polunsky Unit outside Livingston in deep East Texas — Warden Tim Simmons, Assistant Warden Billy Hirsch and Maj. Joe Smith, who oversees death row — were grilled by senators about procedures in Texas' most secure prison unit. Since January, 22 cell phones have been seized from death row, officials said, and they are among the more than 670 seized throughout the state's prison system. Two cell phones were removed from death row inmates in overnight searches Monday. Simmons said that though "a security breach" had occurred, additional staff and equipment would be necessary to stop the flow of contraband, as Perry ordered Monday under a new no-tolerance policy. Currently, all staff members and visitors must go through a metal detector at the front entrance, Simmons said. But metal detectors do not spot all cell phones, he said, noting that they can be concealed in underwire bras and through other means that have not always been closely checked. Whitmire asked how Tabler could pass the phone to inmates without being caught. Officials said he might have gotten help from inmates or correctional officers. They said the officers can make several times their monthly salary by smuggling contraband at Polunsky and other units. Inmates' cells on death row have electrical outlets, which can be used to charge phones. "These death row offenders have the money to pay" by having friends and relatives pay cash to dishonest guards, Smith said. "It scares me every day. Every day we fight this battle" with contraband. Perry's office said Monday that a guard "allegedly accepted a bribe" to smuggle a cell phone to Tabler. Officials on Tuesday were tight- lipped when asked what they were doing to investigate guards. Bryan Collier, the prison system's deputy executive director, said that only 22 of Texas' 108 state prisons have metal detectors and that 5,000 cameras monitor activities in the state's prisons. Whitmire noted that the Texas Youth Commission's 14 units have 8,000 cameras. Whitmire demanded prison officials find a way to fully pat-search all incoming staff members and visitors, install more cameras, bring in drug-sniffing dogs, post a reward for tipsters and prosecute violators. In the Tabler case, John Moriarty, the prison system's independent inspector general, said the criminal investigation is continuing. "We are anticipating additional arrests in the next couple of weeks," he said, without discussing specifics. mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
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Texas prisons being searched for cellphones October 21, 2008
By EMILY RAMSHAW AUSTIN – Texas prisons are undergoing a massive contraband sweep, following revelations that a death row inmate obtained a cellphone and used it to make thousands of calls – including several to the chair of the Senate's criminal justice committee. Authorities believe a guard accepted a bribe to give the cellphone to murderer Richard Tabler, who, along with at least nine other inmates, made more than 2,800 calls over 30 days. In repeated phone calls to Sen. John Whitmire, Mr. Tabler, who was sentenced to death in 2007 for fatally shooting two men in Killeen, appeared threatening, asking for personal favors and family visits while saying he knew the names of Mr. Whitmire's daughters and where they live in Houston. States lack authority to jam prison airwaves "No person should have to go through the experience I have over the last two weeks, repeatedly talking to a death row inmate," said Mr. Whitmire, D- Houston. "The impact goes on and on. This kind of activity is a danger to crime victims, to prosecutors, to judges. It's just intolerable." On Monday, a weeks-long investigation ended with Mr. Tabler's arrest. Authorities also arrested his mother, Lorraine Tabler, 60, of Georgia, who they believe aided him with the phone, at Austin- Bergstrom International Airport. Gov. Rick Perry's office ordered a lockdown of the prison system so that authorities could search for contraband. "Let there be no doubt about how seriously we take this security breach," Mr. Perry said in a statement. But Mr. Whitmire said the problem isn't resolved – it's widespread. He said 19 phones have been seized on death row this year alone – a fraction of the hundreds found in the rest of the state's prisons. Lawmakers will hold a hearing today to address the security breaches. Mr. Whitmire said he expects cell-by-cell searches, drug dogs and rewards for information. Texas prisons being searched for cellphones
New details on prison contraband sweep
By Mike Ward New get-tough details surfaced this morning on the massive contraband sweep underway in Texas’ 108 state prisons: Anyone refusing to be searched will be booted from the prison. Employees who refuse could face termination. Employees who are found with contraband will be fired and face a criminal investigation. In a memo circulated to all prison wardens late yesterday, prison board Chairman Oliver Bell said that while most prison employees are “honest and forthright, a small number of employees believe they can profit from illegal activity. “These illegal employee actions will not be tolerated,” he stated, underscoring a new zero-tolerance policy on all contraband in prisons — including tobacco, narcotics and cell phones. “This includes all state operated and state contracted secure facilities,” he said. The memo continued: “Employee, Vendor, Visitor or Offender - Anyone found in possession of alcohol, tobacco products, narcotics or any other prohibited item will be referred for prosecution. Any employee found with contraband will be subject to termination and criminal investigation. “As an additional measure, we have ordered a system-wide lockdown of all TDCJ secure facilities and a system-wide shake down in search of contraband. If found, the contraband will be seized and collected. All persons, employees and non-employees, found to be in possession of contraband while on a secure facility will be investigated for appropriate disciplinary action and/or referred for prosecution. “In addition, effective immediately, the Agency will execute “pat down searches,” with reasonable suspicion, and all individuals entering TDCJ secure facility will be subject to such. The Agency will also be increasing security controls and searches for (trustees) and offenders entering and leaving secure areas. Any individual refusing to undergo these searches will not be allowed on site; employees and offenders refusing to undergo these searches will also face disciplinary action. “Texans should expect nothing less than the safest and most secure prison facilities. The introduction of contraband of any type into these facilities not only jeopardizes the offenders and our staff but it impacts the citizens of Texas and violates our mission to protect those we serve.” New details on prison contraband sweep
October 05, 2008 Prison Poster Project in Austin
Sunday, October 5th, at 8 pm there will be a presentation of the Prison Poster Project, a 5 year long process involving contributions of more than 100 people and artists in prisons across the US. the presentation will happen during regular volunteer hours at the Inside Books Project, located at the Rhizome Collective, 300 Allen St.
Galveston prisoners still in jail
By Mike Ward An estimated 1,000 prisoners remained locked in the Galveston County Jail this afternoon, as the Hurricane Ike began battering the island city with flooding. County officials earlier had ordered a mandatory evacuation for all residents. Sheriff's officials insisted the prisoners and jailers were safe and sound, in a 2-year-old building designed to withstand hurricanes. A sheriff's office spokesman said the plan was for the prisoners and jailers to weather the storm in place — unless an evacuation took place later today. Sheriff's office spokesman Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo told the Houston Chronicle that the reason for not evacuating the prisoners is a security issue and cannot be discussed. Even so, he said, "the prisoners and their safety and well-being are paramount and it will be handled." In Austin, several legislative offices early this afternoon lodged angry complaints with Galveston County and state officials that the jail had not been evacuated — and perhaps would not be. Forecasters earlier warned that Ike's storm surge of as much as 20 feet is possible — a level that would put water 3 feet over the top of Galveston's seawall. Galveston and state emergency management officials early this afternoon said they were checking on the situation at the jail. Galveston prisoners still in jail
Some Texas prison inmates evacuated as precaution Sept. 10, 2008 State prison officials early today ordered evacuation of prisons that are considered vulnerable to Hurricane Ike if the storm should strike the Texas coast in their areas. Twelve dialysis patients were bused from the Carol Young Unit in Dickinson, in Galveston County, to the Estelle Unit near Huntsville, said prisons spokesman Jason Clark. More than 1,300 inmates from Cuero's medium-security Stevenson Unit in South Texas were moved to prisons in Beeville and Kenedy, and 597 were moved from the Glossbrenner Unit for felony substance abusers in San Diego, also in South Texas, to a lockup in Dilley. Clark said prison officials will continue to monitor Ike's movements throughout the day and more relocations may be ordered. Inmates evacuated as precaution Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
August 29, 2008 Pre-Gustav prisoner evacuations at TYC, TDCJ
The Austin Statesman's Mike Ward reported three hours ago that: On moving the prisoners, despite the hassle and expense, I say better safe than sorry if there's a chance of a Category 4 hurricane touching down there. Here's a picture from a state jail unit in Beaumont after the much-smaller Hurricane Rita in 2005: Sometimes the weather can provide interesting opportunities to learn something unexpected about the system. After Hurricane Rita damaged several prisons and jails, a couple of Texas counties for a while found themselves in the position of being unable to arrest low-level offenders for several months because of weather-induced overcrowding. In Gregg County, the jail actually had extra space but was renting it out for immigration detention, so they chose to turn away arrestees instead. For the most part, officers gave out citations instead instead of processing defendants through the jail. Because these counties went several months with radically reduced numbers of arrests, I suggested at the time that their crime data should be examined to determine if there was a resulting increase or decrease; that never happened, though a Gregg County commissioner later told me he didn't think there'd been a noticeable difference, which was also the conclusion reached by officials in Chambers County. While one certainly hopes there's no damage necessitating similar outcomes because of Gustav, I'd still like to see some neutral and credible researcher go back and analyze crime data for those counties during the months after Hurricane Rita. I'd like to know whether their inability to jail low-level offenders tangibly, measurably harmed public safety. RELATED: Texas Prison Bidness has been raising questions about treatment of immigration detainees held by private prison companies during the last round of evacuations in the run-up to Hurricane Dolly.
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Counties fail to update cases in Texas' crime database August 21, 2008
By ROBERT T. GARRETT AUSTIN – The state's criminal database, riddled with holes four years ago, has just as many gaps today. Although officials in Dallas and other poorly reporting counties promised in 2004 to do better, the Department of Public Safety says counties in the most recent assessment submitted outcomes on just 69 percent of criminal charges – the same percentage as before. "That's astonishing. That's leaving a substantial total number of criminals unreported in the system," said John Bradley, Williamson County district attorney. "That's the biggest threat to public safety that you can imagine, particularly in a post-9/11 time when we rely on databases to protect the public." Angie Klein, manager of the DPS criminal history records bureau, attributed the counties' lack of progress to slow resolution of many felony cases, and glitches in big urban counties, which can bring down statewide compliance rates. "It's hard to keep trained personnel," she said. Allen Clemson, the Dallas County commissioners' court administrator, said officials in smaller cities may forget to tell DPS when they drop charges. Mr. Bradley, the Central Texas district attorney, said the DPS system's incompleteness causes prosecutors, ignorant of a conviction, to be more lenient than they should. He said the biggest threat is to officers making traffic stops. If they can't get "accurate and timely dispatching information" about a driver, they don't know when to take precautions, he said. The DPS database also is used to screen schoolteachers and volunteers who work with children, and caregivers for the sick and frail. Gaps can affect background checks run by employers on job applicants and landlords checking on prospective tenants. Everyone from job applicants to people trying to adopt children or buy guns can be affected, Ms. Klein said. No one knows how many Texans didn't get a job because an acquittal or dismissal wasn't in the system, she said. An increasing number, though, are venting. A surge of complaints from people, mostly job-seekers frustrated that their acquittals or charge dismissals don't appear in the database, has forced DPS to double the size of an error resolution unit, to 20 employees, Ms. Klein said. Travis County sent required updates for only 13 percent of its 2006 charges, while Webb County followed through for just 2 percent, according to a recent DPS study. Dallas County, which a few years ago reported only half of its criminal case outcomes to the state, posted a better mark for 2006 – 71 percent. A special analysis DPS performed last week shows Dallas County hasn't filled in as many missing records from early in the decade as local officials said they would four years ago. DPS has only half of Dallas County's "dispositions" – what happens to a charge after prosecutors and courts step in – for 2001 and 2002, and two-thirds for 2003. The Legislature has passed laws requiring background checks of teachers, caregivers and workers in sensitive jobs. However, key lawmakers admit they haven't done enough to fix the DPS database, which feeds into a national one tended by the FBI. Experts say repairing the DPS system may require more state funds and will certainly take better coordination among hundreds of local agencies and elected officials. This fall, a Senate panel will look at how to improve background checks. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, chairman of the Government Organization Committee, said he wants to hear from "database experts, law enforcement and stakeholders." "It needs to be mended to make sure that state employers are able to make informed decisions during the hiring process," he said. Committee member Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, agrees but says the state needs counties' help and should be "sensitive to concerns about unfunded mandates." A state requirement that counties report criminal information to DPS took effect in 1993, but lawmakers didn't authorize funding or penalties for noncompliance. Of Texas' 254 counties, only 106 report to DPS electronically. Still, Ms. Klein said technology is only one hurdle. Local officials must work as a team and know their roles, she said. In DPS' sixth annual study of counties' reporting compliance, which came out in May, Harris County reported outcomes on all its 2006 charges. It ranked highest among the metropolitan areas. Dallas County has made progress, but the database still couldn't tell in the May study if there were convictions or clearances in some 23,000 of the 81,000 charges lodged in the county in 2006. Mr. Clemson, the Dallas County administrator, said that's down to about 19,000 now. He said some of the charges have gone to trial since the DPS did its study in May. He said he's not sure why DPS doesn't have more outcomes – whether there's a glitch, most cases haven't been resolved or some of the county's 33 law enforcement agencies don't tell DPS when they drop charges. "If there's something we can do to make it better, we're certainly going to do so," Mr. Clemson said. He has acknowledged the county won't ever patch holes from the 1990s. As for this decade, Mr. Clemson said in 2004 that the county was committed to filling in missing records from 2001-03. For those years, he said it would go back and report outcomes on a high percentage of charges – "in the 70s or 80" percent, he said. According to Ms. Klein, though, Dallas County only made it to 53 percent for 2001, 50 percent the next year and 67 percent for 2003. Mr. Clemson said he would have to examine what happened before commenting. In Travis County, chief deputy district clerk Michelle Brinkman attributed her county's poor marks to a new computer system. In Webb County, Elsa Galvan, with the district clerk's office, said recent turnover among computer technicians and software problems at the jail and some confusion in other offices may explain an almost total reporting lapse for 2006. Setting your criminal record straight If your record doesn't show that a charge was cleared, or you have other concerns about your criminal information history, contact the DPS error resolutions unit by e-mail at errorresolution@txdps.state.tx.us. Texas' criminal history database Public and private employers, law enforcement officials and others depend on the state's criminal database for up-to-date information. But counties have failed to fully report the outcomes of many cases – dismissal, acquittal or conviction. The state Department of Public Safety says failure to make complete reports could be due to confusion among local officials, computer problems or court backlogs. Reports to the state Percentage of criminal charges for which counties reported outcomes:
Year == Outcomes reported
Dallas County reports
Reporting rates vary widely
Independent.ie Inmates spreading menace online For some of our most violent prisoners social networking sites have become the perfect platform for enhancing their reputations. Edward Kelly takes a look at this worrying phenomenon. EVER wondered what our nation's prison population get up to with all that spare time on their hands? Well, cultivating their image on social networking internet sites has developed into a cult among the prison population. Many now seem to use crime as a 'road to stardom' and it's not hard to see the overlap enjoyed by some of the Bebo/YouTube/ Big Brother generation. Some are currently using the internet to build up a multitude of reputations. They are engaging in a number of activities (some of them plain strange) not for the power or wealth, but for the exposure and reputation. "Money on my mind, so money is all I think of, stepping out of the motherfuckin car, they in awe, I'm looking like a star bitch when you see me make a wish," the lyrics to Lil Wayne's Money On My Mind, which was the track accompanying a YouTube video posted by Karl Breen, a Mountjoy Prison inmate, as he posed topless in his prison cell. Perhaps this is a testament to the growing cockiness amongst Ireland's criminal population -- both in prison and outside its walls. Karl Breen was sentenced to nine years in prison last October for the manslaughter of his friend Martin McLoughlin in a drunken New Year's Eve fight at Jury's hotel near Croke Park in which he stabbed McLoughlin three times. Yet he manages to maintain an active Bebo and YouTube account. Breen, who goes by the online nickname of 'InfamousD22' , was shown in the video displaying his tattooed and muscular torso, reminiscent of the cover of Mark 'Chopper' Read's first book in which he catalogues his life of crime, Chopper. The video in question was taken down following a security crackdown in the prison which led to a violent riot on Saturday, July 12. However, his YouTube account remains active. Other videos by Breen include one of him doing chin-ups on a blue garda station lantern, prior to his prison sentence, as well as a three-part series of videos entitled 'Out of it!!' displaying various individuals in what appear to be drug-induced states of euphoria. In one, a young man throws himself down a staircase three consecutive times, with the encouragement of the person holding the camera, while in another the same individual appears to believe that he is a snail, as he shuffles around the room on the floor. Another shows an unconscious associate being slapped in the face and head, repeatedly with a leather belt, to the laughs of those around. With friends like this who needs enemies? Alarmingly, he has also posted a demonstration video for an Auto- Glock handgun to his personal You Tube page. Other prisoners are also using the internet to connect with the outside world in a bid to shake the boredom which prison is supposed to involve. One such individual, named Brian, isn't afraid to tell all in his personal Bebo introduction in which he quite bluntly tells the world: "Hi my name is Brian, I am currently servin' a sentence in Mountjoy for a number of violent crimes! But enuff said bout all dat ... O yeah!! Can't wait to be out." Even those on the outside appear aware of how easily those in our prisons can access such sites. One Bebo user has the following salutation posted on her profile: "Have a boyfriend but he's locked up at da moment ... Miss ya babes xXx. Big up da boys in Portlaoise Prison." And much of this bravado is posted to attract such women, who will 'stand by their men' supporting them, no matter what they might have done. Others are attracted to the danger and celebrity associated with well known criminals; they want to be their friends, lovers, saviours and supporters. Jack Levin, a Criminologist who is Director of the Brudnick Centre for Violence at Northeastern University in Boston, refers to such individuals as 'killer groupies'. Author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, Sheila Isenberg, offers the following explanation for this peculiar realm of attraction: "The man in prison has a lot of time on his hands and can romance a woman the way most men can't because they don't have the time. A man in prison can put a woman up on a pedestal and pay attention to her." When Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in 2005, was placed on death row, barely an hour passed before calls began to flood into the San Quentin State Prison Warden's office, with women pleading for his mailing address. One enterprising prison inmate, Todd Whiting, has himself posted on www.conpals. com with the following comment: "I am looking to build my network of friends and contacts from all over the States and the world. By doing so, I hope to enhance my possibilities for opportunity when I am released." Perhaps, Irish prisoners are doing the same from their prison cells. Certainly there are some that are finding various ways to communicate with the outside world in order to either build up their reputation or to maintain it. A prison officer I spoke with was surprised to hear that prisoners in Ireland were using social networking sites such as Bebo and YouTube as prisoners, apparently, "have computer access at certain times, but no internet. It's just the prison officers that can access the internet". However, he did concede that it may be possible for these individuals to gain internet access, through mobile phones smuggled into the prison or "thrown over the wall". In a plot straight out of an old film, an unsuspecting nun was inadvertently used in a ploy to sneak a mobile phone into Mountjoy Prison stashed inside a birthday cake in July. She was delivering the cake that had been requested by one of the prisoners, when the phone was spotted during the x-ray scanning of the iced treat. The fact that the possession of a mobile phone in prison is an offence and may lead to further jail time or a monetary fine, does not appear to be a major deterrent to those on the inside in Ireland at present. A YouTube video entitled 'Mountjoy Prison', shows the inside of the prison from various angles and with various views including one looking directly out through cell bars, set to the soundtrack of A- kon's song Locked up. It's all a bit 'Irish' though, a Fair City version of the underworld. It is not clear whether the person that posted this was a prisoner or a prison worker, but either way, it is equally worrying. It was reported in April that another Mountjoy prisoner had been using Bebo to keep up with the outside world, posting pictures of himself and other inmates posing and flexing muscles for the camera. "Come on everybody," he wrote, "Don't be shy leave a message when you drop into my profile." And they flocked to the site in droves. In one week alone, this prisoner had 500 hits recorded on his Bebo site. The Irish Prison Service said in July that mobile phone signal blocking technology was being developed at the Midlands Prison, and though it is undergoing some "fine tuning of the system, all indications predict that the system will work". But on August 1, having been overheard speaking in a low tone, John Gilligan was found to have a mobile phone in his cell, alongside a small quantity of body building drugs. The use of social networking websites by those in prison raises a major question not only with the security in our prisons, but also of the reach and influence of certain prisoners -- even behind bars. 'InfamousD22' strikes one as an intimidating figure. His choice of YouTube videos goes a step further in displaying the interests of this individual and certainly, that is the entire point. His and others' use of online communication is a way to remind those in the outside world, that they may in fact be gone for the present, but not far and not forever. Inmates spreading menace online
August 03, 2008 An August day not to forget
Lyndol Wilkinson I promised myself last year that I would never again be a part of a newspaper that would neglect to mention the single most tragic day of its existence. I had written a column that August day, but had failed to remember the anniversary of the worst hostage situation ever to hit the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Today is Aug. 1, two days short of 34 years past the day of infamy for our community — for its good people. As you read this, 34 years ago, negotiations as well as atrocities were taking place just across town at the Walls Unit. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials had been in an 11-day tug-of-war with convicted felons who had taken the Walls Unit school house hostage. Yes, there were specific numbers, but the victim was collectively the people of Windham School District, of their offender peers, of this agency, of our little community. And we all were hurting. As the afternoon of July 24 neared, an awful plot to kill and escape became a reality for the men and women of the Walls Unit. Three incarcerated felons chose the best hope for civilization (the school) as their target. They took teachers, librarians, correctional officers, and other convicts hostage and demanded to be set free. They had guns and they had a plan. They had each enjoyed the civilized nature that comes with the territory in education. They chose individuals who had only come to serve. They chose the ones who had, in all probability, befreinded them the most— maybe the ones who listened with an intelligent and informed ear, to the stories of the offenders' crimes, mistreatment by the system, poor legal representation and so on. Yes, they had been human. So, on Sunday, Aug. 3, we will relive that awful day in 1974, when the siege ended with the deaths of two Windham School District employees, two of the hostage-takers and two hostages. A Catholic priest, who volunteered himself in exchange for some or all of the hostages, lay injured along with the last living convict abductor. Oh, and how appropriate is this. The one convict who survived the shootout lay covered with blood, still as a church mouse, having fainted during the chaotic minutes of the shootout. He was scared literally to unconsciousness. What is not to love about a thug who terrorized women hostages for 11 days, but who fainted when the terror began to come to an end. Later, the State of Texas executed the lone survivor, but not before the appeals process got for him a new trial. I would rather not even print his name, because to do so allows a certian dignity to a man who does not deserve it, but to omit the name Fred Gomez Carrasco places this column in danger of failure to be specific enough for readers who have come to our community since that awful day. His name was Fred Gomez Carrasco, but to our community he was just Carrasco, with nothing to distinguish him as anything other than the brutal man that he was. He changed our lives with a violence that caused Middle America to keep thier children in the house on beautiful summer days that should have been spent playing waffle ball, swimming, and riding their bicycles. Why? I'll tell you why. As much as TDCJ is a part of our community, the criminal element involved comes to us from all over the state. They come from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Buckholtz and Grapeland. Degenerate behavior does not dwell in the city alone, and the perpetrators of crimes against the people of this state do not discriminate one person from another when their freedom is at stake. On the night of Aug. 3, after a day-long media blackout, we couldn't wrench away the foreboding feeling that had seeped into our souls. Hero, Saint Susie and I were standing on our patio, looking to the red sky above The Walls Unit when the gunfire began. And, then there was nothing. It was the loudest silence I had ever heard — and nothing since has come close. The 11-day siege was over. . . except for living with the image of that night. Yes, all we had left to do was learn how to live with the horror that had come to the staff of one of the finest school districts on the planet. Year after year we have mastered that. But we cannot ever forget. We must never, ever forget. Aug. 3, 1974, a day that TDC Director W. J. Estelle Jr. called the "meanest day in the history of our agency." Yes it was.
August 03, 2008 TDCJ's 'meanest day' TDC Director W. J. Estelle Jr. called Aug. 3, 1974 the "meanest day in the history of our agency." That's an awfully mean day. The Huntsville Item published a column this morning by Lyndol Richardson commemorating the lingering trauma to the town caused by a deadly, 11-day hostage episode 34 years ago stemming from an escape attempt gone bad: the siege ended with the deaths of two Windham School District employees, two of the hostage-takers and two hostages. A Catholic priest, who volunteered himself in exchange for some or all of the hostages, lay injured along with the last living convict abductor.
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Virus cancels prisoner visits at Huntsville's Wynne Unit 440 inmates and 28 staff members have become ill
By ALLAN TURNER More than 400 prisoners at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville have been sickened with a viral stomach ailment, leading authorities to close the prison to visitors this weekend. Spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said the first of 440 prisoners and 28 staff members became ill last Friday. The illness, characterized by nausea and diarrhea, typically lasts two or three days. Lyons said several inmates were given fluids intravenously to combat dehydration. None has been hospitalized. Lyons said the outbreak, attributed to noroviruses, is limited to the main unit. Some trusty camp offenders who work in the main unit have not been allowed to return to the camp, she said. People who plan to visit trusty camp prisoners should check in advance to determine whether they will be able to receive visitors. Inquiries may be made by telephoning the Wynne Unit at 936-295-9126. allan.turner@chron.com
Update: Clements Unit Homicide Posted: July 25, 2008 We have new information about the murder of an inmate at the Clements Unit, just northeast of Amarillo. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says 51 year old Roger Keith was killed Thursday morning. We know he died during a fight between inmate. Keith was in jail for abandoning and endangering a child as well as indecency with a child. He was serving six years. His cell mate has been named a suspect in the case. 58 year old Eric Hurt is being questioned at this time but has not been charged. Hurt is serving 35 years for aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon. The Office of the Inspector General and the Potter-Randall Special Crimes unit are involved in the investigation. We will continue to keep you updated if charges are filed.
June 19, 2008 Preparing for the price tag of Texas prisons As Congress focuses on costs of the drug war, I was interested to receive notice of this brief and informative Texas Public Policy Foundation podcast titled "Preparing for the price tag of Texas prisons," featuring an interview with TPPF criminal justice policy analyst Marc Levin. Give it a listen. The only effective way to control costs in Texas prisons, said Levin, is to control the population numbers. The state already skimps as much on minimizing conditions, cutting calories in meals, etc., he said, as the federal courts will allow. Levin praised incentive funding to local probation departments passed by the Legislature in 2007 aimed at providing more funds to departments that help probationers succeed. The success of the new reforms, he said will depend on judges and prosecutors using the new tools. Harris County, in particular, "has 16% of the state's population but they account for 50% of the state jail inmates who are incarcerated for less than a gram of drugs." There's a "perverse incentive" for local officials to "over-utilize prisons just because they'll be sending the bill to the state."
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Documentary remembers Fred Cruz, a Texas convict who fought the system from within
June 15, 2008 When it comes to law and order, we like to keep things simple. If you do the crime, you should do the time. But reality has a way of complicating simple relationships, a fact of life you've probably already noticed as reports of prisoners exonerated by DNA tests continue to multiply. And a fact made deeply and compellingly clear by Writ Writer, a documentary telling the story of how a Mexican-American convict with an eighth-grade education took on the Texas prison system and won. His name was Fred Cruz, but in Susanne Mason's 60-minute film we come to know him as the man his fellow inmates and prison authorities called "the Writ Writer." Combining interviews with friends, associates and adversaries with a narration based on Mr. Cruz's prison journals, letters, legal writings and transcripts of his court appearances, Ms. Mason creates a detailed portrait of not just the man, but the times that shaped him. Mr. Cruz was convicted of armed robbery in 1960, capping a troubled childhood that saw his brother killed by police and Mr. Cruz accidentally shoot his best friend. Not a promising résumé for a young man. But Mr. Cruz was different. Unable to afford a lawyer to appeal his case (he insisted he was innocent of the robberies for which he was sentenced to serve 50 years), he studied, read, learned and wrote. "He knew the law. He could put it on paper and he could talk it," says friend and ex-convict Floyd Patterson in one interview segment. So Fred Cruz started writing writs of habeas corpus. Through interviews and archival news video and photographs, Writ Writer provides a glimpse into a time and a place when prisoners in Texas weren't allowed to do that sort of thing. In some ways the film never really penetrates the public-record persona of its subject, but then Mr. Cruz is dead and public records and secondhand accounts are all that are left. That and the tantalizing glimpses offered by Mr. Cruz's journal entries.
Writ Writer Documentary remembers Fred Cruz
State panel decides against ending prison labor contract of company that makes flatbed trailers
By JESSICA SAVAGE June 12, 2008 A state oversight panel has decided not to end a prison inmate labor contract with a flatbed trailer plant that state officials have said is competing with private businesses, including Lufkin Industries. State Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) said he was disappointed by the decision announced Thursday by the Private Sector Prison Industries Oversight Authority. "It is difficult to understand how this state can allow a contract to continue illegally," he stated in a press release. "I stand ready to continue the fight to ensure businesses and jobs in Texas are not unfairly competing with inmate labor." Nichols, state Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and state Rep. Jim McReynolds (D-Lufkin), during previous meetings with the group, had called for an end to the contract with Direct Trailer due to what they called unfair competition between state subsidized businesses and private enterprise. "It was clear to me that the federal law has mandatory requirements which this contract does not meet," Nichols said. "It appears this program is operating without regard to federal and state law, and I will continue taking every action possible to stop it." The prison program is designed to save taxpayer money while allowing inmates to earn money and skills on the job — but only if a labor surplus exists in the market, so there is no unfair competition with companies not benefiting from prison labor. Lufkin Industries announced the closing of its Homer flatbed trailer plant in January because of falling sales and a dim profit forecast. A company official said a contract between the Prison Industry Enhancement certification program and Direct Trailer & Equipment Company, based in Kingwood, to build flatbed trailers contributed to the demise of the LI division, which was already struggling to stay afloat in a stagnant market. Ninety of the 150 employees at the plant were moved to other jobs within the company, said Paul Perez, LI vice president and general counsel, in an earlier story in The Lufkin Daily News. The Authority announced in April that the Kingwood-based trailer plant would be decertified in 90 days unless a plan for corrective action is presented at its June 12 meeting, or if new data from the Texas Workforce Commission shows there is no longer a labor surplus in the area, stated a press release provided to the press from Nichols' office in April. Upon hearing the Authority's decision Thursday afternoon, Perez said he was also disappointed. "I guess I am surprised and disappointed, not just for Lufkin Industries because we have already been affected, but it's not a good decision for the state of Texas and I'd be very interested in the rationale behind that decision," he said. "We think we were impacted by it," Perez said. "We've adjusted, but there are other manufacturers who are going to be unfairly impacted by that decision, competing with prison labor and products."
