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Criminal justice
November 20, 2008
More cell phone gear found on death row
Another cell phone charger and SIM card that allows a cell phone to make calls were found on Texas’ death row this afternoon, the latest discoveries after weeks of similar finds.
Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville, said the contraband was found in the cell of Marlin Enos Nelson, who is facing execution for the August 1987 slaying of James Randle Howard in the Montrose area of Houston.
Investigators said searchers had seized a smuggled cell phone from Nelson’s cell on Oct. 24.
So far, since a lockdown and contraband search of Texas’ 112 prisons ended eight days ago, amid assurances that most contraband had been confiscated, five smuggled cellphones or components have been found on death row, supposedly the most secure part of the prison system.
During the lockdown, investigators found 16 cellphones, chargers and SIM cards on death row —among 143 smuggled phones found altogether in Texas prisons.
Authorities are investigating how so many phones got into Texas prisons, especially onto death row.
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November 19, 2008
New contraband sweep on death row
With prison officials embarrassed over the discovery of four more smuggled cell phones on Texas’ death row over the past week, a strike force of just over 100 guards from other prisons has been moved in to conduct a new wave of cell searches, officials confirmed this afternoon.
“They’re conducting surprise searches — top to bottom — looking for any contraband, including phones,” said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“Every time we find a phone, we learn another hiding place … So far today, they’ve just found a shank fashioned from a typewriter part.”
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November 13, 2008
Officials say inmate threatened lawmaker, reporter after cell phone bust
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.
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Another cell phone on death row
Weeks after prison officials cracked down on cell phones and other contraband in Texas’ death row, another cell phone and some marijuana has been found in the most secure part of state’s prison system, officials said Thursday.
John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the cell phone and “a trace amount of marijuana” were confiscated Wednesday from the cell of convicted killer Mark Stroman just hours after a lockdown was lifted and after authorities had searched all inmates’ cells as part of a system-wide shakedown.
That shakedown was launched after double-killer Richard Tabler obtained a cell phone on which more than 2,800 calls were made in a 30-day period, including several to state Sen. John Whitmire, the chairman of the powerful Senate Criminal Justice Committee that oversees prison operations.
Whitmire reported his calls and Tabler was busted in his cell with a cell phone. His arrest triggered a lockdown of Texas’ massive prison system, the first in more than a decade. That shakedown, which is still continuing at several dozen prisons, was aimed at confiscating all contraband under a new zero tolerance policy by prison officials.
In all, officials disclosed this morning during a public hearing of Whitmire’s committee that a total of 132 cell phones have been found inside prisons during the security sweep, including 46 that were confiscated from employees. The phones have been found on 22 of Texas’ 112 prisons, they said.
Brad Livingston, executive director of the criminal justice agency, said plans are being developed to install additional security equipment to curb contraband once the shakedown ends. All personnel and visitors are being electronically searched and pat-searched as they enter and leave prisons.
Whitmire pointedly questioned prison officials whether enough is being done fast enough. “This is not that complicated. Contraband needs to stop and it needs to stop now,” Whitmire said.
Moriarty said Stroman was suspected of having been involved in smuggling phones and the cards that allows them to be used, but when investigators first searched his cell they found only the four cards.
Hidden in the binding of a law book was a cut-out just large enough to secrete a cell phone. But no phone was initially found, Moriarty said.
“We’re continuing our investigation into how these cell phones are getting on these units — wherever it leads us,” Moriarty said.
Stroman, 49, was sentenced to death for the October 2001 murder of a Dallas convenience store clerk during a robbery.
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October 31, 2008
Consultant urges overhaul of DPS
A new study made public this morning recommends a sweeping makeover of the troubled Texas Department of Public Safety to correct significant, longstanding operational flaws in the primary state police agency.
The 72-page report by Deloitte Consulting recommends combining all law enforcement divisions under a single deputy director, who would deploy them across Texas under a new regional command structure.
Included would be the storied Texas Rangers, a semi-independent investigative unit that for decades has reported directly to the agency’s director and has resisted past attempts at consolidation.
The report also recommends the agency establish a new unit to oversee all counter-terrorism and intelligence functions, “focused on facilitating information sharing and intelligence-led policing and supported by a robust fusion (central coordination) center.”
A cumbersome organizational chart that allowed many divisions to keep their own intelligence information and created occasional “turf wars” over who could have access to secret intelligence data has been a key criticism of the agency in recent years.
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October 29, 2008
Cell-phone detectors eyed for prisons
Stung by revelations that a death row inmate used a smuggled cell phone to log 2,800 calls in a month — including several to a state senator — prison officials confirmed today they are looking to acquire cutting-edge technology to curb the problem once and for all.
The development came as officials released an updated tally from a week-long contraband sweep of Texas’ 112 state prisons following the headline-grabbing episode: 71 cell phones have been confiscated — including five from death row — along with 65 chargers.
Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the agency is evaluating a variety of specialized equipment that could detect the location of cell phones in prison cells.
“There are a number of vendors out there who offer cell-phone detection technology,” she said. “We’re evaluating a range of technologies from a number of vendors.”
Neither the names of the companies nor the specific types of technology being examined by prison officials were made public.
“No decisions have been made,” Lyons said.
Prison officials’ interest in cell-phone detectors had been rumored Tuesday, but they had not confirmed it until today.
At the same time as the controversy over smuggled cell phones erupted, prison officials were ironing out final details to install pay phones in state prisons beginning early next year — making Texas the last state in the nation to allow convicts routine phone access.
Nine days ago, prison investigators busted condemned murderer Richard Lee Tabler, 29, after linking him to a cell phone that made more than 2,800 calls in one month. Authorities suspect he may have allowed other death row convicts — including several confirmed violent-gang members — to borrow the phone and make calls.
Among the calls made by Tabler were several to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who chairs the Senate committee that oversees the prison system.
Tabler’s mother and sister were also arrested on charges that they allegedly bought minutes to allow him to make calls.
Lyons said the new convict pay-phone system could be operational as early as February. A partnership of Embarq and Securus Technologies was selected in August to install approximately 4,000 phones that will be used by most of the state’s 155,000 imprisoned felons.
Depending on the call volume, the deal could generate as much as $30 million for the state, the first $10 million of which will go the state’s Crime Victims Compensation Fund.
Lyons said that as of this morning, in addition to the cell phones and chargers, the shakedown sweep of Texas prisons had resulted in the following confiscations: 85 weapons, 59 tobacco, 12 marijuana, 18 money and 35 cases of unspecified contraband.
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October 22, 2008
Tabler suicide try?
Death row convict Richard Lee Tabler, whose exploits with a cell phone have triggered a massive lockdown of Texas’ prison system, was found with a three-foot section of a sheet hanging from the ceiling of his cell this afternoon, officials confirmed.
Michelle Lyons, chief spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said correctional officers intervened immediately after discovered the sheet, which they feared was being made into a noose.
“He had not used it,” she said.
Lyons said Tabler, 29, condemned to die for two Killeen slayings in 2004, was being moved to the Jester 4 Unit southwest of Houston. The unit houses psychiatric prisoners.
Other prison officials said the incident is under investigation.
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Second arrest in death row cell phone case
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.
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October 21, 2008
Prison cell hotlines established
As an investigation into the proliferation of illegal cell phones in Texas prisons expanded today, officials established two hotlines for public tips on the problem.
Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said people are asked to call if they receive calls from offenders who have illegal cell phones inside prisons.
One is the Office of Inspector General’s Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline at 1-866-372-8329.
The other is Crime Stoppers: 1-800-832-8477.
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New details on prison contraband sweep
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.”
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Two more cell phones found on death row
Two more cell phones were found on Texas’ high-security death row during overnight searches, officials confirmed this morning.
No information was provided on where the phones were found or which convicts had them. John Moriarty, the prison’s systems independent inspector general, and prison officials said the massive sweep for contraband was continuing.
Gov. Rick Perry ordered the lockdown and massive contraband search on Monday after revelations that a death row inmate obtained a cell phone and made hundreds of calls — several of them to the chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Texas’ 108 state prisons will remain locked down “for as long as it takes” to implement and enforce a new zero-tolerance policy on contraband, Gov. Rick Perry said today.