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Posted on Jun. 10, 2008 Levin: Getting more out of Texas prisons
By Marc A. Levin When it comes to the criminal justice system, Texans get what they pay for. Funding is largely based on volume -- as Texas' prison population has quadrupled during the last two decades, the cost to taxpayers has risen proportionally. Although warehousing works to the extent that inmates cannot commit another crime while in prison, 99 percent of inmates ultimately will be released -- usually while still in their prime criminal years. Many of the same offenders are recycled through the system; 60 percent of Texas prison intakes are revoked probationers and parolees. The three-year re-incarceration rate of released Texas inmates has hovered around 30 percent during the past decade. Leaders from the Texas Capitol to European houses of parliament are increasingly recognizing that reducing recidivism is crucial to controlling future incarceration costs and the incalculable human costs to victims and communities from criminal activity. This realization inspired a 111-page manifesto released in March by England's Conservative Party, titled Prisons with a Purpose: Our Sentencing and Rehabilitation Revolution to Break the Cycle of Crime. The plan would fund prisons partly based on their results. A basic tier of funding would keep the lights on at prisons and parole offices, while a second tier of funding would be based on performance, primarily measured by recidivism within several years of release. Existing contracts with private prisons would be restructured on this basis, and public prisons would be decentralized, each under the authority of an appointed "governor." Accountability for results would be aligned with authority, because each governor also would be responsible for the parole supervision of offenders in his or her portfolio. Implementing such an approach involves many challenges. Here, inmates are frequently shuttled among prisons because of capacity pressures, disrupting the continuity of educational, vocational and rehabilitation programs and effectively precluding the assignment of responsibility for outcomes to a single unit or warden. However, the British blueprint can guide Texas' approach to private prisons. About 15,000 Texas inmates are in facilities operated by private companies with state contracts. These inmates tend to stay at one location until release. But Texas' current prison contracts specify every aspect of operations, essentially making these facilities cookie-cutter replicas of state-run prisons. The contracted rate is a flat per diem with no ties to inmate outcome measures. Instead, these contracts should give private operators freedom to innovate, offering bonuses based on outcomes such as reduced recidivism and the percentage of inmates who earn a GED or occupational certificate. Educational and vocational progress is highly correlated with reduced recidivism. Probation is also well suited to pay-for-performance . Since 2005, $55 million in state probation funding has been incentive-based. County probation departments are eligible if they adopt progressive sanctions and pledge to reduce their technical revocations -- prison referrals that result from missing meetings, failing drug tests and other probation violations not related to a new conviction. Progressive sanctions prior to a technical revocation include increased reporting, community service, curfews, electronic monitoring, mandatory treatment and overnight jail stays intended to remind someone on probation of what's at stake. Participating departments have reduced their technical revocations by 16 percent, while nonparticipating departments increased technical revocations by 8 percent. Had all departments increased revocations by 8 percent, another 2,640 probationers would have been sent back to prison at a cost of $119 million, not including the construction cost of additional prisons. Departments receiving the funding used most of it to reduce caseloads of probationers per supervising officer from 150 to about 110. Texas should build on the success of this initiative. Performance- based probation funding should include rewards for high rates of employment; educational and vocational degrees and certificates earned; and restitution and child support payment. It should also include penalties for new offenses based on their severity. And counties should be rewarded, not penalized, for handling high- maintenance offenders on probation. Measuring correctional outcomes is challenging, but if the state just pays based on the number of bodies behind bars or on probation rolls, taxpayers will indeed get what they pay for: an ever-growing system that recycles more offenders than it reforms. Getting more out of Texas prisons
Lawmakers Scold Prison Leaders Over Staff Smuggling
By Stephen Dean AUSTIN -- Texas Department of Criminal Justice leaders got a public scolding in a Wednesday hearing that was prompted by Local 2 Investigates reporting on prison corruption. "It's amazing to me that we even have to have this damn conversation, " said Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), co-chair of the joint House and Senate prison oversight committee. He suggested that prison leaders could immediately halt the illegal drugs, cell phones, cigarettes and weapons being smuggled into Texas lockups, if only a thorough search of employees were routine as they arrive for work each day. "It's a damn shame," he said while highlighting the hundreds of cell phones smuggled into prisons each year statewide. Brad Livingston, executive director of the TDCJ, admitted that each smuggled cell phone poses a serious security breach, and he told lawmakers he was not trying to "sugar coat" the problems under his leadership. He blamed staffing shortages and low pay for corrections officers as a big reason for a lack of routine staff searches. Whitmire fired back, accusing the TDCJ of lowering the standards for hiring corrections officers. "Hopefully we're not compromising security and looking the other way because our numbers are so short," he said. Livingston replied, "Certainly not." The joint hearing was called in response to Local 2 Investigates reporting on bribes, smuggling and other corruption at the Terrell Prison Unit in Rosharon, south of Houston in Brazoria County. Legislators said they were troubled by having to learn about so many serious safety issues from a news broadcast. Whitmire said county jails do a better job of keeping cell phones and other contraband out of prisoners' hands. Livingston admitted other systemwide problems under questioning from panel members, including radios and security cameras that are not in working order, and the need for more protective "thrust vests" for corrections officers. "We can't fix what we don't know about," Whitmire said. He and panel Co-chairman Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson) suggested that routine staff searches be implemented immediately. "This is not rocket science," Whitmire said. "It's a very fixable problem." Livingston said staffing shortages and other logistical issues may not allow such a move. He said a change in policy would have to be "sustainable on the long haul" with staffing and budgetary concerns in mind. The panel heard from numerous corrections officers from other prisons, saying they only show their identification card and their belongings sometimes get no search whatsoever as they enter prisons each day. Beaumont corrections officer Ray Stewart testified that 8 to 10 percent of officers would quickly turn around to leave if they found out a thorough search was being conducted. Fort Bend County corrections officer Jerome Hightower blamed younger staff, including some 18-year-old officers who want to bolster their weak paychecks by smuggling phones in for several hundred dollars cash. The prison system's independent inspector general, John Moriarty, testified that "a few corrupt corrections officers can do a lot of damage." He said they can smuggle in several phones for inmates and collect $200 to $400 each. He said smuggling heroin into a lockup only cost $50 in one undercover conversation that was recorded on tape. Moriarty said the corruption uncovered by Local 2 Investigates is thicker than he has seen at any other lockup in Texas. He reported there were 448 cell phone smuggling cases statewide last year, but this year the number has already reached 267 cases. He provided a written summary to legislators of active cases being investigated by his office, including 46 cases at the Clemens Unit in Brazoria County, 31 at the Coffield Unit and 25 at the Connelly Unit. Elsewhere, other prisons like Estelle and Ellis units in Huntsville only had one or two cases. Livingston said the maximum security lockups typically had higher numbers, although he conceded that security should be tighter there in the first place. He said metal detectors are in place to search staff but many cell phones may slip by those searches. Moriarty said he supports a technology that would jam all cell phone transmissions from inside prisons. He said the Federal Communications Commission is prepared to approve the technology, which he estimated to cost about $3,000 for each prison. The inspector general reported 55 bribery investigations last year, while 33 are open so far in 2008. He said his staff has already begun presenting evidence to a special prosecutor on the corruption cases in the original Local 2 Investigates reports. He said a grand jury will consider criminal charges within the next few weeks. Legislators asked for an update from prison leaders before the next legislative session. Previous Local 2 Investigates Stories: May 28, 2008: Prison Captain Faces Termination After Investigation May 15, 2008: Prison Leaders Vow Investigation After Roadside Clash With News Crew May 15, 2008: Texas Senate Calls Hearings Over Prison Corruption May 7, 2008: Prison On Lockdown After Local 2 Investigation May 6, 2008: Prison Warden Removed Following Local 2 Investigation May 3, 2008: Local 2 Investigates Charges Of Prison Corruption May 2, 2008: Have Corrupt Officers Taken Over Local Prison? If you have a news tip or question for KPRC Local 2 Investigates, drop them an e-mail or call their tipline at (713) 223-TIPS (8477). Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. Click2Houston.com Lawmakers Scold Prison Leaders
June 1, 2008 Some Texas inmates can now receive e-mails Associated Press AUSTIN — Inmates in about a dozen Texas jails can receive e-mails from the outside world even though they don't have Internet access. Since late last year, the jails are taking advantage of a Dallas- based Web site that allows jail officials to print the e-mails and deliver them to inmates, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday. Jim Sadler, marketing director for Securus Technologies, said the company started testing the e-mail service about two years ago. About a dozen law enforcement agencies in Texas use it, he said. For Lenell Ripley, the new service has allowed her to send an incarcerated friend about a half-dozen e-mails in the past three weeks with messages of encouragement and news about his case. And she has received messages from him about information that he would like to relay to family members, she said. As part of the service, the sender can include a reply page, which is a piece of paper that the inmate writes a note on, said Roger Wade, a spokesman for the Travis County sheriff's department. The paper is scanned and e-mailed back to the original sender. The inmates can't initiate the e-mail, he said. Ripley said that she likes the service but is not sure how quickly replies are sent because she hasn't received as many as expected. To send a message, people can go to the Securus Web site, www.4inmates.com, and register. The sender must have the name of the inmate and inmate number, Sadler said. Sending an e-mail costs 60 cents for two pages in Travis County, Wade said. In Hays County, the e-mail messages cost 50 cents for two pages, said Lt. Leroy Opiela of the Hays County sheriff's department. After they are printed, the e-mails are screened by an officer and sent through the jail's internal mail system to the inmate. The printed e-mail reaches the inmate usually within a day or two, officials said. "If their mama sends it to them tonight, they'll get it in the morning," Hays County Jail Director Brad Robinson said. Wade said using e-mail takes less time and is more convenient than conventional mail and less expensive than a collect call. Inmates have access to telephones at the jail, Wade said, but there is no set time when they can make a call. That means friends and relatives have no definite way of knowing when an inmate will call, which is one reason Ripley tried the new service. "I'm not home a lot ... and the one number he would call me at is usually not the number I'm going to be at," she said. The Hays County Jail receives up to 15 e-mails for inmates per day, Opiela said. Since the program started late last year, the Travis County sheriff's department has received up to three e-mail messages for inmates per day, Wade said. He said jail officials are trying to get the word out about the service. "This is relatively new, but it's something we think we can expand on," Wade said. Some Texas inmates can now receive e-mails
Prisoners take direct action against surveillance cameras in Navasota, Texas
May 31 2008 On or about March 13 2008, 3 groups of prisoners carried out a joint and coordinated direct action at the Luther unit, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, located in Navasota, TX. Letter from El Insurgente posted to Houston Indymedia Saturday, May 31, 2008 On or about March 13 2008, 3 groups of prisoners carried out a joint and coordinated direct action at the Luther unit, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, located in Navasota, TX. The 3 groups of prisoners in 3 of the 4 dorms in C-Hall masked themselves in homemade balaclavas and completely destroyed the $2000 dollar surveillance cameras that had recently been installed in the dorms. Despite intense pressure from prison administration all 54 men in each of the 3 dorms (162 men in total) maintained their solidarity in the face of harsh collective punishment and refused to inform on any of their fellow prisoners who carried out the action. It is reported that in at least one of the dorms there was a meeting of the prisoners to plan the action in their dorm, discuss the possible outcome, and vote on the action. This type of collective, coordinated direct action is largely unheard of in the draconian Texas prison system and the solidarity of the prisoners strikes fear into the hearts of the prison authorities. The total property destruction is estimated at close to $8000 Dollars which strikes at the pocket book of a vastly over extended prison industry that is experiencing chronic guard and budget shortages. This past week of May 12 - 16 new cameras were installed in the dorm and extra security measures are being taken in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the direct action of March. Let us hope that the spirit of rebellion continues and grows.
-El Insurgente Prisoners take direct action against surveillance cameras in Navasota, Texas
May 30, 2008 Gas prices driving TDCJ to consider Regional Release of Prisoners With gas at $4 per gallon, the idea of releasing Texas prisoners from their own facilities or "regional release centers" instead of driving them all back to Huntsville is picking up steam, reports the Austin Statesman ("Texas considers regional prison release plan," May 30): For years, most Texas prisoners have been taken to Huntsville when they complete their sentences before being discharged. But now, officials are quietly considering a plan to begin releasing them at regional prisons, a historic policy shift that could save money and thousands of miles of crisscrossing bus rides across the Lone Star State. At a time when fuel prices are squeezing the state budget, officials at the prisons agency concede the change could save big money. Officials so far haven't estimated the potential savings, but the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has budgeted $11 million for fuel for fiscal year 2008, and officials already expect they'll spend at least $16 million. "No decisions have been made, but yes, we are looking at that concept," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the department. "The idea is that, by using regional release centers, it would be a way to release them closer to their final destination." Under current policy, most freedom-bound convicts travel by prison bus to the vintage, high-walled Huntsville Unit — the state's oldest prison — where they are processed out and given $100 and a voucher good for a bus ride to anywhere in Texas. Many go to nearby Houston, in what at times has been a controversial policy when recent releases commit new crimes. "Taking everybody back to Huntsville to release them is one of the nuttiest policies I've ever heard of, and one that I've been trying to change for years and years," said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. A switch to regional releases has been proposed several times in the past two decades, to save money and increase operational efficiency of the prison system. But each time, it has been derailed for all but just a limited number of convicts, out of concern that prisoners need to be eyeballed with their records, including their mugshots, in Huntsville to make sure no one is mistakenly released. There have also been behind-the-scenes protests from local officials who would rather the ex-cons go live someplace else rather than return home or get released in their community. Several years ago, women, state jail "confines" — generally lower-level criminals — and prisoners in some drug treatment and rehab programs started getting released at their lockups, rather than solely in Huntsville, Lyons said. But of the 41,808 convicts who were released between September 2006 and August 2007, 33,655 gained their freedom in Huntsville, state statistics show. On average, 448 convicts per week are released there, according to Lyons. Under the proposal, prison officials said the Robertson Unit in Abilene could be used as a discharge point for convicts from West Texas. If the program proves successful, prisons in other regions could also begin discharging convicts. The reason they're considering the idea is purely economic, hoping to defray high gasoline costs. But I particularly like the idea of creating regional release centers if they could be used to coordinate and deliver re-entry services, not only to make sure they're releasing the right person.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast
Texas considers Regional Prison Release Plan Halting requirement of discharging at Huntsville could save state money on gas.
By Mike Ward For years, most Texas prisoners have been taken to Huntsville when they complete their sentences before being discharged. But now, officials are quietly considering a plan to begin releasing them at regional prisons, a historic policy shift that could save money and thousands of miles of crisscrossing bus rides across the Lone Star State. At a time when fuel prices are squeezing the state budget, officials at the prisons agency concede the change could save big money. Officials so far haven't estimated the potential savings, but the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has budgeted $11 million for fuel for fiscal year 2008, and officials already expect they'll spend at least $16 million. "No decisions have been made, but yes, we are looking at that concept," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the department. "The idea is that, by using regional release centers, it would be a way to release them closer to their final destination." Under current policy, most freedom-bound convicts travel by prison bus to the vintage, high-walled Huntsville Unit — the state's oldest prison — where they are processed out and given $100 and a voucher good for a bus ride to anywhere in Texas. Many go to nearby Houston, in what at times has been a controversial policy when recent releases commit new crimes. "Taking everybody back to Huntsville to release them is one of the nuttiest policies I've ever heard of, and one that I've been trying to change for years and years," said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. A switch to regional releases has been proposed several times in the past two decades, to save money and increase operational efficiency of the prison system. But each time, it has been derailed for all but just a limited number of convicts, out of concern that prisoners need to be eyeballed with their records, including their mugshots, in Huntsville to make sure no one is mistakenly released. There have also been behind-the-scenes protests from local officials who would rather the ex-cons go live someplace else rather than return home or get released in their community. Several years ago, women, state jail "confines" — generally lower- level criminals — and prisoners in some drug treatment and rehab programs started getting released at their lockups, rather than solely in Huntsville, Lyons said. But of the 41,808 convicts who were released between September 2006 and August 2007, 33,655 gained their freedom in Huntsville, state statistics show. On average, 448 convicts per week are released there, according to Lyons. Under the proposal, prison officials said the Robertson Unit in Abilene could be used as a discharge point for convicts from West Texas. If the program proves successful, prisons in other regions could also begin discharging convicts. Texas operates 106 state prisons and state jails that house 156,000 convicts. It is the second largest prison system in the country. Lyons said the proposal is still in the discussion stages and has not been approved by top prison officials or the system's nine-member governing board. On an average day, as many as 3,000 convicts are on the road in Texas, in so-called chain buses — white, un-air-conditioned coaches — that crisscross the state moving inmates from one prison to another, to the Galveston prison hospital, to court appearances and to be discharged in Huntsville. Lyons said that like other agencies, the prison system is feeling the budget pinch from higher fuel prices. "If that's what finally gets this nutty practice changed, then that's great," Whitmire said. Prison releases in Texas (September 2006-August 2007) Facility / Number / City / Type of Facility / Type of Offenders Released: Bridgeport / 307 / Bridgeport / Pre-parole Women Transfer Gatesville / 3,504 / Gatesville / Prison Women Halbert / 270 / Burnet / Substance-Abuse Women Huntsville / 33,655 / Huntsville / Prison Men (General Convicts) Kyle / 610 / Kyle / Private Prison Substance-Abuse Male Offenders Lockhart / 229 / Lockhart / Pre-Parole Men (General Convicts)Work Program Transfer Mineral Wells / 2,078 / Mineral Wells / Pre-Parole Transfer Men (General Convicts) Vance / 104 / Richmond / Faith-Based Prison Men
Other Lockups and those Released Directly from County Jails: Total Offenders Released: 41,808 Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice mward@statesman. com; 445-1712 Texas considers Regional Prison Release Plan
Frisco woman dies after hanging herself in prison
May 29, 2008 A 41-year-old Frisco woman who was serving time in prison for manslaughter died from complications after she tried to hang herself in her cell, a state criminal justice spokeswoman said. Barbara Ripa was found hanging in her cell May 18 at the Goree Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville. She had tied a bed sheet around her neck and tied the other end to the cell bars, said spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. After medics revived her, Ms. Ripa was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center, where she died from complications three days later. Ms. Ripa was convicted of manslaughter after her SUV collided with a motorcycle driven by Richard McKennon in Feb. 2006 at the intersection of Preston Road and Meadow Hill Drive in Frisco. Ms. Ripa and three children in the vehicle were uninjured, but the collision killed Mr. McKennon. Ms. Ripa had been in prison for about two months before the attempted hanging, Ms. Lyons said. She had been transferred to several prison hospitals and psychiatric units during her stay. Frisco woman dies after hanging herself
A Prisoner Was Murdered on the Unit Yesterday May 20, 2008 We’re on emergency lockdown because a general population prisoner was murdered on the unit yesterday. TDCJ tries very hard to keep information like this from reaching the public so I felt the need to write a quick update. I don’t know all of the details, but I do know that a prisoner was beaten to death yesterday, supposedly by another prisoner. It happened in one of the general population dorms. Interestingly— or perhaps I should say sadly—enough, yesterday was also the birthday of Malcom X. When I get more details about what happened I’ll let ya’ll know what I find out. It’s absolutely absurd that the prison system is structured in such a way as to make people worse after they enter prison. People come to prison for non-violent offenses—the majority of people in prison are there for drug cases—and are forced to be violent to survive. The structure of prison promotes violence. I’ve seen officers crank up fights between inmates and bet donuts on who would win. Well, I’ll wait until I find out exactly what happened before I make any further comments. I will, however, close with a thought: The staff members control the daily operations of the prison system. The state and federal government—through the dictates of politicians—Senators , governments, etc.—control the overall structure of prisons. If, for example, a non-violent drug user is sent to prison for repeated possession charges (he just likes to get high for whatever reason but he’s never hurt anyone), he’s thrown into an environment that turns him into a fucking maniac. Who’s to blame? This question is actually a very deep one and I won’t delve into the depths of it at this time, but again, I ask, who is to blame?
Update from Rob Will:
Texas Senate Calls Hearings Over Prison Corruption
May 15, 2008 Texas prison leaders have been called to testify at state Senate hearings in response to Local 2 Investigates' reporting on corruption behind bars. "We've got some systemic problems and this might be the tip of the iceberg," said Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), chair of the powerful Senate Criminal Justice Committee. He called for the hearings in response to a series of reports by Local 2 Investigates, outlining a pattern of corruption allegations being met with questionable handling by prison leaders at the Terrell prison unit near Rosharon in Brazoria County. Correction officers provided documents to Local 2 Investigates, spelling out how they provided first-hand accounts and other evidence of wrongdoing among prison staff. Yet, they say the allegations were not addressed and the whistleblowers themselves faced retaliation as the corruption was allowed to continue. The documents showed they reported sex being coordinated and arranged between guards and convicts, prison staff looking the other way as banned items were funneled into the lockup and staff taking cash in some cases to allow all sorts of wrongdoing. Whitmire said he is concerned that the same sort of corruption and covering up could be in place at other prisons throughout the state, based on what he saw in the Local 2 Investigates reports. "It concerns me," said Whitmire. "I would suggest it probably took your involvement to really make the difference," he said in reference to the Local 2 Investigates reports over the past month. The corrections officers who blew the whistle said most of their fellow officers were involved in the crimes or the cover-ups. They described the staff as "rogue officers" who swept the wrongdoing under the rug and kept the organized crime intact. "There's no doubt the warden and other internal people were involved in the misconduct," said Whitmire. While the whistleblowers said their evidence was ignored for months, only after the Local 2 Investigates reporting was the senior warden removed and a new management staff put in place below him. The Terrell prison was also placed on lockdown a few days after the story was broadcast, as senior prison leaders searched all inmates, employees and employees' cars for evidence. "If you have complaints by guards or employees and they fall on deaf ears, we've got a real security breach," said Whitmire. The Criminal Justice Committee hearings are scheduled for June 4 in Austin. In an e-mail to Local 2 Investigates, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons wrote, "We look forward to working closely with legislators to continue to address such topics as the agency's correctional officer shortage." She and other prison system officials have tied some of the issues of corruption to the lack of manpower. Lyons continued, "Related specifically to the Terrell Unit, the agency has taken seriously allegations of retaliation, discrimination and criminal wrongdoing at the facility." "In addition to restructuring the unit's administration, TDCJ has referred allegations of criminal behavior to the Office of Inspector General, the independent internal affairs division which investigates allegations of criminal activity and serious policy violations within the prison system," Lyons wrote. She concluded with, "We will work closely with the state's leadership to address any concerns related to security at Terrell or other units."
Wrongfully convicted push lawmakers for changes
May 8, 2008 They served a combined 427 years in prison, and now, many of the state's wrongfully convicted are speaking out. Some former inmates -- convicted of crimes they didn't commit -- took part in a summit at the State Capitol Thursday, pushing for changes in the Texas criminal justice system. One of the former inmates was Carlos Lavernia, once dubbed the "Barton Creek Rapist," after being convicted of two rapes in Austin in the early eighties, and being suspected in five others. "The case was made up by the police department back in 1983," Lavernia told lawmakers, prosecutors, police chiefs and attorneys assembled for the summit. Lavernia served 15 years behind bars before DNA evidence exonerated him. He is one of 33 wrongfully convicted in Texas who have been proven innocent by DNA or other new evidence. "The system failed us. All of us. The system failed," said James Giles, former inmate. Independent "innocence projects" all over the nation help re-examine the cases of those who believe they are innocent, and have led to the exonerations of many in Texas. State Senator Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, called the summit to look at other ways to change the system to prevent more injustices. He supports a statewide "Innocence Commission" which would look at each wrongful conviction in Texas and propose ways to prevent them in the future. "We're obviously participating in this to make sure that we stay up to date on anything we can do to make sure that people aren't wrongfully convicted," said Travis County District Attorney-elect Rosemary Lehmberg. Defense attorneys and other policy leaders have called for fuller disclosure of their client's police files, taped interrogations and careful retention of DNA evidence. "I think it's a chance to see if we can work out some solutions for the problems that led to their convictions, to the problems that forced them to stay in prison and never get a hearing," said Jeff Blackburn, who heads the Texas Innocence Project.
Local 2 Investigates Charges Of Prison Corruption POSTED: May 2, 2008 - UPDATED: May 3, 2008 HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Friday, May 2, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m. Tonight, state lawmakers are reacting to what Local 2 Investigates uncovered inside a Houston-area prison. It all centers around the C.T. Terrell Unit near Rosharon in Brazoria County. Thursday, corrections officers spoke out -- saying their reports of serious crimes by fellow officers were ignored. Instead, they claim they felt the heat. State Rep. Jerry Madden, of Plano, the chair of the house committee overseeing prisons, received complaints from officers at Terrell. He's now watching to see how the Texas Department of Criminal Justice handles the situation. Investigative reporter Stephen Dean speaks with the one corrections officer charged with a crime. He's painting a much different story of the prison. "Walls have ears in the penitentiary, " said Derrick Rice, a former corrections officer at the Terrell Prison Unit. "Whatever you do will come out." Rice says prison walls may know all, but they did not see or hear him commit the crimes he's now charged with committing. Last week, Rice was arrested and fired. He's charged with seven counts of felony bribery. The Texas Office of Inspector General says Rice was getting paid to bring contraband to inmates inside the prison. "Here I am all of the sudden arrested for something I have no knowledge of, I did not do," said Rice. The charges are no surprise to some of his fellow corrections officers at Terrell. "I think it's just the tip of the iceberg," said Corrections Officer No. 1, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Last night, two corrections officers blew the whistle -- saying they believe dozens of officers inside Terrell are corrupt on one level or another. However, when they detailed their suspicions and first-hand accounts of wrongdoing to prison leaders -- including allegations about Officer Rice -- they claim they were the ones facing the heat. They say they were met with harassment and retaliation. "I think this officer that was involved in these actions with these inmates was just basically one of a bigger group that's now operating on the unit," said Corrections Officer No. 1. "That's going on with many officers at this time," said another corrections officer, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It's organized to the point these people work together." "That's a big fabrication, " said Rice. "I don't know of any officer that would do anything like that on the card (shift) that I worked." Rice says he has heard stories, but never witnessed any crimes or wrongdoings. Instead, he says African-American officers face a different set of rules at Terrell. "There's a lot of racism going on at that facility." Whatever's going on, corruption or racism, the result is clear -- officers inside the Terrell prison unit do not trust each other. It's a serious and dangerous concern behind the walls. "Who can I count on?" said Corrections Officer No. 1. "Who can I not count on?" "You don't know who has you back," said Rice. "It's very difficult working in that kind of environment." TDCJ leaders acknowledge the massive division between officers. Within the last week, two supervisors have been transferred from the Terrell unit. The officers we spoke with say the senior warden played a key role in covering-up wrongdoings and then retaliated against them for reporting it. The warden is now charged with leading the effort to unite the unit. "We're looking to try and get a team in there where they can bring that unit back together," said Michelle Lyons, a TDCJ spokesperson. Rice faces up to 20 years in prison for each of his seven counts of bribery. Meanwhile, the state's investigation of officers and inmates at Terrell continues. Lawmakers are now looking into how TDCJ leaders are handling the entire situation.
Local 2 Investigates Story:
Prison system should focus on rehabilitating criminals
By: Editor The U.S. approach to criminal justice has fluctuated throughout its history. Presidential administrations experimented with alternative programs during the '60s and '70s. In spite of this, today's prisons are overcrowded with nonviolent offenders. This is due to a retributive approach to crime and punishment. "Let the punishment fit the crime" is an ancient idea identical to that of "an eye for an eye." This leaves the whole world blind. Retributive punishment laws may be a morally acceptable response to crime. However, they do not correct the wrong or rehabilitate the individual. Investing millions of dollars into building new, bigger jails does not prevent recidivism. Re-offenders get caught in the prison system because they are not rehabilitated. Why invest millions of taxpayers' money to lock up criminals if they are just going to return to their old ways after they are released? The prison system should focus on the future of prisoners so more money will not be needed for more jail time. Extreme punishment takes more money away from the state in order to feed and shelter more than 6,000 prisoners each year. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in 2006 that 95 percent of drug offenders who do not receive treatment in or outside prison relapse into continued drug use, and 70 percent return to prison. Parole should be reinstated on a federal level so offenders can receive drug treatment and other services that will help put their lives on track. High school diploma programs and life-skills programs also reduce recidivism. Peter Ninemire wrote about his experience in the prison system as a nonviolent criminal. He was convicted twice for marijuana distribution and cultivation by state law and a third time for cultivating marijuana by federal law. He received a mandatory sentence of 24 1/2 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole. He observed that the government was saying he was incurable and beyond rehabilitation by putting him away for over 24 years. He found direction and purpose in jail by co-forming an NAACP chapter in prison to support Families Against Mandatory Minimums. He was pardoned after 10 years in prison, along with 20 other nonviolent offenders. They all agreed that the best statement they could make against mandatory minimum sentences was to show that, given a second chance, they would not return to prison. Ever since, they have lived crime-free lives with many achievements to their credit. Corrections among offenders should be the goal of our correctional prison system. Crime stems from social and economic troubles, so those issues are what rehabilitative jail time should focus on during incarceration.
Melissa Gonzales Prison system should focus on rehabilitating criminals
04/27/08 Support HR 4109 to Stop Clinton's 1996 Mandate on Torture and Abuse In 1996 Congress passed the little known Prison Litigation Reform Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, effectively slamming shut the courthouse doors on prisoners seeking a fair hearing on violations of their religious, due process, free speech, and other fundamental constitutional rights, as well as cases of heinous torture, serious physical and sexual abuse. While enacted to reduce the number of "frivolous" lawsuits being filed by prisoners, it has been used specifically to prevent many seemingly meritorious claims involving violations of religious freedom, due process, free speech, and other fundamental constitutional rights, as well as cases of torture, physical and sexual abuse from ever being given a fair hearing in court. I am writing to urge you to support H.R. 4109, the Prison Abuse Remedies Act of 2007. This important and timely bill would extend the rule of law to our nation's prisons and jails by making some much needed reforms to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), while maintaining the law's initial stated purpose. Please tell each of your representatives to vote on and pass this important human rights legislation. Two provisions of the PLRA that have proven particularly problematic warrant fixing. First, the law's exhaustion of administrative remedies provision requires prisoners to exhaust their facilities' grievance process no matter how legitimate the reasons for failing to follow the procedures might be. Prison and jail grievance systems have created a baffling maze in which a barely literate, mentally ill, physically incapacitated, or juvenile prisoner's procedural misstep in a facility's informal grievance system forever bars even the most meritorious constitutional claims. Moreover, grievance deadlines are often a matter of just a few days, with no exceptions for prisoners who are ill, hospitalized, traumatized or otherwise incapacitated. As a result, serious prison abuses frequently go unheard and unaddressed. Even in the case of a police-videotaped jail execution within the first four minutes of incarceration of no one is held accountable. In addition to the problems stemming from the exhaustion provision, the PLRA's "physical injury" requirement has proven to be especially cruel in its application. Under the law, prisoners can be raped and sexually assaulted and not have access to the range of remedies available to most civil rights plaintiffs because some courts have found that they did not suffer actual physical injuries. Other forms of cruel and unusual punishment, considered torture by US and UN doctrines when it befalls a US citizen abroad and foreign detainees on our soil, include grossly unsanitary conditions and cavalier disregard of prisoners' medical needs -- do not meet the physical injury requirements of a US citizen on our own soil. The violation of every constitutional right of an incarcerated US citizen, including every attack on their human dignity, does not necessarily entail physical injury -- and thereby permissible treatment of our own fellow citizen under Clinton's 1996 plan. I hope that Barack Obama will join in the fight for the passage of this legislation to stop Clinton's mandate on torture and abuse. As Americans we can not, and Congress must not, turn a blind eye to these abuses under the guise of judicial efficiency greasing the wheels of justice, does not ensure real justice. The courts have always been, and should remain, protectors of the rights of all, especially those for which all constitutional rights have been effectively revoked.