Authorities believe a guard accepted a bribe to give slip the phone to condemned killer Richard Lee Tabler, who along with at least nine other death row convicts made at least 2,800 calls in just a month. Tabler and his mother were arrested on Monday in an undercover sting launched after state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, reported that Tabler had called him several times.
“That is the highest degree of unacceptable,” Perry told reporters at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in downtown Austin, where he appeared at a brief ceremony to announce a new title sponsor for the Champions Tour Golf Event.
Perry said investigators intend to determine how Tabler got the phone, and added that violators will face “a steep price to pay.” Under Texas law, cell phones are illegal in state prisons.
Jay Kimbrough, Perry’s chief of staff, said the lockdown of all state prisons — a massive undertaking, the first in at least a dozen years — was completed about midnight on Monday. Texas prisons hold more than 155,000 convicts.
“The shakedown has begun. Physical searches at access points (of all staff and visitors) are underway,” Kimbrough said.
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August 14, 2008
Christina Crain has prison named in her honor
Honoring its first woman chairman, the governing board of Texas’ prison system this morning voted unanimously to rename a Gatesville lockup for women after Christina Melton Crain.
Crain, a Dallas lawyer, recently retired after five years as chairwoman of the nine-member board.
The Gatesville Unit is one of Texas’ primary women’s prisons, holding just over 1,500 convicts. The more than 40-year-old lockup was formerly used as youth prison. It began housing adult offenders in 1980.
During her tenure on the board as a member in 2001 and as chair starting two years later, Crain championed new programs for women offenders as an outspoken advocate of rehabilation and treatment programs for convicts. She argued that such programs saved lives and taxpayer money.
If offenders were not given tools to succeed once they were released from prison, she often said, they would have little choice but to resort again to a life of crime.
Officials said the new name is effective immediately. A number of Texas’ 106 prison have been renamed in recent years for former board chairmen and retired prison officials.
The renamed prison was among several honors bestowed upon Crain at an Austin board meeting this morning — ranging from a commendation from President George Bush, congratulatory speeches from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, and a table full of gavels, plaques and and other mementos.
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August 6, 2008
Bigger trooper salaries?
If Texas wants to improve its competitive edge in filling its growing number of vacant state law enforcement jobs, it’ll have to pay more — a lot more, at least $50.2 million for the next two years in just four agencies.
That’s the conclusion of a 55-page study released today by the State Auditor’s Office on an increasingly nagging question at state law enforcement agencies: Why can’t we fill our vacant jobs?
The state employs 4,339 full-time law enforcement officers, primarily at the Texas Department of Public Safety (80 percent), the Parks and Wildlife Department (12 percent), the Alcoholic Beverage Commission (6 percent) and the Department of Criminal Justice (2 percent, not including prison guards).
That total is three percent of the state workforce.
Fact: State taxpayers spent $246 million on base pay, hazardous duty pay and overtime pay, and an additional $6.18 million in supplemental pay for things such as certification, extra schooling and bilingual-certified officers.
Fact: Turnover in those jobs was six percent in fiscal year 2007. Statewide turnover was 17.1, according to the study.
The study also found parity in the complexity of responsibilities of senior-level officers in the four agencies. Translation: They’re not being overpaid compared to the rank-and-file they supervise.
The report confirms many of the factoids that have been flying in recent months, as the Sunset Review Commission suggested tweaking DPS’ career ladder to try to keep more of its jobs filled, and the criminal justice department is poised to ask the Legislature to raise salaries to try to fill some of the 3,000 or so correctional officer jobs that are vacant.
But it also holds few surprises, but promises to add to the building chorus of calls for higher pay for state troopers, game wardens, prison guards and others when the Lege convenes in January.
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June 25, 2008
Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for child rape
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning struck down a Louisiana law imposing the death penalty for child rape.
The death penalty “is not a proper punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. The decision was 5-4.
This decision threatens Jessica’s Law, which the Texas Legislature passed last year to give the death penalty as an option for repeat child rapists.
More to come.
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June 24, 2008
DPS under Sunset fire
The Texas Department of Public Safety drew intense criticism today from members of the Sunset Advisory Commission, who voiced a lack of confidence in current management over a series of continuing problems.
Members proposed removing all auto licensing and inspection programs from DPS to a new agency that would also combine registration programs now handled by the Texas Department of Transportation.
The criticism stemmed from a recent Sunset report that harshly criticized several operations at the agency, and recommended significant reforms in drivers licensing, information technology and the department’s overall management structure, among other things.
While DPS director Thomas Davis Jr. defended the agency as “operating better than I’ve ever seen it” in his 43 years there, commission members were unconvinced. Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky acknowledged “we have some glaring weaknesses,” and pledged significant reforms— sooner rather than later.
“The buck is going to stop with me,” Polunsky said at one point. “If we don’t reform this department and make it relevant to the 21st Century, then that will mean I have failed.”
As for the June 8 arson fire at the Governor’s Mansion that revealed glaring DPS security lapses? Nary a question was asked.
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April 21, 2008
Vita Pro up again?
Late word was circulating today that the Vita Pro case, the Texas prison system’s long-running scandals, may be back on the menu.
According to law enforcement sources, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston has scheduled a Tuesday morning retrial to begin in the famous case, which saw prisons director Andy Collins and a Canadian entrepreneur and ex-con named Yank Barry indicted and convicted in a bribery, conspiracy and money laundering case dating to 1995.
In 2001, after a headline-grabbing, weeks-long trial, a federal jury found that Barry paid two $10,000 bribes to Collins for pushing a no-bid contract with VitaPro to feed its product to Texas convicts while Collins was the prison system’s executive director.
VitaPro was a soy-based meat alternative that prison officials put on chow lines — and at one point even sold to other states — as a way to save money, shortly before Austin American-Statesman published the first details of the no-bid, $33 million deal and a flurry of investigations began.
The case grabbed headlines for years thereafter, in a chain of events bordering at times on the bizarre.
The resulting ethics scandal in the prison system brought a housecleaning in the top ranks of the prison system, the first ethics code for prison administrators and a quick drop from the menu amid complaints that the soy additive made convicts flatulent.
A key witness in the case was Patrick Graham, a government informant who was also the key witness in the prosecution of former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz on corruption charges.
After trial, the case was derailed by a court reporter who was accused of messing up the official transcript and delayed the subsequent appeals by Collins and Barry for years.
In September 2005, Hughes threw out the guilty verdicts, ruling that Graham lied. But last August, a federal appears court ordered a new trial, insisting that the jury knew of Graham’s “poor character” and found Collins and Barry guilty anyway.
While the reports of the impending new development in the case could not be independently confirmed with court officials and lawyers this evening, if true, they would indicate a final chapter might be in the offing for the biggest Texas scandal in decades.
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April 10, 2008
New prison board chair
Austin businessman Oliver Bell has been named chairman of the Texas prison system’s governing board, likely the first African-American ever to hold the post and the first Austinite in decades.
Bell replaces Dallas resident Christina Melton Crain, whose term expired.
Crain will be replaced on the board by Lubbock attorney J. David Nelson. A graduate of Texas Tech, Nelson is an attorney and a partner in the law firm of Nelson & Nelson.
Nelson will serve until February 2013.
Bell, who has served on the nine-member board for four years, is the first chair from Austin in decades. He may also be the first African-American chair.
Crain and prison officials announced the appointments in electronic messages to prison brass, and Perry’s office confirmed it this afternoon.
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April 2, 2008
Parole law the problem?
Criticized for not following mandatory parole guidelines, Texas’ top parole official told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee the problem is not the parole board’s fault.
It’s the law, insisted Rissie Owens, chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Under state law, the parole board must explain its decisions if they deviate from parole guidelines.
For years, they have not done so. And for years, they have been criticized for violating state law, without much explanation.
“When we vote on a case, we don’t know whether we are deviating from the guidelines … because the guidelines are based on percentages, and we don’t see those percentages until the next month,” Owens explained.
So the law is the problem? asked state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen.
Yes, responded Owens. The guidelines set certain percentages of cases for approval, she said later.