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April 22, 2008 Pair involved in prison food scandal found not guilty
By CINDY GEORGE After a two-hour trial today, former Texas prisons director James "Andy" Collins and Canadian businessman Yank Barry were acquitted of decade-old federal bribery charges involving VitaPro, a soy-based meat substitute intended for state prison inmate meals. The pair were indicted in 1998 during President George W. Bush's second term as governor of Texas. For years, Barry, 60, has maintained that he was targeted by Bush and his supporters in the cattle industry because VitaPro presented competition. Tuesday's acquittals mark the second time U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes has found the pair not guilty. In 2001, a federal jury convicted both men on bribery, conspiracy and money-laundering charges during a tumultuous trial that featured Patrick Graham, a government informant who was a key witness in the prosecution of former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz on corruption charges. The jury found that VitaPro owner Barry paid two $10,000 bribes to Collins for pushing a no-bid, five-year contract with VitaPro to serve its product to Texas prisoners. At the time, Collins was executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. When Hughes overturned the convictions in 2005, the government appealed. In August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Hughes' decision, but agreed that the men should be tried again because of Graham's credibility issues. Hughes held a bench trial, meaning there was no jury and he decided guilt or innocence. After hearing arguments from the lawyers for two hours today, the judge took a recess. He reconvened to announce the acquittals. "The government did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt," Hughes said. "You guys are free. Whatever restraints remained on you go away." Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Cobe had few words after the decision. "We advocated that they were guilty and the judge advocated that they were not guilty," Cobe said. Lawyers for Collins and Barry were decidedly gleeful. "We are just very pleased with the judge's decision," said Terry Hart, a Dallas lawyer representing Collins, 57. He said the specter of criminal prosecution over more than a decade has been "catastrophic" for his client. "All Mr. Collins wants is a job," he said, adding that the former prisons leader has been doing consulting work. "This has tainted him to the point that he doesn't even want to ask people he knows for a job because he doesn't want this to taint them." Houston lawyers Mike Ramsey and Kent Schaffer said that the acquittal was justice for their client, Barry, who has been under the cloud of federal charges since the investigation began in the mid-1990s. "A lot of times, (prosecutors) go into these cases believing what they want to believe," Schaffer said. "They have a witness like Pat Graham who may still feel as if suspicious circumstances are tallying up to something criminal and in this case, they weren't. Just because something is irregular doesn't mean something criminal occurred." In a letter to the judge last week, Schaffer emphasized that if Hughes found Collins and Barry not guilty, any appeal by the government would be barred by the double jeopardy clause in federal law. cindy.george@chron.com Pair involved in prison food scandal found not guilty
DEATH PENALTY
Supreme Court ruling could reopen Texas' death chamber
By Mike Ward Today's split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming as legal a three-drug cocktail to execute criminals could end a temporary halt for Texas' death chamber, officials said. By a 7-2 vote, the high court this morning upheld Kentucky's use of chemical executions, turning back a constitutional challenge to the use of three drugs to sedate, paralyze and then kill convicts. "We ... agree that petitioners have not carried their burden of showing that the risk of pain from maladministration of a concededly humane lethal injection protocol, and the failure to adopt untried and untested alternatives, constitute cruel and unusual punishment," Chief Justice John Roberts said in the opinion. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented. Executions have been on hold across the United States since September, when the court agreed to hear the Kentucky case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October blocked the state from carrying out the death penalty, signaling a temporary halt for the nation's busiest death chamber. Texas' three-drug execution procedure is essentially the same as Kentucky's, officials have said. Aides to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott could not immediately be reached for comment on the decision. Michelle Lyons, the Huntsville-based spokeswoman for the Texas prison system, said she had no indication when executions would resume. None of the state's 357 condemned convicts has an execution date set, she said. Several were withdrawn by lower courts pending the Supreme Court review. Opponents of the lethal three-drug cocktail had argued that if the initial anesthetic did not work, the other two drugs could cause excruciating pain. One of those, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort. The Kentucky case stemmed from an appeal by two death row inmates who did not ask to be spared execution but wanted the court to order the use a single drug, a barbiturate, that can be given in a dose large enough to be lethal. Most states use a three-drug cocktail based on Texas' protocol for execution, both in types of drugs and in doses. The case, which came to the high court after executions in Florida and Ohio had been botched with strong indications that convicts suffered severe pain, had been closely watched by death-penalty supporters and opponents alike. mward@statesman.com Includes material from The Associated Press. Supreme Court ruling could reopen Texas' death chamber
Read More News Concerning Texas Death Row
Federal Second Chance Act will help states' prisoners and taxpayers April 14, 2008 Last week, President Bush signed the Second Chance Act, a landmark prison reform almost unanimously passed by Congress. It authorizes the federal government to spend millions on local and state government research and programs to better rehabilitate prisoners. In Pennsylvania, this promises positive outcomes in finances, communities and individuals. Pennsylvania spends about $2 billion each year on its prison system. There are about 46,000 inmates in state prison, at least than 10 percent more than the prisons's capacity. The state is spending $200 million to build three new prisons to ease crowding. Each new prison will cost Pennsylvania taxpayers about $50 million to operate. Can the state continue to afford building more prisons if the number of offenders continues growing? Counseling and education can effect powerful changes on recidivism rates. In a recent op-ed, educator Jim Kressly, a volunteer instructor in Northampton County Prison's GED program and author of a state prison curriculum, detailed how recidivism rates at prisons like Northampton County's are as high as 70 percent. But the recidivism rate was less than 10 percent for inmates who participated in the ''Getting Our and Staying Out'' program. Lower recidivism rates in this state would mean fewer prisoners, and that means fewer taxes to build new prisons and operate existing ones. Educating prisoners and keeping them meaningfully occupied has other positive impacts. Idle prisoners cause trouble in prison or plan other crimes. They are much more likely to have difficulty becoming productive members of society when they're released from prison. Because most prisoners are only temporarily incarcerated, conditioning them for normal lives is crucial. With proper rehab and counseling, some ex-prisoners can become purposeful members of society, which is expected of them after they serve their sentence anyway. Trained workers are a benefit to communities, and having gainful employment benefits former inmates, too. The Second Chance Act had bipartisan support and is a significant adjustment to current U.S. policy. There is no guarantee that it will revolutionize the prison system -- research must be conducted and new programs must be carefully watched to ensure that money is spent effectively. But, the act accounts for these, emphasizing in-prison education and rehab and out-of-prison job placement and community involvement -- clearly necessary measures. Not every prisoner will become an upstanding citizen, even with treatment and counseling. But for some, a second chance may be the gateway to healthy, normal lives. Only time will tell how effective the new law will be, but it's bound to relieve some strains on Pennsylvania' s budget and keep some former prisoners from repeating their crimes. Federal Second Chance Act will help states' prisoners and taxpayers Copyright © 2008, The Morning Call
AP Texas News New chairman selected for prison board HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Oliver Bell, president of an Austin-based human resources consulting firm, has been appointed chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the nine-member panel that oversees the Texas prison system. Bell, who's been on the board for four years, succeeds Dallas lawyer Christina Melton Crain, a board member since April 2001 and chairman for the past five years. Her term expired more than a year ago but she continued to serve. The board members are appointed by Gov. Rick Perry. Bell is chief executive officer and founder of Oliver J. Bell & Associates, Inc. He is a former Army officer and West Point graduate. Crain's board spot is being filled by J. David Nelson, a Lubbock attorney. "It is with great sadness that I pass my gavel to Mr. Bell and my board position to Mr. Nelson," Crain said in a message to the agency staff. "However, I know they will serve you well."
Posted on Apr. 10, 2008 Senate approves Dallas lawyer for appeals court THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- The Senate has given Dallas lawyer Catharina Haynes its approval to serve on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Haynes won confirmation on a voice vote Thursday to the appellate court that takes cases from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. She was nominated by President Bush on July 17. She replaces Harold DeMoss, who took senior status last year. Haynes began her career as an attorney with Thompson & Knight and then moved to Baker Botts LLP. She was elected as a Republican to the 191st District Court in Dallas and re-elected to the job in 2002. She returned to Baker Botts, where she is now an attorney. Haynes graduated from Florida Institute of Technology in 1983 and Emory University School of Law in 1986, when she was 22, according to a White House biography.
4/9/08 Local prisons receive books Books to reduce recidivism By Raquel Villareal Dave Stein looks for a book on Saturday afternoon at the Inside Books Project. The organization matches books with prisoners' interests and sends them free of charge. To all undercover librarians, hot volunteers, event planners and graphic designers, Inside Books Project wants you. Think free food, good music, cool people and the chance to work for a better community. What else is there to think about? The Inside Books Project works with local prison systems to send inmates books they want to read, which mostly includes dictionaries, GED materials, mythology and fiction. "The justice system provides very little education and rehabilitation," said Susanna Commins, a leader in the organization. "It's impossible to remain sane in prison; it's dehumanizing. " Inside Books Project hosted a worker's party Friday through Sunday at Rhizome Collective Warehouse, where they normally meet twice a week in the evenings and once a week in the afternoon. John Nation, one of the group's leaders, said that about 150 people gathered throughout the weekend to open letters, match them with books and write a letter back appreciating their interest and inviting them to write again. Many stayed overnight, and at 2 a.m. Monday, they reached their goal. "We've never been this caught up," Nation said. "They finished up every letter." According to the Pew Center on the States, Texas leads the nation with the most prisons, followed by California. Jason Clark, Public Information Officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that there are currently 155,000 offenders behind bars in the state of Texas. The Inside Books Project is looking for donations and people to read inmate letters. Although this weekend they were able to go read every letter they had on hand, they still need economic donations to pay for all the postage. For more information, visit their Web site at www.insidebooksproject.org.
Is This America's Best Prosecutor? Meet Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. Radley Balko | April 7, 2008 In 2006, Craig Watkins became the first African-American elected district attorney of any county in Texas history. More interestingly, the 40-year-old Watkins was elected in Dallas County, where the DA’s office has long been known for its aggressive prosecution tactics. A former defense attorney, Watkins says the Dallas DA’s office has for too long adopted a damaging “convict at all costs” philosophy, an argument bolstered by a string of wrongful convictions uncovered by the Texas Innocence Project in the months before he was elected. Watkins ran on a reform platform, and pulled out a surprising victory against a more experienced Republican opponent. After taking office, Watkins dismissed nine top-level prosecutors in the office. Nine others left voluntarily. He established a “Conviction Integrity Unit” to ensure proper prosecutorial procedures, and began working with the Texas Innocence Project to find other cases of possible wrongful conviction. reason Senior Editor Radley Balko recently interviewed Watkins by phone. reason: What inspired you to not only not put up obstacles to a group like the Texas Innocence Project, but to actually work with them proactively to seek out wrongful convictions in Dallas? Watkins: We had had several exonerations here in Dallas County before I was elected. So as a result of that, we felt it was something we needed to look into, to see if anyone else we may have prosecuted in this county was wrongfully convicted. We take seriously our charge by the code of criminal procedure to “seek justice.” That’s one our responsibilities, to make sure innocent folks aren’t convicted. And we find they are or have been, we have to do everything we can to rectify the problem. reason: How should a prosecutor balance his time and resources between prosecuting present-day cases and looking for cases of wrongful conviction? Watkins: Well, before we got here, there was no one working on innocence cases. So there was no balance, because no one was doing it. We just decided to start a whole new section of the office dedicated solely to innocence. And they’re not only looking for bad convictions, they’re also looking at what policies and procedures we can put in place to keep them from happening in the future. So we aren’t really taking time away from prosecutions. We’ve just added positions that didn’t exist before. reason: What specific steps did you take after winning office to address this issue? Watkins: The first thing we did was set up this “Conviction Integrity Unit” in the district attorneys office. We immediately staffed it with two attorneys and two investigators, and told them to look at 400-some-odd cases for which there was DNA available to test. So their responsibility right now is to look through those 400 cases to see if there’s reason to suspect a wrongful conviction. If they find cases, we’ll then collect the DNA and test it. If it shows the person in prison is innocent, we’ll start proceedings for an exoneration. In addition to that, the unit has the responsibility of training the younger lawyers here in the office on the ethical side of a prosecutor’s job—things like the importance of properly dealing with exculpatory evidence. And we intend to have this section here in this office forever. This is not a pilot program. It’s something I’d like to see spread across the country—where DAs will actively seek out convictions that were obtained unfairly. reason: What are some common stakes you’re seeing repeated in these innocence cases? Do they tend to be willful mistakes, or more due to negligence? Watkins: It’s a combination of things. Negligence, prosecutorial misconduct, faulty witness identification. It’s just been a mindset of “conviction at all costs” around here. So we changed that philosophy. We aren’t here to rack up convictions. We’re here to seek justice. Once we can get over that win at all costs mentality, I think we’ll see fewer and fewer of these wrongful convictions. reason: You talk about the mindset of winning convictions at all costs. The legendary law-and-order Dallas prosecutor Henry Wade, who held the job you now hold for many, many years, embodied that philosophy. He’s known to have actually boasted about convicting innocent people—that convincing a jury to put an innocent man in jail proved his prowess as a prosecutor. Watkins: Oh yeah, it was a badge of honor at the time—to knowingly convict someone that wasn’t guilty. It’s widely known among defense attorneys and prosecutors from that era. We had to come in clean out all the remnants of that older way of thinking. reason: It’s hard to imagine anyone opposing what you’re doing— seeking out and freeing the wrongfully convicted. Do you have critics? Watkins: We’re encountering a lot of criticism right now. I think a lot of it is motivated by political party. The Republicans are losing power in Dallas County, and they’re trying to regain it. So they’re doing whatever they can, even making the political mistake of attacking the work we’re doing on wrongful convictions. reason: What possible arguments could they make against freeing innocent people? Watkins: Initially, their argument was that it’s not the role of a prosecutor to look for bad convictions—that that’s the role of a defense attorney. But that didn’t work very well for them. And it’s wrong. Both the criminal code of the state of Texas and the American Bar Association’s code clearly state that the job of a prosecutor is to seek justice. That means if a person is guilty, you try to convict him. If he’s not, you don’t. And if you have reason to believe someone has been wrongly convicted, you have a responsibility to fix that. Their new argument is, “Is this cost effective?” Is this unit we’ve created a net benefit for Dallas County? I guess my response to that is that if we find even one more person who has been wrongly convicted, then yes, it is cost effective. So I think their arguments are off base. And they’re going to have a hard time convincing the public that what we’re doing isn’t necessary. reason: Dallas County has the highest exoneration rate in the country. That’s in part because of a fluke. In the 1980s, the county started sending biological evidence to a private lab to be tested. That lab kept all of the evidence pretty well preserved, enabling it to be used in DNA testing today. So Dallas is one of the few places in the country where evidence from that era can still be tested. Do you think the system in Dallas was particularly corrupt or broken to cause all of these wrongful convictions, or would we be seeing the high numbers of exonerations we’re seeing in Dallas all over the country if similar efforts had been made to preserve evidence in other places? Watkins: I think it’s mostly because evidence was preserved in Dallas. I don’t think there was anything unique about the way Dallas was prosecuting crimes. It’s unfortunate that other places didn’t preserve evidence, too. We’re just in a unique position where I can look at a case, test DNA evidence from that period, and say without a doubt that a person is innocent. They can’t do that in other places. But that doesn’t mean other places don’t have the same problems Dallas had. reason: Your approach to your job is unique enough that it’s earned you some headlines. What do you think about the way we look at the role of a prosecutor today? Are the incentives too geared toward rolling up convictions? Watkins: Well we’ve obviously had this political mantra over the last 30 years about “getting tough on crime.” And I think too often, buried in that mantra is the implication that there’s no room for fair justice. We’ve stripped away protections for the accused. And as a result, I think many prosecutors went into a case with blinders on— like everyone was guilty. The more convictions you won, the better your chances to get re-elected or to move on to higher office. We’re now seeing the fallout from that mentality. Hopefully, the problems we’re now encountering will help it to change. reason: What reforms or checks should DA’s offices put in place to guard against wrongful convictions? Watkins: Well you know police departments file cases with us. We need to guard against being a rubber stamp for every case the police department sends our way. We need to be more skeptical. We also need to train prosecutors to think about their jobs in a different way. We shouldn’t be judging young prosecutors by how many convictions they win, or by how many people they put in jail. I’d also like to see a change in the way appellate courts look at these cases. Appellate courts are often too reluctant to second-guess a jury. But if there’s evidence there that makes you question whether the jury got it right, I think they need to be more willing to open their minds and take that second look. reason: But it’s established law in most places that appellate courts give considerable deference to the jury’s verdict. When they do intervene, it’s generally on procedural issues. They tend to pass on actually reviewing the evidence in a case. Seems like a tall order to change that. Watkins: I think the mere fact that we’ve had so many exonerations ought to move them to take a closer look at the evidence in criminal cases. You’re right that cases are generally appealed on technical issues. But take eyewitness identification. It’s been proven time and time again in studies that eyewitness identification is extremely unreliable. Yet police, prosecutors, and juries still tend to put a lot of faith in them. And these same studies show there are some basic steps you can take make eyewitness identifications more reliable, but that also would result in fewer identifications, and fewer prosecutions. But if there are procedures available to increase the validity of a form of evidence, and police and prosecutors aren’t using it, then they’re deliberately increasing the chances of a wrongful conviction in order to get more convictions. And defendants aren’t getting a fair trial. And I think that’s something the appellate courts ought to look at. You also have to look at changes in technology. We have new methods and procedures that are better and more reliable than the old way of doing things. But the law tends to be static. If we’re consciously not using the methods proven to be more effective and more reliable, we’re not giving defendants the fairest possible trial. Appellate courts should be looking at that, too. reason: Given the novel approach you’ve taken to the job, what are your prospects for getting reelected? Watkins: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think about it all that much. I go into my job looking to make sure we administer justice in a fair way. I hope my record will speak for itself. I hope people will see that we take a balanced approach, here. We convict the guilty, and we free the innocent. I’d hope that that’s what people would ask from a district attorney, and from a fair criminal justice system. Radley Balko is a senior editor for reason.
March 22, 2008 Historic prison may be closed Sugar Land officials say site could be used to expand airport By ERIC HANSON Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle CENTRAL UNIT
• 325 acres
Sugar Land Regional Airport • Has a 20,000 square-foot corporate terminal Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice and City of Sugar Land SUGAR LAND — One of the state's oldest prisons, the Central Unit in Fort Bend County, may soon become a historical footnote if state officials decide to close the 99-year-old facility and sell the land. The reason for the potential closure is old-fashioned progress. Sugar Land keeps growing, and city leaders believe the sprawling land would make a fine addition to the city's airport. "Let's just say that a prison is not the highest and best use for that land right now," said Sugar Land Mayor Dave Wallace. Wallace said the state and city are conducting a joint study to determine whether it would make economic sense for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to close the 325-acre facility and sell the land to the city. Sugar Land Regional Airport is one of the busiest and most popular airports in the Houston area, but it is hemmed in on three sides and there is little room to expand. The prison land adjoins the airport, and inmates grow crops just a few dozen yards from a busy runway used by everyone from corporate bigwigs to weekend pilots. The prison holds about 975 inmates who would be moved to other facilities if the prison were shuttered. State officials could possibly use the money from the sale of the land to expand existing facilities or build new ones. Ideal for developments Penal farms where convicts raised cotton and cattle once covered thousands of acres near Sugar Land. But in the last 10 years, Texas has been steadily selling the acreage because the vast open tracts are ideal for new housing developments. Texas prison spokesman Jason Clark said an appraisal done in 2006 estimated the value of the Central Prison Unit's land and buildings at $30,495,000. The land originally was purchased in 1908 from the Imperial Sugar Company. For decades, it was one of several prison units in a largely rural area. Though the Central Prison Unit is the last prison in Sugar Land, the state still operates the Jester Units and the Vance Unit in other parts of Fort Bend County. Clark said that during the last legislative session, lawmakers passed a measure ordering the prison system to see whether it would be feasible to close the prison and move the inmates and the 300-plus employees. "Essentially, it will determine what is in the best interest of TDCJ and the city of Sugar Land," Clark said. Financially self-sustaining Clark said the study is in the early stages and probably will be completed in time for the next legislative session in 2009. City officials covet the land because the tract represents the only place the airport can grow. Sugar Land's airport is the fourth largest in the Houston region, and more than a hundred Fortune 500 companies regularly use it, according to city officials. It also is financially self-sustaining, as all operating costs are paid for by fuel sales and other aviation fees. The airport sits at the junction of Texas 6 and U.S. 90A, making it impossible to expand to the east and south. To the north and the northwest is Cullinan Park. The only way to grow is to the southwest, where the Central Prison is located. "There is only a finite amount of land left in the city," the mayor said. "From an economic development standpoint, we want to make sure the land is used for the highest and best use for the city." Wallace said the spot is ideal for a business park because it has access from U.S. 90A and a rail line. He said hangars and other industry would be attracted to the spot. Although the prison closure is only in the study stage, money already has been earmarked for the project. Grant money Last month, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, helped the city secure a $2 million grant for the airport. "Planning for our future by developing the airport will open doors for business previously off-limits to our community," Lampson said in a statement. "We need to continue to look for opportunities like this that will increase Fort Bend's appeal for businesses." Wallace said the city plans to use the grant to help buy the prison land if the state decides to move forward on the project. "I think they could get a nice check written to them for that land and utilize the proceeds of that sale to consolidate another prison at a much better location than the city of Sugar Land," Wallace said. eric.hanson@chron.com
Novel pup-training project injects ray of hope in Texas women's prison
March 11, 2008 GATESVILLE — Since a court decided 25 years ago that she killed her husband, Sherry Wolf has been locked up here on a life sentence. This past year she was turned down for parole. Again. But now Wolf and 15 other female inmates at Gatesville Women's Correctional Unit have something to look forward to each day. The Rockwall-based Patriot Paws Service Dog program, which trains service dogs to be used by disabled veterans, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice began partnering in the novel project this year. Wolf and the others are living with eight Labrador retriever puppies 24 hours a day, training them to do tasks that will be required of the dogs when they later work with the disabled. The pups will stay with the inmates for 12 to 18 months. Beneficial partnership Program officials say the cost of caring for and training one service dog for that period would normally be about $20,000. That's why volunteers are a necessity. But the inmates get something out of it, too. "It's amazing to see the work that you put into these dogs really paying off," said Wolf, a petite, upbeat 46-year-old. "These dogs accept you for who you are. They don't judge you. They just love you unconditionally." Sounds simple. But unconditional love is hard to find in prison culture. "In the prison environment, it's all for yourself," said Sgt. Julie Blanchard of the Dr. Lane Murray unit, also in Gatesville. "With this program, they're having to learn teamwork, self-confidence, job skills. This gives them a way to feel they are a part of society." Of the 84 inmates who applied for the pup-rearing program, those winning the coveted 16 slots showed the most compassion and patience, said Melodye Nelson, assistant warden of the Gatesville unit. Because of Wolf's violent offense, Nelson said she was a special pick. "She's awesome," Nelson said. "The compassion she shows is just amazing. And these dogs have really given her a ray of hope." Sierra Fade will be up for parole on her burglary of a habitation sentence any day now. But the 24-year-old has found something behind bars that makes her hesitant to leave. "It's a positive thing in a negative environment, " she said. "I wrote my mother a letter the other day and told her I'm almost to the point where I don't want to go. I want to see this dog graduate first."
equinn@wacotrib.com
Law expands Texas prison inmates' access to phones Technological safety measures ease victim advocates' concerns
March 9, 2008 When Joan DeLuca needs to talk to her brother-in-law, a Texas prison inmate, she has to drive three hours each way and spend $40 for gas to visit for two hours each month. Every three months he can talk on the phone for five minutes. For inmate families like hers, old-fashioned letters have been a lifeline. That will change as Texas joins other states in allowing inmates greater access to telephones. Ms. DeLuca, secretary of the board of directors of the Texas Inmate Families Association, said she is thrilled to "welcome Texas into the 21st century." Under a new law, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is taking bids for about 4,000 phones to be installed in prisons. The policy shift was not opposed by victims' rights groups or law enforcement as in the past. "The Legislature began to talk about being smart on crime this time rather than being tough on crime," said Emmett Solomon, executive director of Restorative Justice Ministries Network in Huntsville. The policy is a good idea because "the most critical factor about whether a man or woman succeeds after prison is their connection with their family," he said. "Traditionally the prison tried to cut off pretty much all contact." State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, who co-sponsored the bill, said, "I don't think it's smart instead of tough – it's smart and tough." Concerns have been addressed by the new law, Mr. Madden said. For instance, victims' rights advocates worried that inmates might stalk or harass victims by phone. But new technology will limit calls, which will be pre-paid or collect, to the landline numbers of those on an approved list. A "biometric identifier," such as a fingerprint reader or voice recognition, also will be required of the inmate making the call. Calls will be recorded and can be monitored. Calls cannot be forwarded or used for three-way calling. The prison system is to award the phone contract by Sept. 1. After the vendor is paid, the state will give the first $10 million generated each year to the state's victim compensation fund. Kristianne Hinkamp, executive director of Victims Outreach in Dallas, said the policy change was not opposed in her circle because of the technological safety measures. And "having $10 million going into the crime victims' compensation fund can also really enhance what we offer," she said. Ms. Hinkamp said victims also are interested in rehabilitating offenders. In other states the cost of such phone calls has sometimes been exorbitant, placing a financial burden on the inmate's family. The new bill limits the frequency of the calls to 120 minutes a month and the cost of the calls to that currently used in county jails. Phone privileges are also expected to be a "good management tool" behind bars, said spokeswoman Michelle Lyons of TDCJ. "It offers an incentive to offenders to behave." The new policy also may help reduce the problem of cellphones smuggled into prison, Ms. Lyons said. In the past, some officials worried that offenders might orchestrate criminal activity from behind prison walls with phones. But this time around, Mr. Madden said, experts told him similar access in county and city jails proved to be a "pretty good law enforcement tool to help them catch and solve other crimes" through information gleaned from monitored calls. The date the service will start has not yet been determined.
EXPANDED PRIVILEGES About 120,000 of the state's 155,000 inmates should be eligible for phone privileges. Most inmates at high-custody levels, such as death row, will not be eligible. Offenders must have a clean disciplinary record for 90 days in state prisons, 30 days in state jails. They typically must be involved in full-time work, school or a treatment program. How often can they call? As often as they want, but they may talk no more than 120 minutes a month, 15 minutes at a time. Whom can they call? Up to 10 people on an approved visitors list. What security measures will be implemented? All calls, except to attorneys, will be recorded; all calls may be monitored. Each caller will be identified with a "biometric" measure, such as a fingerprint.