Committee Chairman John Whitmire, who has been after the parole board for months for not following the law, said he remains unconvinced. After all, the Houston Democrat said, the parole board knows when it votes what the guidelines for approving an individual case are, and if it goes against that then it should know right then.
It’s semantics, he said.
“If we need to change the law to make it clearer for the members of the parole board, then we may do that,” he said.
Bottom line for most Texans: The more the parole board follows its guidelines, the more people who are good risks may be paroled. The more it does not, the more people who stay in prison.
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March 27, 2008
State approves prison guard pay hike
Starting pay for Texas’ correctional officers will get a 10 percent boost in May.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice this morning unanimously approved raising the starting pay for guards from $23,046 to $25,416, and jumping up the pay about as much for those who stay on the job for 16 months.
Officials said the pay hike will affect about 8,000 correctional officers.
In addition, the board also approved giving new hires a $1,500 bonus to sign up at prisons that are the most understaffed. Twenty-two state prisons are have less than 80 percent of the guards they should have.
State prisons have been critically short of guards for months and months. The turnover rate for new officers within their first year on the job is 43 percent, compared to 24 percent overall.
Brad Livingston, executive director of the prison system, said the pay increase — the largest in years — is designed to avoid even more critical staffing shortages during the late spring and summer, the times of the year when vacancies are highest.
“We hope this makes a difference,” he said. “Our (correctional officer) staffing is the most critical issue we face.”
When prisons are short of guards, convicts cannot always be supervised as closely as they should be, and some prisons have been forced to keep inmates confined to their cells to avoid trouble.
Livingston said his agency is about 3,500 guards short.
Cost of the pay hike? Almost $20 million, including $15 million for the higher pay and $4.5 million for the signing bonuses, according to Livingston.
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January 31, 2008
Prison growth flat
Texas’ prison population is growing slower than expected, and new prisons will not be needed within the next two years as earlier projected.
That’s the conclusion of a Legislative Budget Board study to be made public on Monday, a report that attributes the good news on a slowdown in the number of new felons, a slightly increased parole rate, fewer revocations to prison from probation and parole and the projected impact of new treatment and rehabilitation programs approved by the Legislature last year.
The report has been eagerly awaited by prison officials and legislative leaders, since it is the first hint on whether two expensive new prisons — authorized by voters in November — would have to be built.
Their construction could have triggered other problems, as well, as existing prisons struggle with chronic staffing shortages that have recently raised security fears and legislative concern.
Details: The report predicts Texas’ incarcerated population will average 156,364 this year, and rise to 158,470 in 2012.
That’s much less than projected a year ago. Then, the state was estimated to be more than 17,000 beds short by 2012, at growth rates at the time.
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire and House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, advocates of the $218 million in new diversion and treatment programs, hailed the news.
Those megabucks include funding for more than 5,700 new prison beds — most of them in treatment and rehab programs, not traditional prisons.
“For years, Texas has been the toughest state in the nation on crime,” Whitmire said. “With the expanded treatment and the new diversion beds … Texas will continue to be the toughest on crime, but we will nows also be the smartest.”
Madden: “Not only are we saving taxpayer money by creating diversion programs, we are also strengthening public safety by increasing our prison capacity. The additional beds will ensure we have space to lock up violent and repeat offenders, but the state will also save money in the long run by treating and diverting low-level offenders.”
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January 30, 2008
Valentines Day? Off
To some, it perhaps hinted at a kinder, gentler Texas prison system, on a portion of the agency’s Web site that wished viewers Happy Valentine’s Day in a sweet, bottom-of-the-page graphic.
It showed two silhouetted lovers, sitting on a bench beneath a tree, holding hands.
How nice.
We happened upon the sweet sentiment this afternooon while surfing the Texas Correctional Industries pages of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s site.
A quick call to prison officials initially drew surprise — followed by a very un-cupid-like response.
“Apparently a graphic artist at TCI was trying to spruce up their site, and they added it,” explained Michelle Lyons, a TDCJ spokeswoman in Huntsville. “It had gone completely unnoticed … I didn’t know it was there.”
Bottom line: “It’s being taken off now.”