Feb. 29, 2008 Texas prison reforms praised But the state becomes nation's leader in number of criminals put behind bars
By ALLAN TURNER Long known for its tough-on-crime image, Texas on Thursday was hailed nationally for a package of reforms designed to curb its wildly growing prison population. But even as lawmakers were lauded for innovative programs for drug and alcohol abusers, Texas pushed past California to become the nation's leader in putting people behind bars. Texas, said the new Pew Center on the States report, had 171,790 prisoners on Jan. 1 — down 326 inmates from Dec. 31, 2006. California, which long had led the nation in inmates, reduced its prison rolls by 4,068 during that period. Nationwide, the study found one in every 100 adults is locked up in state and federal prisons or local jails. Of the states with the largest prison systems — those with 50,000 or more inmates — Texas, California, New York and Michigan reduced their offender populations in the past year. Between 1985 and 2005, the study said, Texas' prison population quadrupled. Even after spending $2.3 billion to add 108,000 prison beds, crowding continued. As many as 17,000 more prisoners were expected to be incarcerated within five years. Faced with the prospect of spending an additional $523 million for new prisons, Texas legislators last year virtually remade the corrections system, the study said. Key changes included dramatic expansion of drug treatment programs and so-called "diversion" beds, broad changes in parole practices and increased use of drug courts. The reforms could save the state $210 million over two years. With the new measures in place, authorities anticipate no prison population growth in the next five years. Two lawmakers credited Acknowledging "it's going to take hard work to get it all to work," study director Adam Gelb credited state Sen. John Whitmire, D- Houston, and Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, corrections committee chairmen of their respective houses, for crafting the legislation and getting it passed. "Government effectiveness and efficiency are better targeted at high- risk dangerous offenders and incarcerating them for long periods of time," Gelb said. "People want violent and career criminals behind bars. But they don't want to spend $24,000 a year on a cell for minor violators any more than they want to pay for a bridge to nowhere." 'Tough but smart' "There is no compromise on public safety," Whitmire said of the new programs. "They're tough but smart on fighting crime." The legislation will create 500 single-occupancy cells for inmates incarcerated for substance abuse offenses. "Right now we've got 5,500 inmates incarcerated for DWI — three or more offenses," Whitmire said. "They're in the general population, sharing a cell with a murderer or a rapist. ... Rather than putting them in a hard two-man cell, we've gotten smart and are putting them in a treatment program." Additionally, he said, 6,000 new beds will be created at intermediate sanction facilities. "We're sending literally thousands of probationers to prison on technicalities — failure to appear, failure to pay probation fees," Whitmire said. "We take all these requirements seriously, but we need to be smart on how to use prison space." The intermediate lockups would hold lapsed probationers up to 60 days to contemplate their transgressions. "It's not a feel-good soft-on- crime place," Whitmire said. The Pew report lauded the state's efforts at creating drug courts, legal proceedings that direct non-violent substance abusers to treatment programs rather than prison. Laura Flynn, director of Harris County's five-year-old drug court program, said 155 offenders are currently enrolled in treatment programs; 58 others are completing probation after treatment; and 60 have met their probation requirements. Only 7.8 percent — about half the national average — returned to court within a year of leaving the program. In September, the number of criminal court judges hearing such cases doubled to four. allan.turner@chron.com
Editorial: Don't lock 'em up, throw away key Drug court is alternative for counties Publication Date: 02/28/08 Randall County law enforcement officials say the status quo in the fight against illegal drug use isn't working. So, to seek another - and presumably better - method of battling this scourge, the county is pondering whether to establish a drug court. County commissioners this week decided to seek a grant from the Criminal Justice Division of the governor's office to establish a drug court for the county. The concept has its ardent supporters. Sheriff Joel Richardson and County Judge Ernie Houdashell are two who think it will work for Randall County. It's worth the effort. Houdashell said the county's practice of arresting drug offenders and then "throwing them into jail" isn't solving the problem. The individuals are being released, getting re-arrested and are tossed back into the slammer, Houdashell said. "It's not working," he added. Richardson sees the drug court as a way to reduce the jail population, thereby freeing up space at the lockup for more serious offenders. "We ought to be doing something other than locking people up" on drug- related crimes, Richardson said. The grant would pay for research and planning for a drug court, county officials said this week. Implementation of the drug court would require another financing source. How does this court work? It puts offenders on probation in what is called "intensive supervision. " The rules are stricter than most forms of probation, and they require drug offenders to seek treatment for their addiction. "Most people in the county jail are there because of some type of drug-related offense," said Danny Alexander, spokesman for the Randall County Sheriff's Department. He added that many inmates aren't locked up necessarily for drug use or selling. "Many of them are on burglary charges, which are related to their drug use," he said. Richardson said he is hopeful that the community will coalesce around the drug court. "It will take a coalition of the community to make it work," he said, and that includes Potter County joining Randall County in the court's eventual implementation. Richardson, of course, is right when he laments the huge rate of repeat offenses among drug users under the current system. "You bust a guy for meth use, put him in jail and then release him, he's going to be right back in jail on the same kind of charge," Richardson said. It's time, therefore, for a new approach. © The Amarillo Globe-News Online
COMMENTARY: RICH OPPEL Armed with GEDs, inmates can triumph over their pasts
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN On a recent morning, at the end of a long road that drops into an old pasture and emerges at a rectangle of high fences in far eastern Travis County, pride had to make way for pain in a locked and guarded room. Two hours after I entered this emotional scene, I drove out, passing a kennel of baying bloodhounds, and questions lingered: Why the pain? Is it properly distributed? This was graduation day in the Windham School District. Never heard of Windham? That's because its schools are scattered within the walls and fences of units of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). This particular branch was at the Travis State Jail, located at 8101 FM 969, which houses 1,100 inmates. The school is one of 88 schools in the TDCJ. Seated in folding chairs on one side of a large room were 36 men. Some wore blue gowns, others white prison uniforms. Most were between 18 and 35, though a couple of 43-year-olds were mixed in. Their faces were expressionless, eyes deflected in the protective human mask that is useful if you are a felon trying to survive behind bars. On the other side of the room were 30 to 35 people — men, women and children. They were the fathers and mothers, wives and girlfriends, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. When asked if they had anything to say to the prisoners, emotions welled up among these families. "To my graduate, Julien, my husband, I love you." "Rowdy, my son, I love you. You make me very proud." "People make mistakes. Just don't make the same mistake twice, William. We'll set up the business when you complete ... your dues." "We love you. We miss you. Keep up the good work." "Delton, I hope this is a right step in a positive direction." "Donald, God has a plan for you. Everyone makes a mistake. Let God lead you." Among the inmates across from them, eyes reddened, heads swiveled, a nervous wave was proffered, sullen faces turned to smiles and finally, eyes met eyes. There was good reason for pride. Thirteen of the prisoners had earned their General Educational Development (GED) certificates. Another 11 had completed courses in business computer information systems, and three had earned certificates in landscape design and construction maintenance. I felt pain, too, in seeing what these young men had done to their families, and wondered why it was necessary, because you could see these guys working at the local hardware store, hotel, hospital or business office. Perhaps that is where we will see them next, because their commitment to earning a certificate and learning work skills gives them a good chance of staying out of prison. The average Windham student never attained a high school diploma, functions at a 6th grade level, has an IQ of 85, and is 34 years old. Among the 1,100 here at the Travis State Jail, you sense that these 36 are made of the right stuff. "Congratulations, for putting up with all of the negativity of the dorms," said Ashley Anderson, the building captain, noting that they had borne ridicule by other inmates for having the courage and steadfastness to seek an education and have a vision for the future while others sat on the edge of their bunks. As I've written before, I have a GED, too. That's why I was here. I never served time, but I know that these guys aren't that much different than I was at age 18. They may have pulled a stick-up or beat up somebody. They got what they deserved, though their families didn't deserve this. But everybody needs a hand up, and now these guys in blue and white were getting that help. Help from the warden, Corey Ginsel, and the school principal, Sandy Haak, and teachers like those who showed up for the graduation on their day off — Joe Castillo, Richard Coppedge, Suzanna Grant and Terrence Smith. And most of all, they were getting help from the families on the other side of the room, the people who shared the pain and still love them.
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New program will grant prisoners phone access
By John Tompkins A new phone system Texas prison officials hope decreases the number of smuggled cell phones and increases the amount of intelligence on inmates could lead to more time for prison prosecutors to spend on other cases. Smuggled cell phone cases cause a lot of litigation for Texas Department of Criminal Justice prosecutors, said Teri Holder, who handles crimes committed in Brazoria County prisons for the special prosecution unit of Walker County. "It's time-consuming, " she said of investigating phone smuggling cases. "That's our hope, that it will free up investigation time." More than 500 cases were reported after the offense of smuggling a cell phone in a prison was made a state jail felony about six years ago, Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Inspector General John Moriarty said. Brazoria County is home to six state prison units. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice employs 2,945 people in Brazoria County, making it one of the 10 largest employers in the county. Former Darrington Unit warden Arthur Velasquez said the prevalence of smuggling cell phones rose in part because it was very profitable for guards, who could make up to $500 for bringing one in for a prisoner. "Right now we have a bad cell phone problem," Moriarty said. "We're the highest in the nation." The new plan, "would definitely curtail some of that." The Texas Department of Criminal Justice recently announced it would allow pay phones to be installed throughout the state's 106 prisons. The reasons the phones have not been installed at Texas prisons before is because of security concerns, TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. "There's been a concern that inmates will call and harass their victims," she said. Inmates will be able to call only people on pre-approved lists that include Family and friends, Lyons said. Though the new phones will be monitored and recorded, prisoners still can use code to "order" things, whether they be contraband or a hit on a person's life, said Bill Beucler, president of the prison guard union Local 3807 near Huntsville. "The fact of the matter is they can order whatever they want," he said. "What might come across in a tape recording as a normal conversation … might have a subliminal message." The most dangerous prisoners, those who are confirmed members of gangs or organized crime, will not be able to use the phones, Moriarty said. "Gang members won't have access," he said. Cell phones are difficult to monitor, especially when it is not known an inmate has them, Moriarty said. With the landline pay phones, officials can find out who prisoners are contacting, he said. "You can't jam the signals, either," he said. If prisoners who want to talk to loved ones have access to a phone, they will be less likely to have one smuggled in, which would bring down the number of cell phones in the prisons, Moriarty said. Though prisoners who are attempting drug deals or other illegal activity likely still will turn to a smuggled cell phone to place a call, they might turn to the monitored pay phones if they're desperate, Holder said. "I think some of them are still going to use them," she said. It is not yet known when the phones will be installed, though a contract must be approved by September, Lyons said. "We will be putting out the requests for proposals very soon," she said. The number of phones installed will be based on a ratio of one phone per 30 eligible inmates, Lyons said. Prisoners who are placed under administrative segregation will not be allowed to use them, she said. Each prisoner will get to use the phone up to 120 minutes per month, and the calls will be monitored by either the Office of the Inspector General or gang intelligence officers, Lyons said. "All phone calls will be recorded," Lyons said. "Since only certain offenders will be eligible, it will depend on the population." The installation will not cost taxpayer money as the vendor will profit from the phone usage, Lyons said. The state also will collect a percentage from the proceeds, she said. Exactly how much the state will collect has yet to be worked out, she said. Copyright © 2008 The Facts
Jan. 25, 2008 Inmate's death called `highly complex' State Senate panel members demand to know why issue not broached earlier
By LISA SANDBERG AUSTIN — On this, everyone agrees: 48-year-old Larry Louis Cox should not have been left to deteriorate on his prison cell floor, with a broken back and in his own waste, for two days before being sent to the hospital where he died. But while a medical examiner and independent prison investigators found evidence that Cox's death last February was caused by medical neglect, the director who oversees the adult prison's health care system defended medical staff on Thursday and called the case "highly complex." In testimony before a Senate committee, Dr. Ben Raimer and a colleague, Dr. Glenda Adams — both with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston — suggested a mix of factors led to Cox's death, including the inmate's own poor health, his tendency to malinger and his violent behavior. Later, Raimer and Adams both indicated that the death of the inmate from Houston may have been aggravated by severe shortages in medical staff, including a 15 percent shortage of doctors, an 18 percent shortage of midlevel practitioners and another 18 percent shortage in registered nurses. Soon, the issue of shortages in medical personnel dominated the hearing held by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. The committee's chairman, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, demanded to know why UTMB officials had not bothered to notify the Legislature of the problem. "Why in the hell ain't somebody telling us this?" Whitmire said. "Why isn't somebody calling us to say 'We've got an urgent matter?'" Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, himself a physician, demanded to know why low-level medical staff were making life and death decisions in the Cox case, apparently without help from senior medical staff. "With our current staff situation, there was not a (physician assistant) on site," Raimer said. Cox died in a hospital on Feb. 6, two weeks after a scuffle with guards at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, where he was incarcerated. The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide by "medical neglect complicating blunt force trauma." Guards became alarmed The prison's independent inspector general, John Moriarty, who's in charge of monitoring the prison system, told lawmakers that on four occasions prison medical staff did not administer Cox's prescribed medication, even when he told them he was paralyzed and could not get it himself. A physician care assistant recorded that as a "refusal to take medication." For two days, Cox was left on a mattress on his cell floor, lying in his own waste. Moriarty said it was prison correctional officers who became alarmed and came to Cox's aid. One guard hand-fed Cox painkillers; another alerted medical supervisors that the inmate needed to be transferred to a hospital. By then, however, it was too late. No one was ever held criminally responsible. The two prosecutors involved, one with the Walker County District Attorney's Office, the other assigned to the state's prison prosecutor unit, recommended that no criminal charges be filed, despite the medical examiner's report and despite Moriarty's conclusion that criminal charges be brought against at least five medical employees at the Estelle Unit. In 1990, Cox received a 20-year prison sentence in Harris County for burglary with intent to commit sexual assault. Eight years later, he was sentenced to 15 more years for murdering another inmate. Houston Chronicle reporter Roma Khanna contributed to this report. lsandberg@express-news.net
Pay phones are coming to state's prison system
Web Posted: 01/23/2008 AUSTIN — An estimated 120,000 Texas inmates soon will be able to reach out to family and friends on a regular basis after the state agreed Wednesday to install pay phones in prisons. The board that oversees the prison system, without discussion, unanimously approved policies that will allow most well-behaved prisoners, almost regardless of their original crime, to dial out for up to two hours a month either by calling collect or by using prepaid cards. Some 4,000 phones could be installed as early as this year in the states' 105 prisons. Texas is believed to be the last state to provide inmates with regular phone privileges. All calls to relatives and friends — who must be on a pre-approved list — will be recorded, and prison officials will monitor some — but by no means all — of the calls. "If you had a person listening in to every phone call, it would be a tremendous strain," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the prison system. She added that officials didn't necessarily foresee the need to hire additional correctional officers. The phones would be placed in prison day rooms, she said, which already have officers. "We're trying to implement this so it'll be neutral on our staffing," she said. That may not appease those who've yet to embrace the idea of putting phones in prisons. Gov. Rick Perry expressed concerns the bill was "broadly worded" and "might give pedophiles phone perks or allow violent offenders to harass or stalk victims," spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said. Perry let the bill pass without his signature but didn't veto it because he was confident the prison board would enact stringent procedures, she said. John Moriarty, the prison inspector general, said the phones could aid authorities in gathering intelligence and might end up reducing the smuggling into the prisons of cell phones. Some 500 cell phones were recovered inside the prisons last year and the calls placed from those phones went unmonitored. "At least these calls will be recorded. ... I think this could be one of the best security measures in place," Moriarty said. Setting up the system will be a huge undertaking, equivalent to monitoring "all the telephone traffic in a city the size of Waco," Moriarty said. Brian Olsen, executive director of the union representing Texas prison guards, said he wondered how the state expected correctional staff to do any monitoring, given the 4,000-guard shortage and the overtime guards now are working. "It's scary. They're wearing them out as it is," said Olsen of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Union/ Correctional Employees Council 7. State lawmakers approved the prison phones last year after proponents argued that technology advances like biometrics, which include eyeball identification, would make it extremely difficult for inmates to harass victims or direct criminal actions, such as hits on targets, from behind bars. Senate Bill 1580 had something for nearly everyone. The private phone provider contractor, which would install and operate the phones, would collect 60 percent of the revenues. The state would divvy the rest with the state Crime Victims Compensation Fund. The state and fund could end with as much as $15 million over two years. "I know people who worked on this for a decade but it was always blocked at the highest levels," said Joan Burnham, immediate past chair of the Austin/Travis County Re-entry Roundtable, a group that advocates for rehabilitation initiatives for offenders. Groups like Burnham's are relieved most Texas offenders will be permitted monthly phone calls but they worry about the costs that inmate families will have to bear. Costs have been exorbitant for inmate families in states across the nation. The average cost of a 15-minute long distance collect call placed from a correctional facility in Washington state runs nearly $18, according to a 2006 report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. The cost for a similar call runs $9 in New Jersey. The issue of pricey prison calls received so much publicity in New York that the governor there, Eliot Spitzer, last year eliminated the state's 57 percent commission. Texas prison officials say they have no idea how much inmate families will end up paying for prison calls. The cost will be set by the provider, and the provider hasn't yet been selected. Bids will be drawn up in the next few weeks. Lyons said prison officials have attempted to keep costs down by allowing calls to be made from prepaid cards, which usually are less expensive than collect calls. Prisoners eligible to use phones will have to be free of major disciplinary violations for 90 days and have a job, be in school or in a treatment program. Lyons estimated that close to 120,000 of the system's 154,000 prisoners would meet those criteria. Houston Chronicle Staff Writer Allan Turner contributed to this report. lsandberg@express-news.net
Jan. 23, 2008 Most will get two hours of monthly phone time
By LISA SANDBERG AUSTIN — For the first time ever, Texas prison inmates will soon be able to pick up a phone and reach out to family and friends on a regular basis. Some 4,000 new pay phones are scheduled to be installed as early as this year for inmate use inside the state's 105 adult prisons. Texas is the last state in the union to provide inmates with regular phone privileges. Early this afternoon, the board that oversees the prison system, without discussion, approved policies that will allow most well- behaved prisoners, almost regardless of their original crime, to dial out for up to two hours a month either by calling collect or by using prepaid cards. All calls to relatives and friends on an approved list will be recorded, and prison officials will be in charge of monitoring them. State lawmakers approved the telephones last year after proponents argued that technology advances would make it nearly impossible for inmates to either harass victims or run criminal enterprises from behind bars. The prison system's inspector general said this week that with proper monitoring, the phones could actually aid authorities in gathering intelligence. "I think it could be one of the best security measures in place," said the inspector general, John Moriarty. But Moriarty and others recognize that how well the system works will depend on how well the calls are monitored. And allocating staff to monitor telephone calls will be no easy challenge, given the agency's severe shortage of correctional officers. Brian Olsen, the executive director of the union representing prison guards, said he doubted the agency could effectively monitor so many calls when it's short 4,000 correctional officers. "I just don't know what they're thinking," Olsen said. Michelle Lyons, the prison system's spokeswoman, said the agency didn't necessarily foresee the need for additional staff. The phones would be placed in prison day rooms, which are already staffed with officers. "We're trying to implement this so it'll be neutral on our staffing," she said.
Guard shortage forces closure of prison wing in West Texas Corrections officers to press state officials for pay raises to help with staff shortage
By Mike Ward In a corrections system known for steady growth for decades, Texas has mothballed parts of a state prison in the Panhandle because there were not enough guards to properly run it. At a unit in East Texas, prison officials recently relocated nearly 300 high-security convicts and replaced them with lower-risk convicts who take fewer correctional officers to supervise. The disclosures came Wednesday as a group of officers went public with concerns that staffing shortages in Texas prisons have reached dangerous levels after years of administrators transferring convicts and tweaking overtime pay and schedules to try to maintain proper security in the face of dwindling staff. "The situation is serious. It's very scary right now," said William Cook, 54, who has been a correctional officer at the Polunsky Unit in East Texas for four years. "Things are fixing to get worse." Longtime Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who chairs a legislative committee that oversees prison operations, echoed the concern: "When we reach the point where we're shutting down beds, it's is no longer a problem. It would be accurate to label this a crisis. "Because of this chronic shortage, we've had to lower our hiring standards. ... We're now taking 18-year-olds just a few months out of high school; we're hiring 70-plus-year- old guards and others who are physically not able to protect themselves or others." Prison officials said that adequate security is being maintained at Texas' 112 lockups, which house 157,000 felons. But they acknowledged that staffing shortages are an increasing problem and that low pay is a chief complaint. The starting base pay for correctional officers in Texas is about $23,000 a year. After eight years, it tops out at about $34,000. Texas traditionally ranks low nationally in how much it pays its correctional officers. For example, among the 16 Southern states, it ranks 13th, according to prison system officials. "Will more money help? Absolutely," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Officials confirmed Wednesday that a wing housing about 300 inmates in the 1,300-bed Dalhart Unit was quietly shuttered in October and remains closed without any date to reopen because there are too few guards to properly staff the entire lockup. For more than a year, the Dalhart Unit has been one of the most short-staffed in the state. In September, prison records show, the lockup had just 62 percent of its jobs filled. "We used it as a management tool to address an area where we had a chronic shortage of staff," Lyons said. Also in October, prison officials removed 282 "administrative segregation" convicts from the Beto Unit near Palestine and moved them to other prisons. They were replaced by "general population" felons, who take fewer guards to supervise. Lyons said the staffing was about 65 percent on the wing before its "repurposing" and 92 percent afterward. "We haven't closed that wing. There are still inmates there," Lyons said. The last time Texas had empty prison beds because there were not enough guards to staff them was more than a decade ago, in the mid-1990s, when the state was tripling the size of its prison system and opening so many prisons — one a week for a time — that it could not train guards fast enough. Six years ago, the state idled as many as 4,400 prison bunks, not because of too few guards but because there were not enough convicts. In November, after the Dalhart bunks were mothballed, the staffing ratio increased to 71 percent. But other prisons remained just as short of staff as Dalhart had been, records show. The 581-bed Fort Stockton Unit, also in West Texas, had just 58 percent of its jobs filled, and the adjacent 1,374-bed Lynaugh Unit was at 65 percent. The 2,450-bed Eastham Unit near Lovelady, in East Texas, was operating with just 65 percent of its jobs filled. Ten other prisons were operating with 75 percent or less guard jobs filled. In all, prison reports show, the system was at least 3,749 officers short at the end of November, a number that has steadily inched upward in recent years. Statewide, the system has only 83 percent of the correctional officers it needs. When enough guards are not available to properly staff prisons, Cook and other correctional officers say, rehabilitation and exercise programs can be curtailed. Convicts can be confined to their cells almost continuously and, in increasing instances, have had to be served peanut butter sandwiches for several days because staffing was not sufficient to feed them in the chow hall. At the Polunsky Unit, according to Cook, "we run the chow hall with one officer ... with 100 inmates. There's one officer and two locked doors between you and the outside, and if something happens, all you can do is get out of the way and hope (the inmates) don't find you." Dorms are supposed to be supervised by five correctional officers, Cook said. But often "there are just three, on a building that contains 500 inmates." In a letter to legislative leaders that was made public Wednesday, a coalition of prison officers told legislative leaders that the staff crisis could soon blow up. Warning of "real concerns about the safety and well-being of our prison agency," the letter blamed low pay and poor working conditions for the problem. "In recent years, we have grown increasingly shorter and shorter in our staffing, all the time encountering more and more violent offenders," the letter said. Wood said he and other correctional officers plan to meet next week with Whitmire and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to discuss the issue and to ask for legislative action to approve a pay raise. A push for a raise during last year's legislative session was short-lived after lawmakers learned that it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. "We built a lot of these prisons in rural areas, and when oil is $100 a barrel, anyone who can drive a truck can make more doing that than working in a prison," Whitmire said. "I don't know that we can increase the salaries enough to fill all these vacant positions." Texas prison staff shortages
Units with correctional officer staffing rates below 70 percent
Wallace Colorado City 64 7
Figures are as of Nov. 30, latest available.
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Grits for Breakfast Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride. December 30, 2007
Magic Johnson Goes to Texas Prison for "Wall Talk" Here's one sports star I never expected to see in prison, even with all the professional athletes out there in trouble with the law: Basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Fortunately, he was just visiting the Darrington Unit to participate in TDCJ's "peer education program, 'Wall Talk,'" filming a video that will be shown to "at risk" offenders. The prisoners Johnson met with are "trained to 'spread the word,' ... [to] help educate fellow offenders about preventive health care as it relates to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, B and C, as well as diabetes and staph infections." Good for him! Also, good for TDCJ for using peer education to supplement top-down approaches to its longstanding healthcare failings; they have to try something! Johnson and TDCJ "filmed a discussion he had with a group of offenders. The resultant DVD will be used to disseminate his message further into at-risk communities"
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Spreading the Word on Preventive Health Care By TBCJ Chairman Christina Melton Crain Sixteen years ago, Earvin "Magic" Johnson was diagnosed as HIV- positive. His diagnosis brought a human face to AIDS and a greater awareness of its potential impact on society as a whole. Wanting to make a difference, the former L.A. Lakers star established the Magic Johnson Foundation, which is dedicated to AIDS-related research. Following his retirement from professional basketball, Johnson dedicated his time and energy to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in America. The Foundation has recently teamed with Abbott Laboratories to fight HIV/AIDS through community education. It was under this venue that Johnson visited the Darrington Unit, where he filmed a discussion he had with a group of offenders. The resultant DVD will be used to disseminate his message further into at- risk communities. In his presentation, Johnson promoted the importance of HIV testing and spoke about preventing the acquisition or transmission of the disease. He passionately talked about the need for a better understanding of the disease and its impact on individuals and their families. Johnson also advocated the value of "spreading the word" and the use of preventive education in local communities. The offenders Johnson addressed that day were a part of the Agency's peer education program, "Wall Talk." Trained to "spread the word," these offenders help educate fellow offenders about preventive health care as it relates to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, B and C, as well as diabetes and staph infections. After careful selection of the peer educators, the Agency teaches them about the diseases and provides instruction on effective methods of teaching. These offender peer educators are more likely to have firsthand knowledge about the risk factors common among their fellow offenders, which gives them credibility concerning the issues. Being a part of the offender population, these educators are also more accessible as a constant source of information and support for other offenders. The Health Services offender peer education program for HIV/AIDS began in 1998 as a pilot program in five (5) facilities. It has since grown to 94 programs that cover a wide array of diseases and topics. As of August 2007, the program has grown to include 702 offender peer educators, and had taught 25,974 offenders in the first eight (8) months of the year. Even though expanded to cover other communicable diseases, the core curriculum taught by the offender peer educators is HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. It has become, however, more adaptable, which allows units to tailor the program to meet the needs, interests and schedules of the offenders housed there. For instance, the curriculum on the female units is called "Women to Women." It covers the same information as "Wall Talk," but also includes topics that are female- specific, such as the female reproductive system. Through its success, the offender peer education program continues to grow. This year, in collaboration with the Safe Prisons Program, its curriculum was expanded to allow peer educators to train offenders to avoid allowing themselves to be victimized and to emphasize that offender-on- offender assaults should not be expected or tolerated. In addition, the Windham School District has collaborated with the Health Services Division to allow offender educators to enter unit classrooms and teach students enrolled in school, which provides a great opportunity to share preventive health care education with a broader audience. The TDCJ Classification and Records Department has also recognized the value of the program by creating a full-time offender job classification for peer educators. This allows these offenders to pursue their task of educating full time, while also earning the same good time and work time credit that is afforded offenders in other jobs. Wardens and unit administrators support the program's growth, as they have observed positive changes in the attitude and behavior of peer educators as well as in the offenders they teach. An unanticipated benefit of the program has been the dissemination of the information outside the prison. Through letters to family members and significant others, educated offenders are sharing what they have learned, spreading the message into their homes and local communities. Offender peer education has received national recognition for its merits in teaching preventive health care. Magic Johnson's visit to the Darrington Unit Peer Education Program and his development of a DVD to help carry the message beyond the walls and into at-risk communities is a true indicator of the importance and success of peer education. Magic Johnson Goes to Texas Prison for "Wall Talk"
Officials: Idaho inmates disrupt Texas detention center
Idaho Press-Tribune Staff LITTLEFIELD, Tex. — Several Idaho inmates were reportedly involved in a violent disruption Monday in the Texas detention facility where they are housed, according to an Idaho Department of Correction spokesperson. A deputy warden from the Idaho Department of Correction has been dispatched to the Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Tex., to investigate the incident. The company that operates the prison, GEO Group, Inc., said that at about 7:30 p.m. Monday, a detention center lieutenant was assaulted by two Idaho inmates. After the lieutenant was assaulted, about 10 to 15 other Idaho offenders refused to return to their cells, said IDOC public information officer Jeff Ray. They complied when the facility's response team arrived on the scene. The Littlefield Police Department is investigating the incident, and the inmates involved in the assault may face new criminal charges. Other inmates who refused to comply with staff orders will likely face disciplinary sanctions. There are 373 Idaho inmates incarcerated at the Texas facility because of a lack of space in Idaho prisons.
Dec. 10, 2007 Perry names 3 to criminal justice board Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau A trial lawyer, a businessman and a social worker were appointed by Gov. Rick Perry on Monday to the nine-person Texas Board of Criminal Justice, which oversees the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The appointees are: R. Terrell McCombs of San Antonio, who is vice president of McCombs Enterprises and a nephew of auto magnate B.J. "Red" McCombs; Eric Gambrell of Highland Park, who is a trial partner with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld; and Janice Harris Lord of Arlington, who is a social worker and national consultant on crime victim issues. McCombs touted his lack of criminal justice experience as a plus. "I'm open-minded and business-minded. My hope is to make (the prison agency) run more efficiently.
300 inmates sickened by virus State: Beeville unit outbreak's source likely in cafeteria By David Kassabian December 4, 2007 A contagious gastrointestinal virus that causes vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps and nausea has infected about 300 inmates at Beeville's Texas Department of Criminal Justice McConnell Unit, a department spokeswoman said Monday. A single inmate likely contracted Nov. 27 what was later diagnosed as Norovirus -- known for proliferating in nursing homes, schools and cruise ships, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet. The likely first inmate infected had a work assignment at the prison's cafeteria, which may have played a role in the virus spreading to about 100 inmates by Saturday and 300 by Monday, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. "Fortunately, this is not common," Lyons said. "(The virus) can spread quickly -- it would be similar to folks living in a dorm or other area where there is close quarters." In addition to the 300 inmates diagnosed by Monday, seven staff members at the prison were diagnosed, Lyons said. Prison officials restricted the movement of diagnosed inmates, disinfected the inmates' cells and temporarily barred visits from inmates' family and friends. Also, infected inmates will be barred from working in the cafeteria for 30 days after their symptoms subside. Texas Department of State Health Services officials were called in Friday and found no infected food samples, Lyons said. The incubation period for norovirus-associate d illnesses is usually between 24 and 48 hours, and symptoms usually last 24 to 60 hours, according to the CDC. Most inmates are being treated with over-the-counter medications, with about 12 needing IVs, Lyons said. An inmate suffering from diabetes required hospitalization, she added. The McConnell Unit houses about 2,800 male inmates. Its clinic handles ambulatory medical, dental and mental health services and is managed by the University of Texas Medical Branch. Contact David Kassabian at 886-3778
'Latest Prison News' Archives" # 1-in-4 Black men are in prison, on parole or probation. # 10% stripped of their right to vote. # Unprecidented numbers of children are locked up, many sentenced into their adult lives. # Native Americans have the highest percentage of their population in prison. # Latinos and women are the fastest growing populations in the prison system. # New prisons are being forced upon rural communities to "revive" their economies. # 70% of prisoners are locked up for crimes that did not involve violence. # Immigrants are now subject to separate laws, many disappeared and detained indefinitely. # All giving the U.S. the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. # *Redefining "felony" makes the U.S. incarcerate more people than does China, hardly a model of decency or sanity. # Prison sentences for the same crime are three times longer in the U.S. than in Canada. # Women are now the fastest growing segment of inmates.
Rubén Rosario: Taking on our teeming prisons Article Launched: 11/25/2007 Hear ye, hear ye. The nation's prison population is swelling. So, this is news? We've known for a while now that we are the world's undisputed leader in locking up people in prison or jail. That includes Russia and even China, which has more than three times our population. We build more prisons than schools in this country, doncha know? The public and private prison-construction gravy train keeps rolling along, regardless of whether the crime rate surges, plunges, teeter- totters or levels off. If we build it, the offenders will come. And if they don't, we'll pass more laws or extend them and make sure they do. Yet here comes another report saying that we're going down the wrong path and that we will be paying the piper if things don't change. Nine respected criminologists and sociology types - including Joshua Page from the University of Minnesota - argue in the 35-page report that we could save $20 billion annually and - get this - possibly reduce crime in the process by locking up fewer people. JFA Associates, a Washington think tank that conducts research and policy analysis in the criminal-justice and corrections fields, commissioned the report. In fact, the report, "Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America's Prison Population," notes that the record imprisonment surge has had "numerous unintended consequences, ranging from racial injustice and damage to families and children to worsening public health, civic disengagement, and even increases in crime." These guys sound a little like those scientists sounding the global warming alarm, the ones making us see red by exhorting us to go green. What do they know? I'll worry about it when I see the Pacific or Atlantic wash up to my Twin Cities doorstep, right? But let's humor these experts on crime and punishment, just in case they might have a point. Before it concludes with recommendations, the report lays out some irrefutable facts and other thought-provoking nuggets about crime and the nation's $200 billion-a-year criminaljustice and penal system: The nation's prison population has increased eightfold since 1970. It keeps going up even though crime rates are at 1973 levels. For the same crimes, "American prisoners receive sentences twice as long as English prisoners, three times as long as Canadian prisoners, four times as long as Dutch prisoners, five to 10 times as long as French prisoners, and five times as long as Swedish prisoners.'' Most scientific evidence "suggests that there is little if any relationship between fluctuations in crime rates and incarceration rates." The report's analysis found that New York City, along with states such as Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts, enjoyed declining crime rates while they were also reducing jail and prison populations. "This generation-long growth of imprisonment has occurred not because of growing crime rates, but because of changes in sentencing policy that resulted in dramatic increases in the proportion of felony convictions resulting in prison sentences and in the length-of-stay in prison that those sentences required,'' the report states. The report underlines a major trend fueling the prison surge: the rising portion of the prison population involving mostly nonviolent drug offenders imprisoned for technical violations of their parole or probation. According to the report, more than half of all annual admissions to state prisons involve such parole or probation violators. "For those that suggest that by incarcerating people for non-felony crimes or noncompliance with the terms of probation or parole we are preventing more serious crimes to occur, there is no scientific data to support such a claim,'' the report states. "These data clearly suggest that we are spending a great deal of money and wasting a large amount of prison space on people who fail to comply with parole and probation supervision rules and who have not committed new crimes,'' the authors said. The report's recommendations include: Reduce time served in prison. They don't mean the Hannibal Lecters of the world. It's more about offenders like Jessica Hall, an unemployed mother of three with a husband serving in Iraq who got 24 months in the slammer for tossing a cup of ice at another driver's vehicle during a road-rage incident in Fairfax County, Va. Although prosecutors pushed for her to serve the entire two-year prison sentence, a judge sentenced her to time served - seven weeks in jail - and suspended the rest of her two-year term. Eliminate the use of prisons for technical violations of parole or probation, and reduce their lengths. Decriminalize "victimless" crimes, particularly those related to drug use and abuse. Implementing those and other initiatives, the authors contend, will annually free up substantial money to invest in crime prevention and early intervention efforts that may curtail or prevent behaviors that lead to criminal behavior. "I understand fully well that if you do the crime, you do the time,'' said Page, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and director of an ongoing study on the reintegration of juvenile offenders into society. "Absolutely. Punishment can serve as a positive social function,'' Page said. "But that punishment should be proportional to what the offender did.'' Good luck. I've never seen a politician or key policymaker risk re- election or reappointment by arguing that we need fewer offenders locked up. Consider the Minnesota lawmaker who came up with the really lame "Halloween night'' measure to draft a law to specifically deal with sexual offenders caught preying on trick-or-treaters on that one day. There are already laws on the books to deal with that. But hey, let's take the idiotic but simple approach. Page understands the immense challenge of changing public perception while trying to prevent such a report from landing in a wastebasket or gathering dust on a government office bookshelf or window ledge. "I'm not naive to think that a politician is going to pick this up and embrace it as his or her six-point plan for changing the system," Page said. "But we are not political hacks. We don't work for a lobby group. We do believe we have perspective, though. We are trying to be as public as we can be about what's going on and what needs change." Hear ye, hear ye.
Rubén Rosario can be reached at;
ONLINE Article By; RUBÉN ROSARIO
November 06, 2007 Texas prison and jail vote results UPDATED 11/7: How did the big prison and jail votes around the state turn out last night? While statewide voters approved three new prisons as part of a larger hodgepodge of proposals, voters in Smith and Harris (Tyler and Houston) - long considered two of the more "tuff on crime" counties - both shot down new jails. Overall, these tallies show voters no longer view building more lockups in nearly as favorable a light as they did just a few years ago. Here are the results: State Proposition 4 (building three new prison units and a new Youth Commission facility): Approved, approximately 58%-42%. Lumping prisons in with repairs for state parks and homes for the mentally retarded made this item bulletproof, despite opposition to new prisons from all parts of the political spectrum. In its last Legislative Appropriations Request, TDCJ estimated the cost to staff and operate three new prisons would be $72 million per year on top of $34 million in bond payments. The Legislative Budget Board must still certify the prisons are needed before they are built. The new TYC unit will likely be in Harris County. Smith County Jail Bonds: Defeated, 69%-31%. This is the second year in a row Smith County voters rejected a new jail. Opposition to jail bonds in Tyler is growing. Due to high voter turnout, more people voted against the jail in 2007 than voted in the entire 2006 bond election. Maybe it's time for Smith county commissioners, judges and the DA to start looking more seriously at incarceration alternatives. Or maybe we can do this again next year. Harris County Jail Bonds: Defeated, 51%-49%. Wow! With no organized opposition, this went down solely on the voters' gut instinct that they didn't want it. Smart voters! It's not like Harris County could staff the jails they've got. County Judge Ed Emmett told the Houston Chronicle, "There's no question we need more jail cells." Hogwash! Harris County's jail overcrowding stems from decisions by elected officials, not some Providential demand from on high. Given yesterday's results and overall electoral trends in Harris County, perhaps replacing some of those folks next year might be an easier sell to voters than building more jail beds. Brazos County Jail Bonds: Approved 63%-37%. Of all the jail bonds before voters in the state, these had the least local media coverage or public debate. As a result, they sailed through. Howard County Jail Bonds: Approved 70%-30%. This was the only jail bond proposal I felt was necessary. The Commission on Jail Standards had vowed to shut down the jail if the bonds didn't pass. In 2006, Howard County voters rejected a slightly smaller jail bond package. Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Labels: County jails, Electoral politics, Harris County, Smith County, TDCJ
PROPOSITION 4 - How will this effect TX November 6th 2007 is right around the corner. We want you to know what is on the ballot. We can't tell you how to vote we can only inform you that this is out there.
PROPOSITION 4 SJR 65 would authorize the legislature to permit the Texas Public Finance Authority to issue up to $1 billion in general obligation bonds, the proceeds of which would be dedicated to maintenance, construction, repairs, and equipment purchases, as authorized by the legislature for the following state agencies: the Texas Building and Procurement Commission; the Parks and Wildlife Department; the Department of the Adjutant General; the Department of State Health Services; the Department of Aging and Disability Services; the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired; the Texas Youth Commission; the Texas Historical Commission; the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; the Texas School for the Deaf; and the Texas Department of Public Safety. The proposed amendment will appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the issuance of up to $1 billion in bonds payable from the general revenues of the state for maintenance, improvement, repair, and construction projects and for the purchase of needed equipment." A coalition of state agencies affected by Proposition 4 is working to help educate and inform voters, explaining how bond funds would be spent and how this would affect the public. State agencies are not advocating for or against the proposition, but they are urging citizens and state employees to get informed about Proposition 4 and exercise their right to vote.
October 15, 2007 Arguments you won't hear in TV ads about new prisons and Proposition 4 As Texans prepare to vote on Proposition 4 that will finance construction of three new adult prisons and a variety of sundry construction projects, including a new Texas Youth Commission lockup and improvements at old ones the Legislature chose not to fund from the surplus. (The biggest items in Prop 4 by far are new prisons and fixing up DPS crime labs.) Particularly annoying, not to mention fiscally irresponsible, I don't understand why the Legislature is asking voters to issue debt to pay for maintenance and repairs at several state agencies. Shouldn't facility maintenance costs come out of the biennial budget? Since when do we borrow for such things in Texas? Whatever happened to "Pay as you go"? Anyway, as the vote approaches, thanks to The Back Gate for re- posting this video explaining why Texas prison guards opposed new prison construction this year at the Legislature: If you can't staff the prisons you've got, how can we afford to build more? See also this one, from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, making many of the same points: You're not going to see any TV ads for or against new prisons, or most of the rest of the bond proposals, I'd guess, so for those who care, educate yourself. Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Labels: Electoral politics, TDCJ
October 14, 2007 Conservative group opposing prison bonds, other new debt on Texas' November ballot Having just mentioned that incarceration growth is driving higher taxes at the local level, I was interested to see that a conservative group called "Americans For Prosperity" has come out to oppose the bonds for new prison building and other expenses proposed on Texas' Nov. 6 ballot. This is the first organization to come out publicly against the statewide Debt-A-Palooza the Legislature placed before voters this fall. On Prop #4, which requests voter approval to borrow money to build three new prisons and other construction projects, AFP declares: OPPOSE. Reasons: $57 million GR funds have been obligated to pay for debt service payments, and though many of the these projects appear deserving of some funding, with a state budget surplus, we should not be obligating bonds/future taxpayers to fund them. Meanwhile, on AFP's Texas blog, long-time conservative activist Peggy Venable accuses the Travis County Commissioners Court of "using a tactic other local governments have been advised to use: increase taxes and 'sell it to the public' as more money for police." It never ceases to amaze me that, although common stereotypes attribute anti-incarceration attitudes to liberals, the only people in the state with enough cojones to oppose new prisons or jails often are small-government conservatives like Venable or Judge Cynthia Kent in Tyler. By contrast, the so-called "liberal" pols are too often afraid of being called "soft on crime," and with the election three weeks away I'm not aware of a single liberal group that's come out against Prop #4. Posted by Gritsforbreakfast Labels: Electoral politics, TDCJ
Risk Vs. Reward Are private prisons doing more harm than good? October 12, 2007 In the early 1990s, Texas built prisons faster than Tony Romo threw interceptions Monday night. No way could the state manage them all. Advisedly, it contracted with private firms to run some of them. A decade later, it's time to seriously review that strategy. Dallas Morning News reporter Holly Becka exposed the latest problems Sunday, looking into prisons run by the GEO Group Inc., one of the largest private operators. Her reporting chronicled suicides, rapes and destruction of evidence at GEO adult facilities. This comes after news that GEO is closing one juvenile prison it managed after the Texas Youth Commission yanked its contract. We certainly don't support coddling prisoners, but the state incurs enormous risks when they face possible abuse and death. Can you say "lawsuit"? The family of one prisoner who committed suicide already has notified the state and GEO that it plans to sue. At the very least, legislators should examine how well the state is monitoring private operators. The Senate's Criminal Justice Committee fortunately has that question on its agenda when it meets today. Committee Chairman John Whitmire says he's worried about cozy relationships between monitors and private operations. There's a tendency to go soft when everybody knows everybody. For example, four Texas Youth Commission employees charged with overseeing a private prison in West Texas once worked for the company running the prison. The committee particularly needs to look deeply into GEO's operations. According to Mr. Whitmire, it has about 5,500 adult prisoners in its nine Texas facilities. The pressing question is whether the state has made it too easy for firms such as GEO to get a contract. If these steps don't prove to be a big move toward fixing things, the state should consider whether it's time to stop privatizing its prisons. Taxpayers won't benefit if risks outweigh rewards.
Oct. 12, 2007 Mom of dead inmate begs to end prison suffering
Son killed self in private lockup;
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES AUSTIN — An Idaho mother spoke softly but silenced a legislative hearing room Friday as she described her son's degradation at a private Texas prison last spring before he slashed his throat. Shirley Noble begged lawmakers, looking into the monitoring of conditions at all state lockups, to investigate the March 4 death of Scot Noble Payne at a prison run by the Florida-based Geo Group Inc. "After he tried unsuccessfully to slash his wrists and ankles, he knelt in the shower and cut his own throat," she said of her 43-year-old son's suicide at Dickens County prison in Spur. "Surely only a person in utter desperation and horrifying conditions would bring himself to this end." A spokesman for Geo, the company formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., said the company has no comment about testimony before the committee. Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked lawmakers to review accountability at juvenile and adult jails, prisons and treatment centers after the Texas Youth Commission shut down the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center two weeks ago in the West Texas town of Bronte.
Operates several facilities Geo operates four adult prisons, two shorter-term lockups and a halfway house for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It also runs several county-owned private prisons and local jails. "The Coke County facility was not an isolated incident. It's a pattern," said Ron Rodriguez, a Laredo attorney representing Noble and other family members in lawsuits against Geo. Idaho Department of Corrections officials investigating Payne's death at the Spur facility said they'd never seen a worse prison. Others told the committee that better quality assurance monitoring won't stop private prison abuses unless repeated violations are enforced with contract cancellations.
Degradation cited Noble testified that her son, a sex offender from Idaho, was sent to Texas because his home state did not have room for its own prison population. When he arrived at the prison in Spur, his situation grew desperate, she said. Bathing was sporadic, personal property was stolen, and inmates were forced to sleep close proximity to each other, creating unnecessary tension. "It seemed there was no end to the degradation he and other prisoners were to endure with substandard facilities and at the hand of a for-profit enterprise," Noble said. Payne managed to escape but was captured and returned to the Dickens County prison, where he was placed in solitary confinement, his mother said. In his last days, he began writing letters in "frightening detail" about sleeping on a cot with a feces-soiled blanket and a pillowcase stained with human waste and dried blood, his mother testified. But Noble said one thing remains a mystery. "Who was the person who had given him an open razor and his only contact on solitary were guards and the warden?" she asked.
polly.hughes@chron.com
Prison death probed in Medina County
09/15/2007 State officials are investigating the death of an inmate at a state prison in Medina County 10 days ago, but foul play is not suspected. According to Stephen Collins, the warden of the medium security Torrez Unit, the inmate, Dustin McVade, 22, of Austin, died Sept. 4, while alone in his cell. He was serving time on an assault conviction. Collins said officials believe McVade died of asphyxiation but that it was accidental. "It's strictly preliminary. No autopsy results are in," he said. Collins said McVade was not depressed or in an emotional state before he died.
TDCJ Clerical error releases murderer 16 years to early
Posted on July 20, 2007 Two-and-a-half months after being freed because of a clerical error, Willie Joe McAdams was arrested today and is expected to be booked into prison to serve at least 16 more years of a 40-year sentence for shooting a Houston man in the head, blinding him in one eye. When McAdams was sentenced in 2004 to 40 years in prison for shooting Cedric Thomas in the head, Thomas thought it was a just punishment. While enjoying himself at a bar during the Fourth of July weekend, Thomas was shocked when McAdams approached him, shook his hand and apologized. "What if he still had malice in his heart and wanted to kill me," said Thomas, who lost an eye in the March 2003 sports bar shooting. McAdams was released from prison 36 years early after serving four years of his 40 year sentence because of a "clerical error," according to Michelle Lyons, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman. McAdams was released May 4. Lyons said that the mistake was "human error" when keying in McAdams personal information and punishment time during intake in 2004. Lyons said McAdams was arrested at Hillcroft and Main during a traffic stop after being followed from his home this afternoon. Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force detective C.J. Mitchell said he and other officers began watching McAdams' home this morning. Lyons said she expects him to be put back in prison to serve the rest of his time. He will be eligible for parole in 16 years. Someone getting out of prison because of a clerical error is a rare occurrence, Lyons said. When it does happen, the situation is that an inmate is requested to come to another jurisdiction for other crimes, but TDCJ doesn't get the correct paperwork. ``We let out hundreds on inmates a day,'' Lyons said. ``It usually goes off without a hitch." Lyons said the agency was made aware of the mistake Wednesday. TDCJ Inspector General John Moriarty said his office — an internal affairs division — is investigating how McAdams was released. ``I can think of no legal reason he wouldn't have to go back,'' said his appellate attorney, Dick Wheelan. By statute, McAdams, who was convicted twice for drug offenses, has to complete half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. Because it is an aggravated offense, he has 16 more years to serve. Although he was surprised at seeing McAdams, earlier this month Thomas had heard rumors that McAdams was out, in early May, his friend Clarence Walker said. Walker, a former reporter for America's Most Wanted magazine, said Thomas called him about three months ago and asked him to check on the rumors. At that time, nothing came of the search and Thomas' concerns were discounted. After McAdams approached Thomas and shook his hand, Walker contacted Harris County District Attorney investigator Johnny Bonds, who figured out what happened. Bonds searched the records to find that the "somebody at TDCJ wrote 4 instead of 40." "He's not even on parole," Bonds said. He said TDCJ discharged his sentence as completed. "Somebody dropped the ball, that's for sure," Bonds said.
Suicide Exposes Squalor in Texas Prison
July 2, 2007 BOISE, Idaho — After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison where he was serving time for molesting a child. Then Payne used a razor blade to slice two 3-inch gashes in his throat. Guards found his body in the cell's shower, with the water still running. "Try to comfort my mum too and try to get her to see that I am truly happy again," he wrote his uncle. "I tell you, it sure beats having water on the floor 24/7, a smelly pillow case, sheets with blood stains on them and a stinky towel that hasn't been changed since they caught me." The Dickens County Correctional Center, located two miles south of Spur, Texas. Inmate Scot Noble Payne committed suicide on March 4, less than seven months after he was sent to the Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in their own state. His death exposed what had been Idaho's standard practice for dealing with inmates sent to out-of-state prisons: Out of sight, out of mind. Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show that Idaho conducted little monitoring of its out-of-state inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their familes and a prison inspector. Payne's suicide on March 4 came seven months after he was sent to the squalid privately run Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in their own state. His death exposed what had been Idaho's standard practice for dealing with inmates sent to out-of-state prisons: Out of sight, out of mind. It also raised questions about a company hired to operate prisons in 15 states, despite reports of abusive guards and terrible sanitation. Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show Idaho did little monitoring of out-of-state inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their families and a prison inspector. More than 140,000 U.S. prison beds are in private hands, and inmates' rights groups allege many such penitentiaries tolerate deplorable conditions and skimp on services to increase profits. "They cut corners because the bottom line is making money," said Caylor Rolling, prison program director at Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland, Ore., a group that promotes prison alternatives. Payne, 43, was placed in solitary confinement because he escaped from the prison in December by scaling a fence and eluding capture for a week. He was among Idaho inmates sent to the prison in Spur, Texas, run by a Florida-based company called the GEO Group. The business operates more than 50 prisons across the United States as well as in Australia and South Africa. Soon after Payne's suicide, the Idaho Department of Correction's health care director inspected the prison and declared it the worst facility he had ever seen. Don Stockman called Payne's cell unacceptable and the rest of the Dickens County Correctional Center "beyond repair." "The physical environment ... would have only enhanced the inmate's depression that could have been a major contributing factor in his suicide," he wrote in a report on Payne's death. Stockman said the warden at Dickens ruled "based on verbal and physical intimidation" and that guards showed no concern for the living conditions. After Idaho's complaints, GEO reassigned warden Ron Alford, who told the AP he was later fired. He insisted GEO did not provide enough money to make necessary improvements. "They denied me everything. To buy a pencil with GEO, it took three signatures. They're cheap," Alford said in an interview. He disputes Stockman's findings on his treatment of Idaho inmates. GEO spokesman Pablo Paez declined to comment on Alford's performance and would say only that the company had been working to address Idaho officials' concerns. But on Thursday, the state announced plans to move 125 inmates from Dickens to other facilities, citing the poor living conditions. The private prison business has been booming as the federal government seeks space to house more criminals and illegal immigrants. "Sometimes it may be a better situation for the inmates, and sometimes it's not," said prison consultant Douglas Lansing, a former warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, N.J. "Monitoring is a vital component. You can't just move them out of town and forget them." That appears to be largely what happened with Idaho's inmates. The prisoners were sent to Dickens in August from another GEO-run Texas prison after complaints about abuse by guards. But in the following seven months, Idaho sent an inspector to Texas only once. That inspection found major problems, including virtually no substance-abuse treatment, and a complete lack of Idaho-sanctioned anger-management classes and pre-release programs. There's no evidence the inspector's recommendations were followed. And no one from Idaho visited the prison again until after Payne's suicide. Most of the time, the Idaho prison employee responsible for monitoring the GEO contract used only the telephone and e-mail to handle grievances, which also included complaints about inadequate church services, poor food and limited recreation time. Each time, Alford insisted everything was under control, according to correspondence reviewed by the AP. The new director of the Idaho prison system concedes his department did not adequately review the inmates' treatment when he took office in January. "If I had to do it over again, I would have," Director Brent Reinke said. Former Director Vaughn Killeen said he couldn't afford more aggressive monitoring during his term that ended in December. "We weren't happy about the things that were going on down there," Killeen said. "We didn't have that level of budget to accommodate full-time monitors." Some other states are more vigilant. Washington state, for instance, has 1,000 inmates in Arizona and Minnesota and places full-time inspectors at the prisons. A superintendent visits every six weeks. Problems with GEO prisons are not limited to Dickens. Elsewhere in Texas, a female inmate's family sued GEO in 2006 after she committed suicide at the Val Verde County Jail near the Mexican border. LeTisha Tapia alleged she was raped by another inmate and sexually humiliated by a GEO guard after reporting to the warden that guards allowed male and female inmates to have sex. In March, an investigation into sex abuse allegations at another GEO-run Texas prison led to the firing of a guard who was a convicted sex offender. And at GEO prisons in Illinois and Indiana, hundreds of inmates rioted this past spring. The complaints have not hurt the company's balance sheet. It reported profits of $30 million in 2006, four times the amount reported in 2005. Inmates at Dickens say conditions have improved since Payne's suicide. Hot and cold water problems have been fixed, and cleanliness was judged "adequate," according to a May 31 report by a new Idaho contract monitor. But prisoners still complain about sewage from adjacent cells, poor medical and dental care, and a lack of educational programs. Inmates like Robert Coulter, who was convicted of robbery, say authorities should have acted sooner. "They basically put us down here and just dumped us," he said.
___ Suicide Exposes in Texas Prison
May 25, 2007
Inmates, call home Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Inmates in Texas prisons are among the most restricted in the nation in telephoning family and friends. The situation makes rehabilitation and reintegration into free society after serving their sentences more difficult. The Legislature recently passed a bill, sponsored by Rep. Letitia Vande Putte, D-San Antonio, to expand prisoner contact with the outside world, while enabling Department of Corrections staff to monitor the calls and limit those called to a pre-approved list. Van de Putte, a pharmacist, credits the experience of her family in trying to maintain contact with a relative in prison with persuading her that a secure and accessible inmate telephone system is in everyone's interest. According to Van de Putte, "contact with their families will give inmates the support system and also the desire to have good behavior while they are incarcerated and give them a reason for good behavior and planning when they get out." The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation, which took effect immediately. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice will select a private firm to construct and maintain the pay phone system. The state will receive 40 percent of the proceeds over an initial 7-year contract. That revenue will be divided evenly between a state victims assistance fund and the general budget. The first $10 million received by the state each year will go to the fund. The contract winner will be required to employ technology capable of verifying inmate users by fingerprint or voice and limit calls to an approved list of people. Prisoners deemed dangerous will not be allowed to use the phones, and the calling privilege can be withdrawn from those who violate prison rules. The new law also stipulates that conversations between a prisoner and his attorney cannot be monitored or recorded. Prisons must have one phone available per 30 eligible inmates and allow an average of eight calls per prisoner per month with a minimum 10-minute limit on each. Some prisoners have gone for months without an opportunity to make calls. In some other states, companies have charged outrageous rates when prisoners make collect calls, prompting lawsuits by prisoners and their families claiming violation of their freedom of speech. In one of his first acts as governor of New York, Elliott Spitzer ended a state surcharge on collect calls from prisoners that was more than 500 percent above residential rates. To avoid exorbitant charges, the Texas law links permissible rates to what county jails charge prisoners to use a phone. Nicole Porter, director of the Texas ACLU's Prison and Jail Accountability Project, supports the pay phone system, but she also cautions that advocacy groups will have to keep a close eye to make sure calls are affordable. By creating a more humane environment and better preparing prisoners for eventual release, the pay phone system can reduce crime while improving security inside penal facilities. On top of that it will generate revenue for both the state and crime victims. In a legislative session noted for its failures, Rep. Van de Putte took on a controversial issue and produced a solution that should benefit all parties. In building a coalition of support ranging from law and order advocates to civil liberty proponents, she's provided a case study in effective lawmaking.
Prison reform as method
EDITORIAL BOARD The Texas Legislature appears well on its way toward enacting significant and welcome change to meet society's obligation and need to punish lawbreakers without breaking the treasury and turning minor offenders into major crimials. The session began with state officials proposing at least 12,000 more prison beds by 2012, at a cost of $520 million to build three prisons and fund drug- and alcohol-treatment programs. Construction costs are only the first expense; prisons must have guards 24 hours a day, seven days a week; prisoners must be fed and clothed, and they must get medical care. Such expenses must be borne when it means locking up murderers and other violent offenders who threaten the safety of law-abiding citizens, and when it means stopping robbers, thieves and con men who prey on the property of others. But the prisons also have a lot of people whose primary offense is that they bought or sold drugs, even in relatively small amounts, or who cannot control their drinking and pose a danger with their driving. State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, chairman of the House Corrections Committee, and Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, have led the charge to make Texas more sophisticated — and more effective — in dealing with non- violent offenders. The idea is simple: Focus more on providing treatment to low-risk offenders and getting them out of the system more quickly if they demonstrate progress. To do so, the new legislation will add 8,000 prison beds over the next few years — but most of them for intensive drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. The key here will be providing sufficient funding for the treatment programs. A prisoner who undergoes treatment and shows progress is less likely to return to prison, at still more cost to taxpayers, than one who simply endures a particularly unpleasant form of "time out." The legislation also will set up a process to release low-risk offenders from parole and probation early — if they do not commit new crimes. And the legislation also creates a new funding formula aimed at providing more intensive supervision and not keeping offenders on probation longer than necessary. In fact, the House version of the bill would require a look at whether the prison system should keep locked up elderly inmates who would pose no threat to society, and cost less, if released. Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, who proposed the study, said that unless the state does something about an elderly inmate population, "we're going to be running the largest nursing home in the country." This is not a pass-it-and- forget-it bill, because it also would create a new joint legislative committee specifically charged with overseeing the changes and reporting back to lawmakers and the public. The Senate already has approved the bill. The House has amended it, but it appears the Senate will concur. If it makes it to the governor's desk, we hope he'll sign it. Lawbreakers must be punished, but there are smart ways and dumb ways to do it. The Legislature has written a smarter way to punish — and rehabilitate.
Stop Prisoner Rape Welcomes Passage of Texas Prisoner Rape Legislation LOS ANGELES, MAY 22, 2007 – The Texas legislature passed a bill yesterday addressing one of the state’s most neglected human rights violations – prisoner rape. Senate Bill 1175 (SB 1175) establishes critically-needed external oversight of Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facilities by creating a sexual assault ombudsperson. The ombudsperson is independent of the TDCJ and is mandated to supervise administrative sexual assault investigations. Such independent monitoring is vital to ensuring that sexual abuse is dealt with appropriately. The bill also eliminates the TDCJ’s troubling 15-day deadline for filing a grievance after a sexual assault. Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) has long opposed such a narrow window for filing a formal complaint. “SPR is encouraged that Texas lawmakers have taken decisive action to address the problem of prisoner rape in TDCJ facilities,” said SPR’s Co-Executive Director Lovisa Stannow. “We urge Governor Perry to take the final step and sign this bill into law.” As one of the key supporters of this legislation, SPR brought experts and survivors of prisoner rape to testify before the Texas House Committee on Corrections and the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. If the bill is signed, Texas will be only the second state – after California – with a law specifically addressing sexual assault in prison.
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News: March 30, 2007
A Whacked-Out System By Jordan Smith In 1997, 52-year-old Robert Gross got popped in Harris County for stealing – or, specifically under the Texas penal code, for "theft by check." He'd never been in any real trouble before, but when the cops came to arrest him, he panicked, jumped in his car, and tried to flee. That didn't work out so well – in part because he sideswiped the cop car as he tried to drive away, which netted him an additional criminal charge of "assault on a public servant." Gross accepted a plea bargain: He'd admit guilt in exchange for a 25-year sentence and avoiding an affirmative finding that he'd used a deadly weapon (his car) in the commission of his crime. Theoretically, avoiding that finding could later increase his chance to earn parole. Gross' lawyer advised him that if he could keep his "nose clean" while behind bars – avoid racking up a disciplinary record, use rehabilitative programs like schooling, and maintain a good behind-bars employment record (things that would help him accrue "good time" credits) – he would become eligible for parole in just more than six years, after serving a fourth of his sentence. With that understanding, Gross offered himself up to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for incarceration. By all publicly available accounts, Gross has kept up his end of the bargain. According to TDCJ records, Gross earned his GED and has taken college-level vocational classes; he worked with the prison crime-stoppers program, helping to convict two inmates for murder; and he's held several important jobs while behind bars – including his most recent position as a boiler operator, which literally means he's entrusted with a key to the back door of his minimum-security prison unit, says Gross' lawyer, Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Scott Medlock. In just three years Gross accumulated 22 years of good- time credits and, as a result, first became eligible for parole in 2000. Given his stellar record behind bars, Medlock says, Gross felt confident he would earn release. But he didn't. In fact, Gross has been denied parole six times – and he has no idea why. He's never been interviewed by a parole board member or commissioner, says Medlock – because, under Texas law, there's no requirement that Board of Pardons and Paroles members actually meet the inmate under review; indeed, there's not even a requirement that the parole board members meet as a group to discuss the cases before them before making their individual determinations about whom to release. In actual practice, each member reviews dozens or hundreds of inmate files with little or no opportunity to confirm their contents, meaning their decisions are often arbitrary at best, and at worst, inaccurate and unjust. Overall in 2005 (the most recent year available), the Board of Pardons and Paroles reviewed 71,207 offender files and approved 19,582 inmates for parole. These were "desk reviews," considered by each parole board member individually and based solely on what is contained in an inmate's file. Whether the information in the file is actually correct and complete isn't clear, since the file contents are not subject to scrutiny by anyone but the board – except in rare cases, not even the inmates are permitted to review their individual files. For specific example, the closest Gross has gotten to discovering anything about why he's been denied release is a one-page form letter that offers a standard list of possible reasons for the denial – like, for example, that the inmate is a member of a prison gang or was convicted of a violent offense that makes him too risky to release. But that hasn't really helped either, since none of the possible reasons listed in the letter actually apply to Gross. Frustrated, Gross filed suit against the parole board and TDCJ for violating his right to due process under law. Now, with the help of the TCRP, Gross is set to present his case in federal district court in Houston, arguing that the parole board has violated his civil rights by denying him a fair opportunity to be granted parole. In the midst of a legislative session full of stern questions for TDCJ and the parole board, Gross' suit provides a real example of what happens when questions of fairness and justice are answered behind closed doors, away from the public eye.
Rolling the Dice In principle, the parole guidelines combine the severity of the offense and the likelihood of an inmate's recidivism to form a numerical risk factor that in turn translates into the probability than an inmate will be released. The parole board is allowed to deviate from the guidelines, but the commission found that it often does so without citing any specific reason beyond those factors already used to calculate the basic risk factor. Instead, "they typically use the same standard explanations for denying parole ... and thus do not explain the departure from the expected parole probability rate," reads the report. "For example, one denial reason relates to the nature of the offense and the use of a weapon – though this explains the decision to deny parole, it does not explain why the panel member deviated from the guidelines." These very frustrations are at the heart of Gross' legal claims; he argues that the board has repeatedly violated state statute in refusing to release him. The decision to deny him release has repeatedly been made by a single parole board member, and not by a quorum, as required by law; he's never been told why his parole has been denied, which makes the parole board denial "arbitrary and capricious"; and it appears the board has never taken into account the 22 years of good time Gross has accumulated. "In bringing this action, Mr. Gross does not seek immediate release from incarceration, " reads his petition to the court. "Rather, he seeks constitutionally sufficient due process in the decisions made regarding his parole." All things considered, it doesn't seem too much to ask.
Slanted Justice Representing himself, Gross first filed suit in 2000, and his case was unceremoniously dismissed by the courts several times until 2005, when his second appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was successful. In light of a recent high-court decision that defined the circumstances under which inmates could file civil-rights claims to challenge certain aspects of their incarceration, the Supremes said, Gross' case warranted further review. It was pretty amazing: Incarcerated and without legal representation, Gross took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won the right to argue that the state has subverted his attempt to secure a fair and thorough parole hearing. (Medlock and the TCRP didn't come on board until after the Supremes accepted his appeal.) Historically, it's been tricky for inmates to demonstrate a liberty interest within the context of incarceration, especially as it applies to parole, says Habern. Largely, this is because there is no right to be free on parole – to be released from prison before the end of an imposed sentence (in Gross' case, 25 years); so to build a successful civil-rights case, Gross will have to show a fundamental deprivation of liberty. Although many states do acknowledge that an inmate has a right to a due process interest in parole determinations, Habern says the Texas statutes do not specifically acknowledge that right. Thus, according to Habern, the key to reforming the state's parole system is to first amend the law to specifically acknowledge that interest – requiring a legislative concession that the lack of fairness and transparency in the parole process violates the constitutional right of due process. "They have got to create some essence of a constitutional obligation by the state that recognizes a potential for [the] violation" of an inmate's civil rights, says Habern. As it stands, he says, "I've never seen such a dysfunctional system as exists in Texas" – a system that allows the parole board to become a "bully." "They've been bullies so long that they're just used to it." But it's not the individual members that are the problem, he says; it's the system they work under. "It's not the members of the team playing on the field," that slant things, he says. "It's the field" that's slanted.
Fed to the Lions Certainly, there is something inherently unfair about a system that eliminates every carrot. Without the possibility of a reward for inmates that avail themselves of rehabilitative opportunities – like education and work programs – what motivation is there to do anything more than mark time? Indeed, says Medlock, one way or another the majority of inmates will eventually be released back into the community. In other words, the trickle-down effect of creating an "appalling" and fundamentally unfair parole system could easily backfire – and, at least in Gross' case, the combination of factors violates his right to due process. Habern agrees: "The whole system of parole in Texas needs to be ripped out of the book and reworked," Habern says. "We've got to get away from this secrecy." ----------
Parole Approval Rates When broken down by offender risk level – from level 1 offenders (inmates serving time for the most violent crimes), to level 7 (nonviolent offenders at the lowest risk of reoffense) – data from 2005 reveals that the Board of Pardons and Paroles approved violent offenders for parole at a rate far higher than called for under their own guidelines. In contrast, the rate of approval for the least violent offenders fell far below the minimum rate. The reason for this discrepancy isn't clear, in large part because the board's decisions are made in isolation with little or no public review. Among its many recommendations, the Sunset Commission called on the board to update its guidelines, to regularly update lawmakers on board activities, and to actually follow the parole guidelines. Copyright © 2007 Austin Chronicle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Levin: Prisons don't hold solution to drug problems
Marc A. Levin No Texan should be fooled into thinking that we need more prisons to keep up with population growth or lock up sex offenders. The real question is whether we need more prisons to lock up more nonviolent drug offenders. Texas incarcerates 20,000 people convicted of possessing illegal drugs, not dealing them. Though our state's population grew 35 percent from 1978 to 2004, our prison system grew 278 percent. Worse, though most Texas prisoners have a substance abuse problem, only 15 percent receive treatment. Texas taxpayers could be asked to spend $420 million to construct three prisons, which would cost another $600 million to operate over 10 years. However, California found a better way. In 2000, that state's voters passed Proposition 36 to sentence nonviolent drug addicts to community-based treatment instead of prison. The result, according to a UCLA study, has been $1.4 billion in savings to taxpayers and 60,000 former addicts successfully completing treatment. On Tuesday, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee heard Senate Bill 1909 by Sens. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, John Carona, R-Dallas, and Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, which would model the California approach. Provisions in the appropriations bill would create thousands of residential and outpatient community-based drug treatment slots. Community-based treatment is less costly and more humane than prison. Outpatient drug treatment in Texas costs an average of $1,640 per episode. Even placement in a 90-day residential drug treatment program is several times cheaper than a prison sentence. SB 1909 alone would divert more than 10,000 drug possession offenders from state jails and prisons, saving more than $1 billion that it would cost to build and operate the proposed prisons. That takes into account those offenders who do not comply with treatment or pose a danger to public safety, who would still be sent to prison under SB 1909. By routing most nonviolent minor drug offenders from state lockups to community-based treatment programs — many of which are operated by nonprofit and faith-based organizations — SB 1909 will harness the innovation of the private sector, such as advances in chemical interventions and cognitive therapeutic techniques that change an offender's outlook on life. Many community-based programs also utilize family members, churches and employers as resources to aid recovery, which is not possible in prison. In addition to SB 1909, House Correction Chairman Jerry Madden's House Bill 530 would create more drug courts, which allow minor offenders to take responsibility for their actions, using prison only as leverage to ensure compliance. Texas offenders completing drug court programs have a 28.5 percent re-arrest rate compared with the norm of 58.5 percent. There are many victims of substance abuse, but incarceration only exacts a heavier toll on the addict's family and society. In 2002, the Texas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse estimated that that drug abuse costs the state $9.5 billion, and it is surely more today. Some 70 percent of Texas prison inmates have children — these parents owe more than $2.5 billion in child support, which they cannot pay while in prison. The bonds between parents behind bars for drug possession and their children are frayed; after two years, Texas law terminates their parental rights. The children of incarcerated nonviolent drug offenders are often bounced from one foster home to the next. The challenge for government is to recreate the response of a tight-knit family if a loved one succumbed to substance abuse. To be sure, no government program can ever replicate the family, but few families would view prison as the best solution for an addicted loved one. We must not victimize other families, their children and taxpayers by spending billions more on building walls that only obstruct the path to recovery and redemption. Levin is director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a nonprofit research institute based in Austin.
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Teague v. Quarterman
Cause 05-11368 On March 21, 2007, the United States Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in Teague v. Quarterman. Teague is a very important case that directly affects prisoners who are eligible for mandatory supervision release. I suspect that the TDCJ will ask for rehearing and try to persuade the full Court to reverse the Teague decision. However, unless and until the Court reverses itself, Teague is good law. CASE HISTORY 1. Disciplinary Case and Hearing In December 2001, TDCJ prisoner Teague received a disciplinary case for "trafficking and trading" (Offense Code 15.0) because another prisoner (Jordan) "caused $225.00 to be deposited into Teague’s" Inmate Trust Fund Account. The TDCJ alleged that Teague had Jordan place the money into his ITF account in exchange for Teague providing Jordan legal assistance. Teague denied the allegation. The TDCJ produced no evidence to show that Teague knew that Jordan had asked someone to deposit money into Teague’s ITF account. Nevertheless, at the disciplinary hearing, Teague was found guilty and part of his sanction was the loss of 30 days of good time. After his Step 1 and Step 2 were denied, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus (28 U.S.C. §2254) in federal court. 2. 28 U.S.C. §2254 Teague alleged that he was deprived of procedural due process under the Fourteenth Amendment and raised the following claims: --Insufficient evidence to support the finding of guilt --Prison officials failed to serve him timely with notice of the alleged violation --Disciplinary hearing officer was not impartial --Disciplinary hearing officer improperly denied his request to call witnesses --Disciplinary hearing officer improperly denied his request to have the charging officer present at the hearing --Disciplinary hearing officer stopped recoding the hearing during Teague’s presentation of evidence --TDCJ improperly removed $225.00 from his inmate trust account The District Court granted relief on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to support the disciplinary hearing officer’s guilty finding and denied the rest of the claims. The TDCJ filed a Rule 59e "Motion to Alter or Amend the Judgment" on the grounds that the loss of 30 days of good time is "de minimis" and insufficient to warrant due process protection. The District Court agreed that the loss of 30 days of good-time credits, which represented approximately .18% of Teague’s prison sentence, was de minimis. The Court granted the TDCJ’s Motion and held that the loss of 30 days of good-time credits was insufficient to entitle Teague to due process. Teague then filed a Motion for Certificate of Appealability, which the District Court granted. 3. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit On March 21, 2007, almost six years after the disciplinary hearing on the trafficking and trading case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in Teague.In its opinion, the Court affirmed: When a state prisoner has a constitutional expectancy to an early release from prison based on the accumulation of good-time credits, he has a protected liberty interest in the good-time credits and is entitled to due process before he can be deprived of the good time credits; and There is no right or constitutional expectancy to early release on parole in Texas because parole is within the total and unfettered discretion of the State; and Texas’ pre-September 1, 1996 mandatory supervision statutes creates a protected liberty interest in good-time credits. Therefore, prisoners eligible for mandatory supervision release under the pre-September 1, 1996 statute are entitled to due process before the TDCJ can take away any of their good-time credits. The Court also held, for the first time: (1) Texas’ post-September 1, 1996 mandatory supervision statute does not deprive prisoners of their constitutional expectancy of release; and (2) Texas’ post-September 1, 1996 mandatory supervision statute creates a constitutional expectancy of early release and a protected liberty interest in previously earned good-time credits. Therefore, prisoners eligible for mandatory supervision release under the post-September 1, 1996 statute are entitled to due process before the TDCJ can take away any of their good-time credits; and (3) Good time may not be taken away from a state prisoner by a TDCJ administrative tribunal without affording the prisoner due process, regardless of the absolute number of days forfeited of the percentage of the sentence (or the remaining balance thereof) represented by the number of days lost; and (4) TDCJ cannot discipline a prisoner for a Code 15.0 Offense (trafficking and trading) when there is no evidence that the prisoner had any knowledge of or participated in an unauthorized deposit into his Inmate Trust Fund Account. WHY THIS CASE IS IMPORTANT All prisoners with mandatory supervision dates have a protected interest in their good-time. Prior to Teague, only prisoners who were under the pre-September 1, 1996 mandatory supervision statute had a protected interest in their good-time credits. The TDCJ must give this class of prisoners (prisoners with mandatory supervision dates) due process before depriving them of any previously earned good-time credits, regardless of the amount of the good time and there is no exception for an amount that might otherwise be considered "de minimis." If a prisoner with a mandatory supervision date loses good time in a disciplinary hearing, he can challenge the disciplinary hearing via a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus. The TDCJ cannot use Offense Code 15.0 (trafficking & trading offense) to punish a prisoner who has no knowledge of or participation in an unauthorized deposit into his trust account. WHAT TO REMEMBER This case has no affect on prisoners who are not eligible for mandatory supervision release. The holdings in this case have no application to parole because there is no right or constitutional expectancy to early release on parole in Texas. Parole is within the total and unfettered discretion of the State. ALSO IMPORTANT This case took almost six years to work its way through the courts. Teague was represented by court appointed attorney Jason Douglas Hawkins of the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. TDCJ was represented by Steven Michael Bozarth of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Steven Bozarth is the husband of Melinda Bozarth who is the General Counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on November 9, 2006. WHAT PRISONERS SHOULD DO IF THIS CASE APPLIES TO THEM Any prisoner who was disciplined and punished for a Code 15.0 offense, and who the TDCJ did not/cannot prove had knowledge of or participated in the unauthorized deposit into his ITF account, should file a grievance about the disciplinary case and ask that the case be reversed regardless of how long ago the disciplinary case was written. He should cite Teague as support for his grievance. If the prisoner had money confiscated from his ITF account because of a Code 15.0 Offense (trafficking and trading), he should file grievance and request that the TDCJ refund the money. He should file both a Step 1 and Step 2 and cite the Teague case for support.
01/13/2007 Sunset commission, TDCJ chief endorse stronger supervision instead of prisons Continuing his excellent coverage from yesterday, the Statesman's Mike Ward had more on the final Sunset Advisory Commission recommendations for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in both the paper and the Statesman's blog today: a.. Prison chief supports more rehabilitation programs b.. Sunset panel urges ethics rules for parole commissioners c.. Condoms and Kazoos Perhaps the biggest news was TDCJ head honcho Brad Livingston's endorsement of proposals to use community supervision as an alternative to prison building. "My budget request was predicated on projections last summer," he said, "and the ideas that are being discussed now are along the same lines as we support — just in larger numbers." See prior Grits coverage of the TDCJ Sunset process.
Inmate suicides linked to solitary
Posted 12/27/2006 The number of suicides in the nation's two largest state prison systems is ticking upward, and authorities in California and Texas are linking the increase to the rising number of inmates kept in solitary confinement. In California, which has the largest state prison system with about 170,000 inmates, there have been 41 suicides this year, the most in at least six years and a 17% increase from 2005. Although an estimated 5% of California's inmates are ! housed in solitary confinement — also known as "administrative segregation" — 69% of last year's suicides occurred in units where inmates are isolated for 23 hours a day, according to state Department of Corrections records. About half the suicides this year were in such units. In Texas' prison system, which has 169,000 inmates, there have been 24 suicides this year, up from 22 in 2005. Most of the inmates who killed themselves were in some form of solitary confinement, says John Moriarty, inspector general for the prison system. Texas prisons also are reporting a 17% increase in attempted suicides: 652 so far this year, compared with 559 in 2005. The number of attempted suicides this year is the most in nearly a decade, according to state prison records. Statistics on attempted suicides in California prisons were not immediately available. The figures from California and Texas are fueling a debate over whether solitary confinement is the best way to control or punish violent or dangerous inmates, particularly those who are mentally ill. More than 70,000 of the 1.5 million inmates in state and federal prisons are kept in isolation, a reflection of get-tough policies designed to separate rival gang members and those who have gotten into fights while behind bars. Isolated inmates typically have significant restrictions on visitors and get little help in dealing with the psychological problems that can be caused by isolation. They usually are allowed out of their cells for no more than an hour a day to exercise alone; their exposure to TV and reading material also is limited. "Are we housing the mentally ill in prison facilities?" Moriarty asks. "I think the answer is yes. But I don't know if that's the best place for them to be." Moriarty, whose office investigates every inmate death in Texas, says stress from isolation and increasing numbers of inmates with long sentences have contributed to the rise in suicides. "Length of sentence is a big factor. There is despair about not getting out." The increase in inmate suicides in California has triggered recent changes in segregation units. In October, guards began checking inmates housed in solitary confinement every 30 minutes, rather than every hour, says Shama Chaiken, the state prison system's chief psychologist for mental health policy. Some segregation cells also will be modified to remove shelving, vent openings and other features that offenders could use in hangings, the most common form of suicide in California prisons, Chaiken says. This month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $1 billion plan that includes 10,000 new beds in prison medical and mental health units. A few jurisdictions have credited expanded mental health programs with reducing prisoner suicides. After Kentucky set up a mental health program for those in the state's 83 county jails in 2004, suicides in the jails fell 47%, according to The (Louisville) Courier- Journal. There have been 13 suicides this year in the 188,000-inmate federal prison system, the same total as in 2005. Florida, the third-largest state system with 90,000 inmates, has had nine prison suicides this year; it had eight last year. Inmate suicides linked to solitary
Old prison to become museum SUGAR LAND, Texas — An old prison building vacated nearly 40 years ago will be turned into a satellite facility for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Central State Farm prison, closed in 1969, now sits on a 2,018- acre parcel of land in the middle of Telfair, a new housing development on the east side of the Brazos River. Museum officials, the city of Sugar Land and a private developer signed a letter of understanding to convert the 40,000-square-foot structure into a museum. Officials say if the deal goes through and funding can be found, the museum could be opened by 2008. "We believe it to be a great opportunity, " museum President Joel Bartsch said Wednesday. The prison opened in 1939 and housed inmates who worked on thousands of acres of state-owned land in Fort Bend County. For many years, prison farms were spread across the prairie surrounding Sugar Land, but as the area has grown, the state has sold off large tracts to developers. In 2002, Newland Communities bought the land where the prison sits. Bartsch said about half the space in the building will probably be dedicated to classrooms and interactive science exhibitions. The building's high ceilings make it an ideal fit for museum exhibits, he added. According to the letter of understanding, the city will be responsible for securing funding for the design and construction of interior improvements. Assistant City Manager Karen Glynn said the costs are estimated at $6 million, and officials hope to raise some of the money from private donors. Glynn said the city also will eventually own the building and then enter into a 50-year lease with the museum. ___ December 22, 2006
Copyright 2006, The Associated Press.
Lawmakers looking for bigger prison reform Proposals include new parole agency, more treatment programs
By Mike Ward In a surprise move, legislative leaders on Wednesday scuttled plans to recommend one reform proposal for Texas' corrections programs and moved to study an even more significant overhaul. Among the changes being considered: the re-creation of a separate parole agency, the expansion of drug treatment programs as envisioned a decade ago but never adopted, and the addition of more alternatives for dealing with thousands of low-risk convicts. "The current system is not in sync, and the more statistics I see, the more I understand this is an operations problem and not a capacity problem," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, a member of the Sunset Advisory Commission that was to vote on the recommendations Tuesday. "There are going to be no untouchables, " Whitmire said. "We may not just be looking at a culture shift; it may be culture shock." The overhaul proposals come as lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session will have to decide whether to pay for new prisons for the first time in more than 10 years. An October staff report at the commission that periodically scrutinizes state agencies recommended that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice significantly expand its rehabilitation and treatment programs. In proposing specific choices, the report went beyond the usual review. The agency has asked the Legislature to pay for some expansion of those programs while building three new prisons. Projections show that 11,000 additional beds could be needed by 2010. Whitmire and Sunset officials said those recommendations will not be approved. Instead, a group of lawmakers, criminal justice officials, prosecutors, judges and other parties involved in Texas' justice system will begin reviewing broader changes for a final report in January, Whitmire said. Most agencies are reviewed every 12 years. The criminal justice agency was to have been reviewed in 2011, until Whitmire and other legislative leaders rescheduled it for this year. Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, chairman of the Sunset panel, said he planned to give Whitmire leeway to look at more sweeping changes, after commission members expressed concern about the state's corrections system. Whitmire said Wednesday that the decision to expand the review was prompted by the disclosure this week that more than 5,600 of the state's 6,229 outside trusties — the lowest-risk of all convicts, most all living outside prisons — were eligible for parole. The Austin American-Statesman reported those statistics Tuesday. Whitmire said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R- Richardson, will be a part of the group. "I think this is a great idea," Madden said. "I want to look at all the programs and see the results of each program. We're at a crossroads with criminal justice, and this is extremely good timing to do this." Whitmire said the group will explore thepossibility of making the Board of Pardons and Paroles a separate parole agency. In 1989, in a merger of several justice agencies, lawmakers transferred authority over parole officers to the newly created Department of Criminal Justice. A separate agency would provide additional checks and balances to the parole system, where currently the same people who control the prisons also control the parole staff, Whitmire said. Under the proposed system, the parole board would control the parole officers, where they could more directly manage parolees and conditions of early release. Whitmire and Madden — the ranking legislative leaders on corrections policy — said they want to consider expanding drug- and alcohol- treatment programs even more than earlier proposed — perhaps even to the levels pushed more than a decade ago by Gov. Ann Richards. In the early 1990s, Richards persuaded the Legislature to build 12,000 special treatment beds. But money to operate them was never approved, and fewer than 5,000 were put to use. As of Wednesday, after further budget cuts two years ago, there were 3,250 — used for patients on a therapy plan that has been abbreviated from nine to six months. Echoing recommendations in the Sunset report, Whitmire and Madden said they also want to look at improving educational programs, expanding probation and parole for nonviolent offenders and putting more low-risk felons on electronic monitoring. Whitmire said that if the state could more effectively treat convicted drunken drivers while they are incarcerated, rather than just warehousing them, recidivism might drop — and public safety would win. Felons convicted of driving while intoxicated are among the thousands of people who have been paroled but remain in prison because mandatory treatment programs are not available, he said. "We're fixing to do what the (criminal justice) agency should have done already: look at how to use its existing capacity more wisely, rather than just saying we have to build new prisons," Whitmire said. "That's what they always say."
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A quick solution to prison overcrowding? Statistics show prisons house thousands of inmates who are good candidates for parole.
By Mike Ward State corrections officials are recommending building new prisons to alleviate crowding, but new statistics show that thousands of bunks are occupied by the lowest-risk convicts who are eligible for parole — many of whom already work outside security fences as minimum- security trusties. Thousands more are classified as minimum-security, serving time for minor property and drug crimes, and could be good candidates for parole if funding were available for them to complete drug- and alcohol-abuse programs, according to figures by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which runs the state's prisons. "It appears we're probably wasting millions of dollars filling up beds with people who don't need to be there," Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said after reviewing the statistics. He and other lawmakers asked for the statistics, which were also obtained by the Austin American-Statesman. "The more I see, the more I think we do not have a capacity issue. We have an operations issue," Whitmire said. Prison officials are seeking more than 11,000 new beds, many of them for treatment programs, but Whitmire and other lawmakers say they see at least that many inmates who could be released to free up space. The new statistics — and legislative leaders' interpretation of them — promise to fuel arguments that Texas should enhance its parole, probation and treatment programs before building expensive prisons. The Sunset Advisory Commission, which periodically reviews all state agencies, is scheduled to vote next week on the various alternatives. Its recommendations will be forwarded to the Legislature for consideration. Prison and parole officials agreed that more treatment programs are needed and that those programs could free up some beds, but they denied Monday that other bunks are being filled with convicts who should not be imprisoned. They noted that funding for treatment programs was drastically cut by the Legislature four years ago. Rissie Owens, chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said that just because people are classified as minimum-security in prison does not mean that they are ready for, or are a good risk for, parole. "We make decisions based on public safety," she said. "It's much different" than the way prison officials make security-classification decisions. The new statistics show that of the 135,210 convicts in state prisons on Sept. 30, 5,687 were trusties who are eligible for parole. Most were serving time for drug and property crimes. Most were in their 40s. Most were serving sentences of 10 to 25 years. "Yes, we have minimum-security inmates in medium and maximum-security beds," said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R- Richardson. "Should they be there? In a lot of cases, probably not. Is there a better use of those beds? Absolutely." Some other minimum-security prisoners were serving time for offenses such as manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, some types of sex crimes and other violent crimes. But 5,481 were in prison for drunken-driving offenses — charges that, in many cases, require inmates to complete an alcohol-treatment program before they can be paroled. "There are long waiting lists for those programs, so people sit in prison much longer than they should," Whitmire said. "We have 900 or so who are approved for parole but who have not been paroled because the programs they have to complete as a condition for parole are not available." Whitmire said he is convinced that the large number of parole-ready trusties is a case of prison officials not wanting to lose valuable help. Outside trusties work as porters, help in offices and do field and community service labor. Inside minimum-security prisoners serve as cooks and janitors and do laundry and other chores. "I'm convinced the reason we're not paroling more of these people is that they're the workers," he said. "If they're a low-enough risk that they are allowed outside without close supervision, why not parole them and put them on a monitoring bracelet, and open up that bed for someone else?" "Based on these numbers, I think we should take a look at every bed we have, and who is in it, before we build any more," Whitmire said.
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12.03.06
LIVE FROM TDCJ: Caleb Freeman (TEXAS) - The letter is wrinkled - its envelope un- sealed: "Jailhouse tattoos, a felony and a GED are the gems young inmates leave with," the letter's first sentence reads. "This month, John Erickson's Hank the Cowdog is the library's book of promotion," the author continues. "Can you say recidivism?" He asks. "But well before these newly educated young men accomplish their predictable return to prison, with the new merits and behavior they've acquired from the TDCJ and the Windham School, they'll return to society just deserts. The exception? Maybe this time it will be your car, your sister or your wife." Widham School superintendant, Debbie Roberts, is the who I hope one of them stumbles across in their (short) pre-recidivism free-world stint.
Nov. 27, 2006
By LISA SANDBERG AUSTIN — In what may indicate a pendulum shift in a state that's become almost synonymous with incarceration, two key Texas lawmakers, a Republican and a Democrat, are showing little appetite for more concrete walls and steel bars. You read right. With Texas prisons again overflowing, they are stressing rehabilitation, treatment, even parole. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, who head the criminal justice committees of their respective chambers, say building more prisons will only beget more prisoners. "The bottom line is we have sufficient space now if we prioritize our needs," Whitmire said last week. "Prison should not be the first option for non-violent offenders." Said Madden: "We have to be smart on crime. I think a lot of members agree with that, both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals."
Prisons out of beds again So the state is renting close to 2,000 beds from private and county jails. But things are expected to get worse, with the prison population growing by 11,000 within five years, if state projections prove accurate.
Cost-effective solutions "Without addressing population growth drivers such as recidivism, the state's investment will do little to ensure that a similar crisis will not occur again in the future," said a recent Texas Sunset Advisory Commission report. Or to paraphrase the old adage: "Build more prisons and they will come." Whitmire and Madden believe the answer lies in boosting parole rates for nonviolent offenders and allocating more money for treatment programs. Consider these figures: Last year, 59 percent of state prisoners were identified as chemically dependent. But long waits for substance abuse programs meant that only 5 percent of them received treatment. "We have largely eliminated alcohol and drug treatment from prison systems," Whitmire said. He said it is safer and more cost effective to segregate in minimum security the 5,500 repeat drunken drivers now incarcerated, for instance, and offer them treatment, rather than to house them with violent offenders without treatment. Whitmire complained that nonviolent offenders who might otherwise be paroled often remain in prison because there's no room in the treatment programs they're required to enroll in.
Fears of 'revolving door' Talk about boosting parole rates worries Dianne Clements, of the Houston-based victim advocacy group, Justice for All. "These influential lawmakers seem to be leading us to where we were 15 years ago, when we had a prison population that was a revolving door because we didn't have enough prison beds and parole boards had no alternative but to release people," she said. But Marc Levin, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, a conservative think tank, said the winds were shifting in Texas. "There's an alliance on both the right and the left. There's a consensus we need to do something besides build more prisons," he said.
lsandberg@express-news.net
Willacy County jurors award $47.5 million to prisoner's kin
Web Posted: 09/21/2006 Gregorio De La Rosa was only four days from completing his sentence at a private prison in Raymondville when he was beaten to death in the prison yard on April 26, 2001. Late Friday, a Willacy County jury returned a $47.5 million verdict, the largest verdict in county history, in a negligence suit filed by his family against the Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which ran the prison, and the prison warden. "The evidence was disturbing. It showed a failure to properly search, inadequate staffing and improper response," said Ron Rodriguez, who represented the De La Rosa family. The verdict came after eight hours of deliberation, following a two- week trial. When he died, De La Rosa was serving a six-month sentence for a drug offense at the 1,000-bed prison. Calls to defense lawyer Bruce Garcia in Austin were referred by his office to the Geo Group, a Florida company that spun off from Wackenhut after the incident and operates the facility. The Geo Group runs more than 50 jails in the United States, as well as others in Australia, England, Canada and South Africa. Company spokesman Pablo Paez did not return calls for comment. There was no word if the company planned to appeal. According to the lawsuit, De La Rosa was beaten to death by two inmates who used padlocks stuffed into socks as weapons. The inmates, Daniel Sanchez and Pedro de Jesus Equia, were later charged with murder and pleaded guilty to lesser charges, receiving 20-year sentences, according to newspaper accounts. According to the lawsuit, De La Rosa's death was avoidable. "Inmates had used these very same padlocks as weapons to beat other inmates before De La Rosa's beating death. It was conclusively foreseeable that inmates would use these padlocks as weapons," the suit claimed. The suit also asserted, "Defendants had a pattern and practice of allowing beatings and fights between inmates for money, and a tradition of payback, whereby prisoners were beaten just before their release." jmaccormack@express-news.net
Labor leaders fuming over Texas prison plan
Labor leaders fuming over Texas prison plan
By LISA SANDBERG --> LOCKHART — Penny Rayfield's 35 assembly workers get neither vacation nor sick pay. Their salaries are barely above minimum wage. But they show up on time and don't hunt for work elsewhere. They seem happy to have a job, even one that pays about $4 less per hour than what assembly workers make, on average, elsewhere in Texas. Rayfield's company, Onshore Resources, has a sweetheart deal. It pays Texas exactly $1 a year for the sprawling building where it makes electronic circuit boards. It has no need to foot health insurance for the employees because the state provides their medical care. The for-profit business is tucked inside a private prison in this rural community 30 miles south of Austin. It's one of a handful of operations in which an estimated 500 state inmates in three prisons make products such as windows and air- conditioning parts for the private sector. The program, in both public and private detention facilities, is part of the federal Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) initiative. It has long rankled labor leaders, who've complained quietly that it could slowly but surely displace better-paid workers outside prison. That opposition is getting noisier as the state appears ready to add two new PIE operations to the four it now has. One would use prison inmates at the Boyd Unit in Teague in Central Texas to assemble muscle cars from kits. The second would have inmates at the Telford Unit in northeast Texas manufacture uniforms for U.S. postal workers, most of whom are unionized. Quick approval expectedToday, a committee that oversees PIE is expected to consider both expansions. Jeff LaBroski, a labor representative with the PIE program, said he expected both to sail through. Federal officials must approve it, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice governing board then gets the final say. Douglas Hasty, the president/CEO of Unique Performance, the car company seeking PIE approval, contributed $1,000 in April to Texans for Rick Perry, the governor's re-election campaign, state records reveal. Hasty did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday. The Texas AFL-CIO is warning that "a new era of disregard for free- world workers may be about to unfold." Ron Spurlock, community action representative with the United Auto Workers, which represents 5,000 members in Texas, was likewise unequivocal. "We're exporting jobs from all over the country and now we're going to take the jobs that are left here and turn them over to prison labor at half, or less, the wages you'd expect to pay someone on the open market," Spurlock charged. A divisive issueThe issue pits those anguished by the erosion of middle-class jobs, many of which have gone overseas, against those trying to rehabilitate inmates and enhance prison security. "This is not meant to displace workers in the free world, it is meant to reduce recidivism," said Randa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Geo Group, which operates the minimum-security Lockhart Unit, site of the largest PIE operations in the state. The PIE certification program, enacted by Congress in 1979, allows states to give prisoners private sector work experience and a few employers some nice breaks. Today, 5,800 inmates participate in about 40 jurisdictions around the country. Though the program touches a fraction of the overall prison population, the numbers have grown through the years, said Sahra Nadiir, project coordinator for the National Correctional Industries Association. Offenders like it because they make money, although they keep only about 20 percent of it. The states pocket as much as 80 percent, for room and board. Texas collects between 30 percent and 60 percent, depending on how much gets divvied up among the courts, crime victims and offenders' dependents, spouses or disabled parents. Businesses applying to operate inside prison must have an outside- prison operation. They can't reduce the number of their free-world jobs while expanding their prison jobs and the wages they pay must be commensurate with those paid for "similar work in the same locality's private sector." Labor leaders say it is nonsense to consider wages only in a localized area. "We think the consequences are national," said Ed Sills, spokesman for the Texas AFL-CIO. 'Best work force'Pete Arciniega has supervised workers at big-name manufacturing plants but prefers the obscure operation at the Lockhart Unit, where he oversees 250 prisoners. His employees had to apply and give a clear reason for wanting to join Chatleff Controls, a Buda-based company that manufactures air- conditioning and heating parts. If they're hired, they will earn between $6 and $8 an hour before deductions. "They do a hell of a job. They're the best work force I've ever had," Arciniega said as workers around him labored under fluorescent lights amid the hum of heavy machinery. Across the state, similar work fetches an average of $12.85 an hour, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Arciniega said such comparisons are unfair because free-world employees tend to work for years, giving them the seniority to earn more money. Rayfield said her 35 assembly workers just down the hall from Arciniega's shop make about $6 an hour, which is, according to state data, about $4.11 less than assembly workers statewide make. "They don't have vacations; they don't call in sick," she acknowledged, but she said the program's rehabilitation goals are the underlying reason for hiring inmates and putting up with the red tape. lsandberg@express-news.net
Posted on Sun, Jul. 16, 2006 Hunt continues for only escaped Texas inmate remain free Associated Press SAN ANTONIO - The hunt continues for the only escaped Texas inmate in more than 40 years to never be captured, killed or discovered dead. Jose Salaz Jr. escaped from a Beeville prison yard on March 22, 1997, ignoring razor wire cuts as he scaled three perimeter fences. He was serving a 35-year sentence for a botched Houston kidnapping that left two police officers wounded. Salaz disappeared without a trace, but authorities are still looking - fueled by the desire to prove escapees can't win and the hope of a final victory for investigators nearing retirement. "With 156,000 in custody in Texas, if you don't chase one, you're going to be chasing them all," Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General John Moriarty said in a story in Sunday's San Antonio Express-News. "You've got to pursue them, and they've got to know that you're going to pursue them forever, or else escape becomes a worthwhile risk." Since 1961, 101 Texas inmates have escaped. Salaz is the only one currently unaccounted for. Investigators go back to the case whenever possible, at times such as now when assignments allow it. "We always go back to Salaz, and we always will. He will never be filed away in some inactive dead file. Never. Never, ever," said Lt. Terry Cobbs who worked as a younger investigator as part of an intelligence team charged with finding Salaz. Authorities believe Salaz is moving between Texas and Mexico, possibly aided by relatives, friends and supporters. The Mexican consulate office in San Antonio has said it will help track the fugitive, and the U.S. Marshals Service has also joined the effort - adding $5,000 to the original $1,000 reward authorized in 1997 for Salaz. Among the people kept up to date on every development in the hunt is Sgt. Jim Binford, a Houston Police Department homicide detective wounded in the kidnapping attempt that sent Salaz to jail. He said he's not worried about the escapee coming after him, but he wants Salaz caught to see him serve the sentence he received for shooting the officers. "You don't hide from the system this long unless you're smart, and he is smart," Binford said. Investigators believe the escape may have been premeditated because he was driven across the Mexican border by a friend in a nearby van. They think his relatives in Houston and Monterrey, Mexico, may have helped plan the break. At the time of his escape, Salaz had a wife and children in Mexico and a girlfriend in Houston. But all have since vanished. The search for the escapee has met with hostility from friends and family, and authorities have investigated leads as far as Maine, California and Florida. But investigators say they still have not given up hope. "We don't ever quit, not till the day after hell freezes over," TDCJ investigator Louis Fawcett said. "We are coming for him one way or another." ------------ --------- --------- ---------
© 2006 AP Wire and wire service sources.
MySA.com
Web Posted: 07/12/2006 10:21 PM CDT HUNTSVILLE The hunt for terror suspects is now taking place inside Texas prisons, and the threat is coming in the mail. One of the few roads into a maximum security prison is through the doors of its tiny mailroom. Workers open every envelope to make sure only letters and pictures get through to inmates. But they're also looking for sinister plots tailor-made for killers who are looking for a job when they get out. "If the money's right, they'll do almost anything. It could be another 9/11 just inside these letters. We just don't know until we get them translated," said Bobby Pittmon, a prison investigator. About 300 Texas prison inmates correspond in foreign languages. After the 9/11 attacks, the prison in Huntsville installed a computer system that scans and stores letters to be translated and decoded by the FBI. "It's a ripe environment for recruitment for any anti-government activities," said John Moriarty, prison inspector general. Investigators inside the prison have uncovered suspicious literature and even a videotape sent to inmates. A videotape was shown at a religious meeting and even concerned other inmates. "Several inmates brought it to security's attention and said, 'Hey, this is kind of radical. We probably shouldn't be seeing this.' And they confiscated the tape," Pittmon said. Guards also seized copies of a document titled "The Call to Jihad: Holy fighting for Allah's cause in the Koran." Security concerns increased after California officials uncovered a plan hatched in the prison system allegedly targeting U.S. military installations. According to investigators, any inmate is a possible candidate for a terrorist scheme, especially if they feel disenfranchised and blame their problems on the government. "What's a terrorist anymore, what does a terrorist look like?" Pittmon said. Investigators say what offenders may not know is that a road paved with promises outside the prison walls may ultimately wind up a dead- end street. Prison officials tell us they have not uncovered any legitimate threats. But they say federal authorities may not tell them if they find something in translated letters because the information could be deemed classified. ------------ --------- --------- ---------
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House Judiciary Committee action on
PEOPLE IN TEXAS, CALIF, AND FLORIDA TO URGE
The Second Chance Act aims to reduce recidivism, increase public safety, and help states and communities to better address the growing population of prisoners returning to communities. The House bill (HR 1704) focuses on four areas: jobs, housing, substance abuse/mental health treatment, and families.
Senator Thad Cochran has become a cosponsor bringing the Senate total to 25. In the House Representatives Robert Wexler is now a cosponsor bringing the todal to 109. For more information about the bill, or to find your Representative, visit:
The Second Chance Act of 2005 (HR 1704) Substance Abuse/Mental Health Problems Seventy to eighty percent of offenders re-entering the community have histories of substance abuse. An increasing number of offenders have mental health problems. If the treatment is not sought or available upon release, relapse is likely. Fifty-seven percent of federal and 70 percent of state inmates used drugs regularly before prison, with some estimates of involvement with drugs/alcohol around the time of the offense as high as 84 percent (BJS Trends in State Parole, 1990 2000). Saving Taxpayer Dollars Significant portions of state budgets are now invested in the criminal justice system. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, expenditures on corrections alone increased from $9 billion in 1982 to $44 billion in 1997. These figures do not include the cost of arrest and prosecution, nor do they take into account the cost to victims. Strengthening Families and Communities One of the most significant costs of prisoner reentry is the impact on children and communities. Between 1991 and 1999, the number of children with a parent in a Federal or State correctional facility increased by more than 100 percent, from approximately 900,000 to approximately 2,000,000. Reducing Recidivism through Common Sense Solutions Demonstration Grants. The Second Chance Act reauthorizes the Re-Entry Demonstration project with an enhanced focus on jobs, housing, substance abuse treatment/mental health, and children and families. The bill increases the amount of money to fund demonstration programs and create performance outcomes standards and deliverables. National Offender Re-Entry Resource Center. Establishes a resource center for states, local government, service providers, faith-based organization, corrections and community organizations to collect and disseminate best practices and provide training and support around reentry. Federal Taskforce. Creates a federal interagency taskforce to identify programs and resources on re-entry, identify ways to better collaborate, develop interagency initiatives and a national re-entry research agenda. The taskforce would review and report to Congress on the federal barriers that exist to successful re-entry with recommendations. Offender Re-Entry Research. Authorizes the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics to conduct research around re-entry. Mentoring Grants to Nonprofit Organizations: Establishes a grant program to provide funding for nonprofit organizations to provide mentoring and transitional services to adult and juvenile offenders. Carlie's Law: In response to Carlie Brucia's abduction and murder in 2004, the provision requires the automatic revocation of probation or supervised release when a federal felon commits a felony crime of violence against a minor child under the age of 16.
Published on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Prisons at Center of Damning Report on U.S. Human Rights UNITED NATIONS - Rights advocacy groups in the United States are calling for the United Nations to take note of the gross human rights violations being committed in their country. A coalition of human and civil rights organizations Monday sent a 465-page report to a key United Nations committee, which details ongoing abuses of human rights across the United States. ...the coalition [of human and civil rights organizations] accused the U.S. State Department of trying to sidestep the UN process on the question of ongoing human rights abuses in the United States and described its behavior as 'a systematic pattern' of ignoring international human rights obligations. The "shadow report" comes at a time when the Geneva-based UN Committee on Human Rights is about to complete its findings on human rights abuses in the United States. The UN inquiry into the United States' human rights conduct is part of a review process that takes place every four years for countries that have ratified the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, also known as the "International Bill of Rights." As a signatory to the treaty, the U.S. government is bound to respond to the Committee's questions on human rights. The official U.S. response to the UN inquiry is due next week. Rights groups say the Bush administration is expected to defend its human rights record, as it did in the past in response to the UN findings on torture, which called in February for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. "It's time for the United States to own up to its responsibility and acknowledge its patterns of human rights violations," says Tonya McClary of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker human rights group, which is part of the coalition that prepared the report for the UN. The report documents various forms of human rights abuses in the United States, which include police brutality, abuse of immigrants, racial discrimination, and the use of torture in prisons. "Prisons are one of the largest growth industries in the United States," according to the AFSC. With only five percent of the world's population, the U.S. holds about 25 percent of the world's prison population. "The principle offender is the prison system," says McClary, who co- authored the report, entitled, "In the Shadows of the War on Terror: Persistent Police Brutality and Abuse in the United States." "Because prisons are a closed system, operating in secrecy, the public does not comprehend the extreme forms of abuse, violence, and racism practiced daily behind bars." The report, which is a rebuttal to the official U.S. response to the UN committee, documents many cases of unjustified police shootings, use of excessive force, extraction of coerced confessions, rape, strip searches, and racial and gender profiling. Immigrants face sexual and physical abuse when they are detained at the borders and airports and immigration laws fail to respect their right to due process, according to the authors of the "shadow report." In the report, the rights groups also explain how racism was associated with the authorities' failure to protect the victims of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom are still deprived of the right to participate in the rebuilding process and access to basic facilities. Questioning the judicial practices and prison conditions in the United States, the report cites several cases of human rights violations such as the sentencing of children to life without parole, shackling pregnant female prisoners, limitation on prisoners' access to courts, lack of healthcare, and rape and discrimination against minorities. In a statement, the coalition accused the U.S. State Department of trying to sidestep the UN process on the question of ongoing human rights abuses in the United States and described its behavior as "a systematic pattern" of ignoring international human rights obligations. "Far from being out of the ordinary," says McClary, "or an aberration-- which is the image painted by the Bush administration- - prison abuse and the use of torture in the United States is frighteningly widespread." The human rights violations, as pointed out in the report, also refer to the use of electric stun belts, grenades, and guns; tethers; waist and leg chains; air tasers; and restraint hoods, belts, and beds. Prisoners, according to the report's findings, can be held in long- term solitary confinement and extreme isolation in severely confined spaces with little or no daily contact for days, weeks, months, or even years. Sexual assault of female prisoners is common. The report submitted to the UN Committee represented the views of more than 140 U.S.-based groups and 32 prominent individual activists. The groups likely to testify before the UN Committee include the American Civil Liberties Union, Global Rights, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the International Women's Rights Action Watch, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Center for Reproductive Rights and Justice Now.
Texas inmates not entitled to minimum wage
July 10, 2006 HOUSTON -- Texas inmates working in the laundry of a state prison aren't entitled to earn at least the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, an appeals court has ruled. Convicted sex offender Douglas R. Loving contended his job as a drying machine operator qualified him for protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act meaning he should get minimum wage because the act didn't specifically exempt prisoners. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that prisoners are not employees and not entitled to minimum wages. In Texas, inmates capable of working are expected to hold jobs but aren't paid, Texas prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said today. "Compelling an inmate to work without pay does not violate the Constitution," a three-judge panel of the court said. "The failure of a state specifically to sentence an inmate to hard labor does not change this rule." Loving, 54, serving a 20-year sentence from Dallas County for aggravated sexual assault of a child, argued in his lawsuit the state should credit his inmate trust fund with wages for his work. He's been in prison since 1992 and is now at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Smith Unit in Lamesa. "The claim fails because Loving has no constitutional right to compensation," the judges ruled, upholding a lower court's decision that threw out the suit as frivolous. The panel said it had ruled in similar cases where inmates working outside jails for private firms technically were employees and that inmates working inside a prison for a private firm were not. "However, until today we have not expressly stated whether there is any (federal-required) employment relationship between the prison and its inmates working in and for the prison," the court said in a ruling Friday. The panel also noted other federal appeals courts uniformly have held "prisoners doing prison work are not the prison's employees," and cited a recent decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled people "are not imprisoned for the purpose of enabling them to earn a living." "The prison pays for their keep," the Chicago-based court said. "If it puts them to work, it is to offset some of the cost of keeping them, or to keep them out of mischief, or to ease their transition to the worked outside, or to equip them with skills and habits that will make them less likely to return to crime outside. "None of these goals is compatible with federal regulation of their wage and hours." The court noted the reason why federal law doesn't specifically make an exception for prisoners "is probably that the idea was too outlandish to occur to anyone when the legislation was under consideration by Congress."
The Beaumont Enterprise Inmate suspected in prison stabbing One inmate is accused of stabbing another to death Friday at the Mark Stiles Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice south of Beaumont. Victor Rocha, 26, was pronounced dead of a stab wound to the chest about 10:30 p.m. Friday, department spokeswoman Michell Lyons said. Jose Alonzo, 37, is accused of stabbing Rocha. Both inmates had homemade weapons, Lyons said. Rocha had been in custody since 2001 on burglary convictions out of Travis County. Alonzo is serving a 35-year sentence for capital murder out of Bexar County and has been jailed since 1992. ©The Beaumont Enterprise 2006
Mothers' voices reach beyond bars Storybook project helps imprisoned mothers read books to their children
By Denise Gamino Kenzell Williams didn't recognize his mother when she arrived in the mail. She slipped into the house inside a padded envelope containing a children's book and a cassette tape. The inmates at Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville look through a table of books to choose one to record and send to their children. In a prison chapel, Sandy Foxworth records a story for her son Kenzell while Women's Storybook Project of Texas volunteer Kate Moss holds the recorder. Cindy Ann Mendoza reads books to her grandsons. 'It is a privilege for me to be able to read to my grandsons considering my life sentence,' she says. Kenzell Williams, with his aunt and guardian Cindy Williams, looks at the pages of 'The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants' while listening to a tape of his mother reading the book. His mother, Sandy Foxworth, is serving a 20-year sentence in the Lane Murray Unit for aggravated assault.
Women's Storybook Project of Texas Six-year-old Kenzell lives in Cedar Park with his aunt, Cindy Williams. She put the tape in a little boombox and told Kenzell to listen. A woman's animated voice was reading a book called "The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants." "What is that?" Kenzell asked. "That's your mother," his aunt said. "It doesn't sound like her," Kenzell said. "Yes it is. Keep listening." "Oh yeah. That is her voice!" The story about schoolchildren on a field trip inside an ant hill ended and Kenzell's mother had a special message for him: "Kenzell, I hope that you enjoyed the storybook that Mom read to you today. When you get sad, just tell them to turn on the tape and you can listen to my voice. I miss you and I love you, son. Take care." Kenzell's mother, Sandy Foxworth, 39, can't read to her son in person or even hold him in her lap because she is in a Texas prison serving a 20-year sentence for aggravated assault. But she gets to read to her son through a novel program run by volunteers in Austin. The Women's Storybook Project of Texas collects new children's books and, once a month, tapes female inmates reading stories to their children or grandchildren who live in the free world. "It's a very simple idea that has a very big impact," said Judith Dullnig, coordinator of the storybook project. "It's a way for the mother to show her child that she loves them, and introduces literature at the same time. "We're finding that it's important for the (other) family members to hear from their loved ones. Adults have been listening to it also, as a bonus." The Texas Department of Criminal Justice supports the program, which operates in two women's prisons and soon will expand to a third. The storybook project helps improve inmates' conduct because only well-behaved prisoners can participate. "This is a great thing," said Capt. Beverley Wilkins, disciplinary officer at the Murray unit. The Texas program, modeled after those in other states, started in 2003. About 2,200 books have been taped and mailed to children, some of whom live in other states or countries. The popularity of the program is obvious at the Lane Murray Unit, one of five women's prisons in Gatesville, 40 miles west of Waco. On a recent Saturday, 23 female inmates in white uniforms line up on the sidewalk outside the prison's locked chapel. They stand in the hot sun, squinting and shifting from foot to foot. Some peek through the glass-door panels as they wait to get in. Dullnig and five other volunteers inside rearrange chairs in the chapel and nearby meeting rooms. Five reading stations are set up in the center and in each corner of the chapel. Down the hall, several inmates with special privileges help unpack boxes of books and display them on conference tables in a room used as a library. When the volunteers are ready, a corrections officer unlocks the door and the excited inmates file in. "Keep the noise down. Talk later," Wilkins barks. After brief introductions between volunteers and inmates, the prisoners are allowed to mill about the book piles, studying covers and thumbing through the texts. It is a study in quiet contemplation. Foxworth chooses the book about ant antics for Kenzell because "he loves bugs, and he's a very adventurous child." "For me to be able to reach out to my son in this manner is so wonderful because it's important my child knows that I do still love him even if I am not there physically," she says. "It's hard to bear the price for what I've caused because I made wrong choices. Although I'm here, he's not forgotten and he must know on a constant basis that he's special." Foxworth will be eligible for parole in 2012. Kenzell visits his mother periodically, but inmate Asel Abdygapparova doesn't get to see her children. Her 5-year-old son, Ramon, and 12-year-old daughter, Anel, live in Kazakhstan, one of the former Soviet republics. Abdygapparova, 31, had left Kazakhstan to pursue a master's degree in statistics in San Antonio. But she was convicted of capital murder last year and sentenced to life in prison for her accomplice role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of a San Antonio single mother who was abducted while waiting to catch a bus to work. Abdygapparova testified that she helped her boyfriend and another man because she feared for her life. Both men now are on death row. The storybook project worked with the prison chaplain to locate children's books written in Russian. Abdygapparova records a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale for her son and reads a chapter from a lengthier book for her daughter. "I'm very thankful because in this way they can have access to the tapes and hear me whenever they want to since we don't have visits," she says. "I never thought I'd be here. It's very hard. I think it feels different for me than other prisoners. They get visits and get to see their kids, and I don't."
Inside the cover of the fair tale, she writes a note to Ramon: The volunteers allow the prisoners to record personal messages before and after they read the storybook. The messages are supposed to be short, but sometimes allowances are made. Inmate Cindy Ann Mendoza, 36, picks out books to read to her grandchildren, 4-year-old Isaiah and 2-year-old Josiah. She begins her recording by singing the entire "Happy Birthday" song to "Mr. Josiah." As she sings, her voice catches and tears fill her eyes. Volunteer Kate Moss from Austin joins in and helps her finish. "Hi Josiah. It's me, Grandma Mendoza. I want to say Happy Birthday, and I want to say I love you very much," she says on the tape. She continues to sniffle through tears as she reads, in Spanish, "Donde Viven Los Monstruos" ("Where the Wild Things Are"). Mendoza has been in prison since Valentine's Day in 2000 when she received a life sentence for fatally stabbing her future father-in-law in the home they shared in San Marcos. She said prison has saved her from her past life of alcohol and drug abuse. "I was a mom always drinking and doing drugs and wasn't there like I should have been" for her son and daughter, she says. "Now I can be there for my grandchildren, maybe not physically but through the books and correspondence. I have a chance now to be at least a grandma. "It is a privilege for me to be able to read to my grandsons considering my life sentence. I pray that the Lord opens more opportunities for the grandmothers in similar situations as mine. Yes, we made mistakes and poor choices. But we still love our babies so much, regardless." The storybook project volunteers receive steady feedback from children and relatives of the inmates. Children kiss the tapes, carry them to bed and fall asleep as the tapes play, the volunteers are told. "Dear whoever gets this note," one letter began. "Please let my mom, Gina, keep reading the books on tape. One more thing, I love hearing her voice. By Cameron." And in Cedar Park, Kenzell smiles and taps his toes as he sits on the living room couch while listening to his mother read him the story about ants. "I want to go see my mom," he says when the tape ends. Mothers' voices reach beyond bars
dgamino@statesman.com
JUNE 23, 2006: Defenseless
TFDP Sues Williamson Co. On June 12, the Austin-based Texas Fair Defense Project filed a class-action lawsuit against several Williamson County judges on behalf of three defendants charged with misdemeanor jail offenses. The plaintiffs charge that under the county's unfair judicial procedures, the constitutional right to counsel has been systematically compromised. "Defendants must fend for themselves," argues Adrian De La Rosá of the TFDP, after a yearlong observation of Williamson Co. courts in response to complaints from attorneys and the public. "This is not an aberration," De La Rosá adds, nor is it confined to one county. (The TFDP is a project of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group.) "Williamson Co. judges and other county employees pressure defendants to talk to prosecutors without giving them accurate information about their right to a defense attorney," TFDP Director Andrea Marsh said in a statement announcing the suit. "No one should be convicted of a crime they didn't commit, or receive a longer sentence because they didn't understand their right to a lawyer, or were denied an attorney even though they were too poor to hire one." Petitioning for injunctive and declaratory relief "on behalf of themselves and all other persons similarly situated" are Kerry Heckman of Bartlett, Monica Maisenbacher of Round Rock, and Sylvia Peterson of Round Rock. They seek no money, just reform of the county judicial procedures. According to the lawsuit, delays, double- talk, and outright denial of counsel are depriving Williamson Co. defendants of the opportunity to mount a "meaningful defense." They are not being assisted to understand the government's burden of proof, the elements of offenses, the consequences of guilty pleas, the prospect of going to jail or prison, or sentencing alternatives. "They stand alone against the state, defenseless and uninformed," the petition states. The lawsuit names as defendants Williamson Co. Judge John C. Doerfler; county court-at-law judges Suzanne Brooks, Tim Wright, and Donald Higginbotham; and Judge William Eastes, a Georgetown magistrate. Doerfler seemed to suggest the Commissioners Court is not relevant to the county judicial question: "I don't know how I got involved in this, the connection," he said Monday. County Commissioners Court discussed the suit in executive session on Tuesday, and according to Doerfler, County Attorney Jana Duty will decide whether to hire outside counsel to defend the suit. Recounting her experiences as a misdemeanor defendant, Maisenbacher said, "There was no room to lie down in the holding cell to sleep." Jailers removed and isolated defendants who talked or dozed, and Maisenbacher says she had no food or water. The next day, the judge rushed defendants through magistration, without outside, independent legal oversight. Maisenbacher went to jail twice, for assault and failure to appear. The first time the county had already X-ed the option that she would herself hire counsel; she just signed the form as indicated. The second time she refused to sign the X-ed form and requested appointed counsel. "The judge threw the form back at me," she said. A judge heard her a third time and confirmed the records indicating that she had in fact appeared in court, and the county finally appointed counsel for her. The lawsuit also faults Williamson County for barring from the courtroom anyone not listed on each Wednesday's first appearance docket, a rule the county posts on its Web site. The practice separates defendants from supporters and closes the court to the public. "Before us, no one was watching," De La Rosá says. The suit also criticizes Thursday's "jail call," because TFDP has observed that the county shackles, escorts, and addresses defendants en masse. Judges also scorn defendants in subjective assessments of need. "Why should Williamson County pay for your mistake? You look like you can work," the judge told Maisenbacher. A judge disqualified Heckman for appointed counsel because he was too well dressed. De La Rosá said he witnessed a judge chastise a homeless defendant, then sarcastically offer to "solve her problem" by raising bail so she'd have a place to stay. The judge also said the law requires him to provide counsel but that he doesn't have to like it, De La Rosá recalls. The county repeatedly tells defendants prosecutors are "here to help." "This is a mirage. If you speak directly to a prosecutor, you may reach the promised land of resolution. But where you could end up is probation desert," says Dominic Gonzales of the TCJC. Or, jail Gonzales received a complaint that a prosecutor threatened to double the jail time if a defendant requested counsel. "Only a defense lawyer can help defendants understand their rights. Taking that out leaves every single defendant vulnerable to abuse," Gonzales adds. In court session last Thursday, the judge left the courtroom for an extended recess. Left alone were defendants and prosecutors, speaking in whispers. "The courtroom does not look at all like the one we talked about in civics class, with an impartial judge, prosecutors, and defense attorneys forming the base of the pyramid. What happens to a pyramid if you take out one of the cornerstones? " asks Gonzales. De La Rosá says prosecutors do not represent defendants, so they do not have to maintain confidentiality after court. Williamson County, which touts itself as being "tough on crime," is also apparently tight on crime as in cheap. "The interest is in disposing of cases cheaply," Gonzales says. "But what is the cost to taxpayers," De La Rosá asks, "of longer jail terms for un-counseled defendants?" Copyright © 2006 Austin Chronicle Corporation.
A Local Woman Tells The Conditions of the Texas Prison Her Brother Is In By Mary Sturgill A group of Idaho inmates in a Texas prison are making their conditions known. They staged a sit in and two even escaped. They both have been captured. A local woman has a brother in the Newton County Texas prison where all this has been going on Sherry Mortensen's brother Rick Welker was originally in a prison in Boise serving a 5 to 15 year sentence. "As far as I know he has never caused a problem. When he was working in Boise he was working 13-14 hours a day building furniture in the wood working shop for them, making them money, now he's sitting there doing nothing. He could be home working." Welker was one of the 417 inmates shipped to to Newton County Texas. But Mortensen says the conditions her brother endures just aren't acceptable. "There is yellow water, horrible food. You get cornmeal at every meal, beans or grits at every meal, ah yesterday morning he told me he had a two inch square of cornmeal a scoop of grits and an apple was their breakfast and it was 10 hours before their next meal." Twenty four men are cramped into a dorm that is 30 by 40 and medical care is practically non-existent. In a letter to his sister, Welker tells her about guards beating inmates; an incident that is confirmed by Idaho department of corrections. "There have been use of force instances that we have asked for review of and in one case disciplinary action was taken against staff members." So even though her brother didn't participate in the sit down, Mortensen sees why inmates are frustrated, "They're not eating right. they're not being taken care of right and right now they had a non violent sit down, How long is it going to be non violent if it keeps up." Idaho Department of Corrections spokeswoman, Melinda O'Malley Kreckler says people should let them know about any issues they face. "When issues come up, when concerns come up, we want to know about it so we can address them individually and that's exactly what we've done." The ACLU is investigating the situation. Keckler says Idaho has 6,986 inmates and the system can only hold 5,967.
June 13, 2006
Privately run facility has had difficulties since taking 420 Idaho
inmates in March An Idaho prisoner remained at large Tuesday after breaking out of a privately run East Texas lockup that has endured a series of problems since it began receiving 420 inmates from that state in March, officials said. Rudolfo Garcia-Lopez, 38, who is serving up to 20 years for attempted kidnapping, hopped a fence Monday with Orlando Gonzalez-Leon, 27, a murderer serving a maximum 50-year sentence. Newton County sheriff's deputies caught Gonzalez-Leon within two hours of his escape. Crowding in Idaho prompted officials, who used tents for overflow inmates the past three summers, to contract with out-of-state prisons run by private companies, Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Teresa Jones said Tuesday. Idaho initially moved 302 inmates to Minnesota last October, but space constraints there forced 270 of them to move on to the Newton County Correctional Center, run by Florida-based Geo Group Inc. Another 150 Idaho prisoners joined them there this month. The original transfers had volunteered to go to Minnesota, Jones said. There were no volunteers for Texas. Jones said the major culture difference is cable television. Idaho inmates have about 15 channels, and some have personal TVs, privileges that typically don't exist in Texas. Last weekend, about 85 inmates demanded butter for rolls and lower commissary prices. That demonstration, where prisoners refused to return to their cells for more than seven hours after recreational time, followed complaints of abuse in April and a May incident in which pepper spray was used on an Idaho convict. "There's always a little bit of a settling process," Jones said, referring to the adjustment period at a new facility. Geo Group operates 18 facilities in Texas, including one in Houston, according to its Web site. The company announced Tuesday that it is adding 576 beds to its Val Verde Correctional Facility, which mostly holds federal detainees near the Mexican border. The company did not return a message Tuesday seeking comment on the escape. The Associated Press contributed to this report. mark.babineck@ chron.com
Prisons locked down after fatal stabbing
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
AUSTIN - A fight between two rival gangs left one inmate dead and at least three others injured with stab wounds at a northeast Texas prison, officials said.
Prison authorities said Augustin Amador, 34, died in a hallway at the Telford Unit in New Boston after receiving 23 stab wounds.
Officials said the incident was isolated and quickly controlled. It was the first killing this year in a Texas prison after two were reported last year.
"Any type of gang activity is something we closely monitor," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "This (incident) is why we are doing that."
According to officials, Amador and four other members of the Tri-City Bombers were attacked by six members of the Texas Chicano Brotherhood as they were being escorted back to their cellblock after lunch. The Tri-City Bombers is a gang based in far South Texas in communities west of Harlingen.
The assailants were armed with prison-made knives, six of which were found in the hallway after the fight. The assailants were arrested and were being questioned, officials said.
Correctional officers deployed three canisters of pepper gas and stopped the fight within minutes, officials said. The three injured inmates were treated at the scene.
Other inmates were ordered to their cells and the unit remained on lockdown late Monday, which is standard procedure after a fight, officials said.
The 2,800-bed Telford Unit, which is located in Bowie County about 145 miles northeast of Dallas, was one of 13 Texas prisons on partial lockdown Monday, officials said. In at least eight cases, gang tensions and disturbances prompted the lockdowns.
Officials said Amador came to prison from Hidalgo County in 1997 to serve a 16-year sentence for murder and burglary. He was also serving a separate sentence of undetermined length from Jackson County for possession of marijuana and possession with intent to deliver cocaine.
Texas incarceration rate leads Nation...
WASHINGTON (AP) - Texas put people in prison at a faster rate than any other state during the last decade, but its crime rate is higher than other large states with smaller prison populations, according to a study being released Monday.
The report by Justice Policy Institute, which supports alternatives to prison, showed that the Texas prison population's annual growth
rate was 11.8 percent during the 1990s, which meant it added one in every five inmates to the nation's prisons.
Meanwhile, the state's crime rate fell at half the national average and the least of any of the nation's five largest states.
A Texas prison official said the last decade's growth was a response to a prison revolving door during overcrowded conditions, and the state's incarceration rate slowed in the latter part of the decade.
The study's authors zeroed in on Texas' prison system after the Bureau of Justice reported earlier this year that the Texas prison population of 163,190 had surpassed California's, 163,067. California's population of 32 million is almost twice that of Texas.
"The sheer magnitude of what is going on in Texas alone is startling," said Jason Ziedenberg, the study's co-author.
"Not just that it surpassed California, but if you look at it in the context of a state like New York with a million or so fewer citizens, they (Texas) have got double the amount of people behind bars. ... We're obviously concerned about the state that's responsible for one-fifth of all new prisoners between 1990 and 1999."
The Justice Policy Institute is a think tank of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and the study was paid for with a grant from the Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. The groups provide programs for families of inmates and look for other solutions to criminal behavior beyond prisons, such as substance abuse treatment.
The study comes as Texas prison officials are pressing for money to build more lockups and as the inmate population is closing in on the system's capacity.
Earlier this month, Tony Fabelo, executive director of the state Criminal Justice Policy Council, told elected officials that without a change in parole rates and policies for returning parole violators to prison, Texas will likely need prisons to hold 14,600 additional inmates by August 2005.
On Friday, Fabelo said Texas' rapid incarceration occurred when the state went on a prison-building binge. Before that, the state intermittently released inmates to relieve overcrowding and comply with court-mandated capacity levels.
"Texas is a very large state with a growing population. In the 1980s, we had a broken system with a backlog," Fabelo said. "A great deal of the incarceration has been dealing with the revolving door."
Fabelo said while the incarceration rate grew by 12 percent from 1990-95, it was 6 percent during 1996-98. "It has slowed significantly
and almost stayed level," he said.
Still, the study's authors calculated that about 5 percent of Texas' adult population or 706,600 adults were in prison, jail on parole or probation at the end of 1999.
Meanwhile, Texas' crime rate decline has not fallen as much as in other large states. From 1995 to 1998, Texas' crime rate fell 5.1
percent, half the national average drop of 10 percent. Meanwhile California's fell 23 percent, Florida's 5.9 percent, Illinois' 9 percent and New York's 21.1 percent, the study said.
"In light of these lackluster results, the architects of Texas' prison policies should question whether these mediocre crime drops are worth the social cost the state is paying for having 1 in 20 adults and 1 in 3 young black men under criminal justice control," Ziedenberg and co-author Vincent Schiraldi said in the study.
Fabelo said making an impact on crime is tougher in Texas, which has three major cities - Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. In New York, he said, reducing crime in New York City significantly reduces the statewide crime rate.
The study also showed:
- Texas has 89,400 people incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, more than the entire prison population of New York.
- Blacks in Texas are incarcerated at a rate seven times greater than whites.
- Probation is given to blacks at a lower rate, 20.6 percent of the total probation caseload, than whites, 44.9 percent.
In a news release Schiraldi, Justice Policy Institute director, said the Texas incarceration numbers show its prison system is "fixated on punishment and devoid of compassion." But Ziedenberg said the study was not a political swipe at Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP's presidential nominee. Its timing is linked to the Bureau of Justice report, he said. He noted that Democrat Ann Richards was in office in the early 1990s.
On the Net: Justice Policy Institute: www.cjcj.org
COMMENTARY
Joe Crews , TEXAS APPLESEED
Travis County will soon do what no other county in the nation has done: create a stand-alone public defender office dedicated solely to representing criminal defendants with mental illness.
This is a bold and pioneering step and one that needs to be replicated across Texas, where jails house more than five times as
many people with mental illness as do our psychiatric hospitals.
Credit is due to Travis County's leadership for its vision and dedication, to the Travis County mental health community for its work
to support the county's effort, and to the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense that so generously awarded Travis County a $500,000
grant to make the Mental Health Public Defender Office a reality.
This is not the first step the county has taken to improve legal representation to indigent defendants with mental illness. Last year, Travis County established a Mental Health Wheel, which now consists of 10 lawyers trained to work with defendants with serious mental illness.
Although the lawyers work tirelessly on behalf of their clients, they lack the time and resources to connect many of their
clients with community-based programs that can get and keep them out of jail.
With the opening of the MHPD Office in coming months, Travis County will provide a critical "missing piece" in the justice system.
In addition to providing two lawyers to help handle part of the Mental Health Wheel's large misdemeanor caseload, the MHPD Office will hire two social workers and two caseworkers to help identify community-
based alternatives to more expensive jail time that could potentially keep these defendants from recycling through the justice system.
This kind of support could help reduce the lengthier jail stays experienced by defendants with serious mental illness. For example, a snapshot of the Travis County Jail population on Aug. 22, 2005, found that, compared to the general population accused of misdemeanor offenses, men with mental health needs had been jailed more than twice as long, 51 days, and women almost three times as long, 32 days.
Even more important, the MPHD Office will provide an institutional voice for defendants with mental illness — bringing together state and local stakeholders to find and develop long-term, cost-effective,
community-based options to jailing persons with mental illness.
As Travis County works to establish the office, we encourage the leadership to make this voice a strong one by selecting someone to head the MHPD who is as dynamic and as innovative as the county has been in securing funding for the office.
This is a ground-breaking development, and Travis County and the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense have raised the bar for counties looking to provide high-quality legal representation for these special needs defendants.
Their vision puts the spotlight where it belongs, on treating, rather than criminalizing, mental illness.
Crews is a board member and officer of Texas Appleseed, a public interest law center dedicated to finding systemic solutions to broad-based social challenges, including equal justice for persons with mental illness.
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New Director of TDCJ's Correctional Institutions Division Named
HUNTSVILLE – Veteran corrections professional Nathaniel Quarterman
has been named the new director of the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice's Correctional Institutions Division (CID), the department
which oversees the operations of TDCJ's 106 prison facilities
statewide.
Mr. Quarterman, who began his TDCJ career in 1984 as a correctional
officer, worked his way through the ranks, promoting to his most
recent position as a deputy director in CID in 2003.
"Nathan embodies the kind of focused operational leadership critical
to our success," said Brad Livingston, TDCJ's Executive Director.
"His strong operational and leadership skills have earned the
respect of his staff, and I am confident he will continue to serve
our agency well in his new role."
In his new capacity, Mr. Quarterman, who holds a bachelor's degree
in criminal justice, will be overseeing the operations of TDCJ
prison units across the state, as well as the support operations
critical to those units, including security systems and training,
transportation, food service and classification and records. He also
will manage the thousands of correctional officers, unit
administrators and wardens assigned to those units.
"Because much of my experience has been in the field of operations,
one of my priorities is making time to really listen to those who
work in the field," said Mr. Quarterman. "I am truly excited about
this new opportunity. I have worked with a number of exceptional
leaders in this agency who have taught me many good things and I am
hoping to take those lessons and use them in this new role."
Mr. Quarterman was serving as assistant warden at the Coffield Unit
in Palestine in 1995 when he joined the newly formed State Jail
Division as the first senior warden at the Cole State Jail in
Bonham.
He was promoted to the State Jail headquarters in Austin in 1998 as
the assistant director of security and later, was named deputy
director of the division. He became the director of the State Jail
Division in September 2001.
In September 2003, TDCJ created the Correctional Institutions
Division through a merger of the Institutional, Operations, Private
Facilities and State Jail divisions. At that time, Mr. Quarterman
was named as CID's Deputy Director of Prison and Jail Management.
Mr. Quarterman is scheduled to begin his new post on June 1. He
replaces retiring CID Director Doug Dretke, who has accepted a
position as the new executive director of Sam Houston State
University's Correctional Management Institution of Texas.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Michael Manor was serving 32 years in prison for auto theft when he managed to do something a jury thought even worse: sneak a cell phone into prison.
With a criminal record that included robbery and kidnapping, Manor got no sympathy from jurors. Last year, they slapped him with a 40-year sentence for possession of a cell phone after he dropped one from his prison bunk.
"We are trying to remove him from society. He doesn't deserve to have a cell phone," said Phil Hall, who prosecuted the case. "The jury really bought into the argument."
Manor's sister, who once received a cell phone call from him from prison, says his long sentence isn't fair.
Indeed, the punishment is harsher than any other handed down for the crime, but prosecutors said it shows how seriously the criminal justice system is taking a new type of contraband that can help inmates escape and allow offenders to conduct criminal business from a prison cell.
Cell phones are pouring into Texas prisons. Last year, investigators seized 135 of them; through mid-April, the number for this year was 90.
And though other contraband items are more often seized, the phones have become a valuable commodity for prisoners because they can sell minutes to other inmates.
"It's just like American Express: It's good as cash," said John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Investigators say prisoners are willing to pay between $350 and $600 to have a single phone smuggled into prison. And they often involve a corrections officer in such schemes.
In a case two years ago, undercover investigators arrested a corrections officer who offered to smuggle a cell phone and heroin into the Darrington Unit in Brazoria County. She wanted $200 to take in the phone and $50 for the drugs.
"With a cell phone, you can arrange other things," said Tim English, an investigator for the inspector general. "That's the beauty of the cell phone: you have access to the outside world."
As investigators focus more on the problem, inmates have become more careful about hiding their tracks. They prefer prepaid phones that don't require a user to provide a name or account number to a wireless provider. And memory cards are kept separate from phones, minimizing the loss in case a phone is seized.
Texas' problems with cell phones are highly concentrated in two prisons, Darrington and the Connally Unit in Karnes County, where prosecutors say gang membership is high. The units also are relatively close to big cities, where prepaid cell phones are easily obtained.
The Darrington Unit, in particular, is considered a "hotbed of corruption" by investigators and prosecutors, Hall said.
"It's very close to Houston, and you have a large inmate population there from Houston," Hall said. "They have contacts in Houston."
Investigators are eyeing new technology that would jam cell phone signals, but they are wary of using jamming devices in highly populated areas, where the technology could block legitimate phone calls, Moriarty said. The Federal Communications Commission says it is illegal to jam or disrupt wireless communications.
But some defense lawyers say prosecutors haven't proved that cell phones are used for more than getting in touch with family members or spouses.
Texas prisons don't have pay phones, so offenders are desperate to communicate.
"Drugs take you out of the prison psychologically," said David O'Neil, a lawyer in Huntsville and former director of the prison system's public defender's office. "Phones place you outside the prison in a different sense. There is a premium on escaping in that sense."
Prison employees' arrests detailed
From hot checks to murders, prison workers frequently charged
They're accused of fighting with their families, getting drunk in
public, writing hot checks, driving drunk and getting caught with
illegal drugs.
Occasionally, they're arrested on accusations of murdering, setting
fire, stealing, laundering money, smuggling illegal immigrants, even
robbing a bank or impersonating a police officer.
That was the snapshot that emerged Thursday as state prison
officials made public a list of Texas corrections employees who have
been arrested during the past three years. The list of charges is a
cross-section of the criminal code.
The data were released under the Texas Public Information Act four
days after the Austin American-Statesman disclosed that at least 761
employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice were listed by
the agency as having been arrested during 2005. The details released
Thursday showed 767. Another 148 arrests were logged during the
first two months of this year. If the arrests continue at their
current pace, they would set an annual record.
Most of the arrested employees were correctional officers. Although
many of the charges were misdemeanors, many others were felonies —
including domestic violence charges that are supposed to prevent
correctional officers from carrying a weapon, if they are convicted.
Many of the employees were wanted on arrest warrants. Four
correctional officers in two years were arrested for violating
probation on prior convictions, even though agency rules prohibit
anyone on probation for any crime from being hired as a
correctional officer.
Prison officials acknowledged Thursday that although potential hires
cannot be on probation, employees may serve probation for some minor
crimes.
"It's clear we need to look into this issue in more detail," said
state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, chairman of the House
Corrections Committee, which oversees the prisons agency, after
being briefed on the figures.
In making public the first detailed listing of criminal charges
against employees, prison officials included only the incident date,
the employees' names, their jobs and the offenses with which they
were charged. They did not disclose whether the employees were
convicted or whether they were fired.
Officials said that information is still being compiled.
The number of employee arrests has steadily climbed during the past
decade to a record 781 in 2003, the agency's internal statistics
show, although officials say the number of workers has remained
about the same in recent years.
Thusday's report listed 716 arrests in 2004, instead of the 704
reported earlier. In 2003, the new list showed 783 arrests instead
of 781.
The agency has about 38,600 employees; 23,700 of them are
correctional officers. Prison officials attributed the discrepancies
to cases where a warden or supervisor initially logged the arrest as
one case, though several employees were involved. The offenses
listed in the new information were provided by employees and were
not confirmed from official records, they said.
Notable among those arrests not included in the agency's list was
that of Salvador "Sammy" Buentello, the prison system's former head
of anti-gang enforcement, who was arrested and indicted in 2004 on
felony sexual assault charges. He recently pleaded guilty to
unlawful restraint and five counts of official oppression, all
misdemeanors, in exchange for probation and fines.
In recent days, officials and correctional staff have suggested that
the growing arrest rates highlight a need to increase the pay scale
for correctional officers. Texas ranks 47th in the nation, starting
trainees at about $22,000 a year.
Kathy Walt, press secretary to Gov. Rick Perry, would not comment on
the new arrest details, saying she had not reviewed the data. But
she disagreed that pay is necessarily a key factor.
"By that argument, there'd be a lot of reporters with arrest
records . . ." she said, insisting that the arrest data should be
closely reviewed. "Certainly, though, you would expect those who are
guarding not to be on probation or charged with the same crimes as
the inmates."
According to the agency's newly released data, the serious felony
charges in which employees have been arrested ranged from capital
murder of a child, murder, negligent homicide to bigamy, indecent
exposure and child pornography.
One officer was arrested on charges of passing a fake $20 bill.
Others were arrested on charges of interfering with a 9-1-1 call.
Another, on charges of the promotion of child pornography.
On one of the murder charges, the Houston Chronicle reported in
September 2004, a woman and her husband, who is a correctional
officer, were arrested in the death of her baby in 2003.
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
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Lawmakers want prison arrest inquiry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Key legislative leaders called Monday for an inquiry into the climbing arrest rate of state prison system employees.
The comments came after the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday that state records show at least 761 arrests of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees in 2005 and 148 in January and February this year. If the trend continues, 2006 could set a record.
The number of arrests has increased steadily for much of the past decade, peaking at 781 in 2003, the agency's statistics show.
Prison officials have not made public any details of who was arrested, when or on what specific charges. Lawmakers said Monday that the data should be disclosed without delay.
"They should release the details," said state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, who leads the House Corrections Committee, which oversees the prison system. "Some of the problems they're having with arrests is not low pay. Some of the people who are being arrested are longtime employees."
Madden said he intends to have his committee look into the details: "how many turn into convictions, how many arrests have charges filed, how many become resignations. . . . For an agency with almost 40,000 employees, are 761 arrests out of line?"
He said he wants "to move (employees) out of the system if they're charged," Madden said. "I want to compare these numbers to a large corporation with 40,000 employees, to see how this compares."
Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, who helps oversee prison funding as a member of the Appropriations Committee, said the growing numbers of arrests are a cause for concern.
"For basic security reasons, we can't have employees who are in trouble like this," he said. "It's no good for the system or the overwhelming number of employees who are law-abiding."
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, said he wants to know more than just the details of the arrests.
"The staffing shortages, the overtime policies, fatigue and stress — it's all probably part of this," he said, saying he plans to seek information from prison officials about broader staffing issues.
"I think the arrests may be just part of the problem," he said.
Madden echoed that sentiment: "Being a correctional officer is a tough job, not easy."
For several years, the prison system has been chronically short of correctional officers. In March, the agency hired 514 officers but was still 2,616 correctional officers short, officials said.
Other lawmakers said Monday that the inquiries should include a review of qualifications to be a correctional officer in Texas; the starting pay of about $22,000, among the lowest in the nation; and proper supervision and training.
Prison officials have said they are working to gather data showing the details of the arrests, but have no timetable for when it will be made public.
The state's prison system is up for legislative scrutiny this coming year as part of the so-called "sunset" process, in which the operations and efficiency of state agencies are reviewed every few years.
Whitmire and Madden said their inquiries will be made as a part of that and as a part of the routine work committees undertake before the next regular legislative session, in January 2007.
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
Prison employees arrests continue climb
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, April 23, 2006
It might have seemed like a few tough weeks for Texas' prison system.
The system's former gang-enforcement chief pleaded guilty to sexually harassing employees. The personnel chief of the prison school system was arrested after being accused of lewd conduct at a Conroe park. A human resources official was sought as a fugitive after being charged with killing two pedestrians in an alleged drunken driving hit-and-run.
And three guards were arrested separately, one accused of raping a male convict, another of smuggling marijuana into a prison and the third of holding his ex-wife hostage at gunpoint.
Five weeks this spring saw almost two dozen arrests of correctional employees, on an assortment of felony and misdemeanor charges.
But it wasn't just a bad month. It was fairly typical for the state's 38,600-employee prison system, the second-largest in the country.
State records show at least 761 arrests of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees in 2005. Another 148 arrests have been logged during the first two months of 2006 — a number that, if the trend continues, could set a record.
The number of employee arrests has steadily climbed during the past decade to a record 781 in 2003, the agency's statistics show, even as officials say the number of employees has remained about the same.
"Maybe it's bad luck, and maybe it's because we pay too little. Because we're 2,500 correctional officers short all the time, I guess we can't be too choosy about who we hire," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which monitors Texas' corrections system. "Maybe the problem is where we built all these prisons. Maybe there isn't anything else to do out there but get in trouble."
Little else is known about the arrests. Prison officials said they could not immediately make public the details of who was arrested, when and on what specific charges. They also would not provide details on how many of the arrested employees were convicted.
Agency officials insist that the increasing numbers of arrests are no cause for concern. Others disagree, noting that lawbreaking by prison employees can compromise security and endanger lives. At the same time, they concede the problem is not just who is being hired, noting that several of those arrested in recent weeks are longtime employees.
The percentage of prison employees arrested in other states is lower.
"We probably had three or four dozen (arrests) last year," said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, the nation's third-largest prison system, with 32,000 workers in 69 prisons, 21,000 of them correctional officers.
In Florida, the fourth-largest state prison system, 297 of 26,700 Department of Corrections workers were arrested in the past year, about 1 of every 90. The Texas ar- rest rate was 1 in 51.
"It's not a good situation," said Brian Olsen, executive director of the correctional employees union, which represents about 4,000 of the agency's 23,700 correctional officers. "But when you're hiring so many new people so fast — the turnover is about 500 people a month — you're going to get some bad apples. And that's happening more than occasionally."
Still, Olsen and others involved with the prison system said they think the situation is improving. In recent months, they said, the quality of new hires has improved.
At the same time, officials are "getting better at catching the bad apples," Olsen said.
Ongoing problems
The issue surrounding arrested and convicted employees sometimes working in Texas prisons is nothing new.
Ask longtime employees about it, and many will tell you about a case in the late 1980s in which a man once convicted of conspiring to kill the Huntsville sheriff was discovered working in maintenance at the Huntsville prison while still on probation, after which he was quickly cashiered by red-faced prison officials.
But a growing chorus of officials and employees worry that the increasing numbers of arrests bode ill for the agency, leaving some wondering whether hiring standards have been relaxed too much and why the strict line that's supposed to separate the guards and the guarded has become increasingly blurred.
"If they're breaking the law, we want them out of there," Olsen said. "If they're bringing dope into the units, or cell phones or tobacco or any other contraband, and selling it to the inmates, then the inmates own them. And pretty soon, the inmates will control the unit.
"That endangers people's lives," he said.
Carol Blair Johnson, the prison system's human resources director, said that since 1985, the agency's hiring criteria have gotten more restrictive on past criminal convictions.
"There are no policy exceptions to the employment criteria relating to misdemeanor and felony convictions," she said.
Under current policy, enacted in 1998, no convicted felons can work in the prison system.
But prisons will accept applicants convicted of Class A or Class B misdemeanors, the two most serious categories, so long as the convictions are more than five years old. Under state law, people convicted of Class A misdemeanors (such as second-offense drunken driving) are prohibited from becoming police officers. Those with a Class B conviction (first-offense drunken driving) can be considered after five years.
Prison employees convicted of such crimes are terminated or allowed to resign.
Anyone convicted of Class C misdemeanors, the least serious, can be considered for work in the state's prisons.
"For security reasons, it is in the agency's best interest to hire correctional officers with limited or no criminal history," said Johnson, noting that pre-employment background checks are conducted to weed out those who do not meet the qualifications. Roughly half of the applicants are hired, Johnson said, though she said the reasons vary: Some fail required exams or the background check; some want to work only in areas of Texas where prison jobs are not open; and some take another job.
Since February 2005, applicants no longer have to take a physical agility test. The reason: Too many applicants might not pass, officials concede.
"The number of correctional officer applicants reflects the decrease in the number of Texas residents who are seeking employment," Johnson explains on the agency's Web site. "In order to ensure that staffing and security needs continue to be met in the current economic climate, the agency must assess various factors that may further influence the number of correctional officer applicants."
Prison officials say their hiring standards are strong and fairly standard: An applicant must be a U.S. citizen or an alien authorized to work in the United States, be 18 years old, have a high school diploma or General Educational Development certificate and never have been convicted of a felony, a drug-related offense or a crime involving domestic violence, among other qualifications.
Increasing workload
In March, when the agency hired 514 correctional officers, Johnson said it was still 2,616 short. Critics say low wages are a key problem. Texas ranks 47th among the 50 states in correctional officers' salaries, starting trainees at about $22,000 a year.
Critics and agency insiders both argue that if Texas were to increase its wage scale for correctional officers and raise its hiring standards, the high numbers of arrests among prison employees would decline.
In addition, they say, all employees should be electronically fingerprinted to improve enforcement, a system implemented nearly a decade ago for convicts, but not for employees.
To be sure, the increasing numbers of employee arrests mean more work for the prison system's Office of the Inspector General, the independent bureau that serves as an investigative watchdog.
The office is working with fewer resources just three years after lawmakers slashed its budget to save money. Seventy employees, half of them investigators, were cut.
"It's a 24-7 job. There's no hanging it up at 5 o'clock any day," said Inspector General John Moriarty.
Despite the increasing workload, officials say they increasingly rely on technology such as hidden cameras to catch bad actors — with success.
Consider what showed up months ago on a surveillance videotape in a hallway at one prison, the contents of which were described by prison officials.
A female guard grabs an inmate and holds him in a long embrace — a fireable offense.
A sergeant practices hitting a guard in the face, then slugs him hard. Investigators think that was to cover for an unauthorized use of force, so the guard could say he was hit first by an inmate when he wasn't — another fireable offense.
A short time later, another guard is caught on camera leading an inmate into a room where they have sex — another fireable offense.
For the record, officials said, all those employees were let go.
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
Arrests of Texas prison employees
Numbers are totals for the calendar year
Year Number
Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice
News 8 Austin Story
Cell phones become prison currency
Updated: 04/26/2006
State prison inmates are smuggling cell phones behind the walls,
which is has prison officials worried that they could be used to
plot escapes or conduct criminal business behind bars.
Last year, investigators seized 135 cell phones from state
inmates, and 90 had been copped this year as of mid-April.
While other contraband items are seized more often, phones have
become extremely valuable to prisoners who can sell minutes to other
inmates. John Moriarty is inspector general of the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice.
Cell phones "are just like American Express" within prison walls,
they're "good as cash," Moriarty said.
Investigators say prisoners are willing to pay between $350 and
$600 to have a phone smuggled into prison; and they often involve
a corrections officer in such schemes.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press, All rights reserved.
Dallas Morning News
For inmates, having a phone can add years in the cell
April 25, 2006
AUSTIN – Michael Manor was serving 32 years in prison for auto theft
when he managed to do something a jury thought even worse – sneak a
cellphone into prison.
Michael Manor With a criminal record that included robbery and
kidnapping, Mr. Manor got no sympathy from jurors. Last year, they
slapped him with a 40-year sentence for possession of a cellphone
after he dropped one from his prison bunk.
"We are trying to remove him from society. He doesn't deserve to
have a cellphone," said Phil Hall, who prosecuted the case. "The
jury really bought into the argument."
Mr. Manor's sister, who once received a cellphone call from him from
prison, says his long sentence isn't fair. Indeed, the punishment is
harsher than any other handed down for the crime, but prosecutors
said it shows how seriously the criminal justice system is taking a
new type of contraband that can help inmates escape and allow
offenders to conduct criminal business from a prison cell.
Cellphones are pouring into Texas prisons.
Last year, investigators seized 135 of them; through mid-April, the
number for this year was 90. And while other contraband items are
more often seized, the phones have become a valuable commodity for
prisoners because they can sell minutes to other inmates.
Also Online
Prison contraband (.pdf) "It's just like American Express – it's
good as cash," said John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice.
Investigators say prisoners are willing to pay between $350 and $600
to have a single phone smuggled into prison. And they often involve
a corrections officer in such schemes.
In a case two years ago, undercover investigators arrested a
corrections officer who offered to smuggle a cellphone and heroin
into the Darrington Unit in Brazoria County.
She wanted $200 to take in the phone, and $50 for the drugs.
"With a cellphone you can arrange other things," said Tim English, an
investigator for the inspector general. "That's the beauty of the
cellphone – you have access to the outside world."
Prepaid preferred
As investigators focus more on the problem, inmates have become more
careful about hiding their tracks. They prefer prepaid phones that
don't require a user to provide a name or account number to a
wireless provider. And memory cards are kept separate from phones,
minimizing the loss in case a phone is seized.
Texas' problems with cellphones are highly concentrated in two
prisons – the Darrington Unit and Connally Unit in Karnes County –
where prosecutors say gang membership is high. The units also are
relatively close to big cities, where prepaid cellphones are easily
obtained.
The Darrington Unit, in particular, is considered a "hotbed of
corruption" by investigators and prosecutors, Mr. Hall said.
"It's very close to Houston, and you have a large inmate population
there from Houston," Mr. Hall said. "They have contacts in Houston."
FCC bans jamming
Investigators are eyeing new technology that would jam cellphone
signals, but they are wary of using jamming devices in highly
populated areas, where the technology could block legitimate phone
calls, Mr. Moriarty said. The Federal Communications Commission
says it is illegal to jam or disrupt wireless communications.
But some defense attorneys say prosecutors haven't proven that
cellphones are used for anything more than getting in touch with
family members or spouses.
Texas prisons don't have pay phones, so offenders are desperate to
communicate. "Drugs take you out of the prison psychologically,"
said David P. O'Neil, a defense attorney in Huntsville and former
director of the prison system's public defender's office.
"Phones place you outside the prison in a different sense. There is a
premium on escaping in that sense."
Shirley Manor, Mr. Manor's sister, didn't see or hear from her
brother for years. One day, shortly before he was caught with a
phone, he called her from the Darrington Unit.
A steep price
"I was so surprised just to hear my brother's voice," said Ms.
Manor, a contract worker for the state department of health. "He
just asked us how we were doing."
Two corrections officers later caught Mr. Manor with the phone when
it fell from his bunk bed. He told investigators that he paid
another inmate $10 in commissary items for unlimited use of the
phone.
Prosecutors initially offered Mr. Manor a plea agreement of 20 years
in prison, but he turned it down. So they decided to take the case
to a jury in Brazoria County.
"Our attitude was, let's just see what this is worth to the
community," said Gina DeBottis, chief special prosecutor for the
agency that tries prison crimes.
Prosecutors made a good bet. Although they did not allege that Mr.
Manor, now 41, used the phone to plan crimes or an escape, jurors
gave him the longest sentence anyone has received since lawmakers
made possession of a cellphone in prison a third-degree felony.
Jailers part of problem
Mr. Hall said the judgment made other cellphone violators more
willing to accept plea bargains. Another offender agreed to a
sentence of 25 years.
Ms. Manor, 43, said she knew that her brother shouldn't have had the
phone. He told her it belonged to his cellmate, she said.
"You know it had to be someone on the outside bringing the phones to
the inmates," Ms. Manor said.
Investigators and prosecutors agree, saying corrections officers
have made the problem worse.
Some are greedy or corruptible, prosecutors say. Others, such as
former officer Allen Bidwell, say they fell victim to the schemes of
wily inmates. Mr. Bidwell's troubles began when he entered an
offender's cell by himself, a violation of agency policy.
To keep the offender from reporting him, Mr. Bidwell agreed to bring
the inmate a couple of packs of cigarettes. Investigators said Mr.
Bidwell even gave the offender his credit cards as collateral while
he retrieved the cigarettes.
Later, the inmate asked Mr. Bidwell to retrieve a cellphone from the
inmate's girlfriend. "I got caught up in it," the former officer
said. "Even after 14 or 15 years in that system, you can still get
coerced into a lot of things."
When other officers found an inmate with the phone, the offenders
told them Mr. Bidwell gave it to them. Mr. Bidwell later admitted
his deeds to supervisors.
Targeting officers
Herb Hancock, a special prosecutor in South Texas, said authorities
have warned officers to obey the golden rule: Never trust an inmate.
Mr. Hancock said he has become so frustrated with officers'
involvement in cellphone smuggling that he has pledged to stop
offering probation and try them before a jury instead.
But Mr. Hall said it is actually more difficult to prosecute
officers. After all, he said, consider the witnesses.
If you want to watch a room go cold, come watch a voir dire [jury
selection] when I mention 'inmate witness,' " Mr. Hall aid. "They're
like, 'Is that all you've got?'"
Mr. Hall, a special prosecutor who is now handling cases in East
Texas, said the cellphone problem in the Darrington Unit appeared to
wane after many successful prosecutions.
But that has its downside, too. Like any rare commodity, the price
will go up, making it even more tempting to sneak in phones.
"As long as the inmates think they can beat it, they are going to
try," Mr. Hall said. "It's very lucrative."
E-mail dmichaels@dallasnews.com
Huntsville Prison Blues
April 14, 2006
Sept. 10, 2001 -- Texas had the largest prison system in America, with more than 150,000 prisoners behind bars. The headquarters of the state's Department of Criminal Justice is in Huntsville -- a small, conservative town that's home to nine state prisons.
A 19-year-old who just served a 18 months in prison for a parole violation waits for a bus at the Huntsville Greyhound station.
In the center of Huntsville is the Walls Unit. The oldest prison in Texas, it has gained notoriety in recent years as the location of Texas' famously-frequent executions. But another, less-known function of the Walls Unit is mustering out the Texas system's prisoners: Every day, more than 150 men are processed, paroled and released. That's where radio producer Daniel Collison and photojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein pick up the story -- or rather, many stories. For All Things Considered, they've woven th |