Within an hour, the holiday greeting was gone.
Okay, so no more touchy-feely. Enough of that Happy Valentine’s Day stuff.
An no word on whether other the site had conveyed holiday sentiments unbeknownst to prison brass.
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January 29, 2008
TSEU on TYC
With rumors swirling that Texas Youth Commission soon plans to launch a whole series new reforms, after controversy over some launched in past months, the Texas State Employees Union weighed in this afternoon on what it thinks should be done.
Top of their list: Shift your emphasis away from corrections and more toward rehabilitating youth.
“It’s intended to be a blueprint for substantially improving the quality of services provided by TYC,” said Seth Hutchinson, TSEU’s lead organizer at TYC.
Highlights of the union’s list:
Provide a safe environment for both youth and staff.
Provide quality rehab programs to youth.
Use community-based centers to keep youths closer to their families.
Stop privatizing rehab and treatment programs.
Youth Commission officials have remained mum on their upcoming plans.
See the full list.
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Too-short TYC search?
The Texas Youth Commission’s five-day application period for a new executive director is under fire.
Too secretive, complains Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “A sham and harmful to TYC reform efforts,” he says.
“Unless someone knew what to look for, you could easily miss it, and I think that is clearly intentional,” Harrington said in a statement. “Virtually all the top-level administrative positions are ‘open until filled’.”
He continues: “This position is the most critical one for TYC, especially after all the scandal. The state should be conducting an intensive search for the right person for this leadership position, a search that could take as long as three months. When a job opening like this is only posted for 5 workdays — and not even prominently displayed, but buried deep in general employment listings — one smells duplicity and that a ‘fix is in’ for a particular candidate.”
Harrington wants Gov. Rick Perry and legislative leaders to order the application period extended. So far, none have.
Youth Commission Conservator Richard Nedelkoff earlier said he planned to act with all deliberate speed in filling the agency’s top jobs, to ensure that the ongoing reforms stick.
Most of the agency’s top management was kicked out last spring amid a sex-abuse and cover-up scandal, and Perry earlier placed the agency under conservatorship — a form of receivership — to ensure that reforms were made.
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January 23, 2008
Prison board approves phones for inmates
In an historic step, without debate or dissent, the Texas prison system’s governing board this afternoon approved a new rule that will give most convicts regular access to pay telephones — the last state in the nation to do so.
The unanimous vote came after the Legislature last spring enacted a law mandating the phones, one for every 30 convicts in the nation’s third-largest corrections system that houses 154,000 felons.
With approximately 120,000 convicts expected to be eligible to make calls — minus those in solitary confinement and disciplinary cells — that could mean 4,000 phones in Texas’ 112 prisons. And with cutting-edge technology, to boot.
Under the policy, the pay-phone system will use technology called “personal 22biometric identifiers” — fingerprints, retina scans or voice recognition — to allow only approved convicts to make calls from dayrooms in their cellblocks, in dorms and at other locations inside prisons.
“Technology has improved to allow us to ensure security,” said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Added Christina Melton Crain, chairman of the prison board: PThat’s a big, big part of the reason we can do this.”
While once a highly controversial topic — gubernatorial candidates a decade ago vowed never to allow prison phones, corrections directors predicted it would lead to criminal enterprises being run behind bars — the project now comes with a hefty financial enticement: The state could earn well over $15 million in commissions on convicts’ calls.
But ringing phones from incarcerated felons promise to be months off. Though the ban has officially been lifted, prison officials must now develop specifications for what kind of multimillion-dollar phone system they want, after which they will have to solicit bids from vendors that have been lobbying intensely for several years for the change.
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December 10, 2007
Prison board: 3 new members
The state prison system’s nine-member governing board has three new members.
Gov. Rick Perry announced this afternoon the appointments of Dallas attorney Eric Gambrell, San Antonio businessman R. Terrell McCombs and Arlington social worker Janice Harris Lord.
The vitals on each, from Perry’s office:
Gambrell of Highland Park is a trial partner with the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, and is a member of the Town of Highland Park Zoning Commission. He also is chair of the Dallas Bar Association Memorial and History Committee, a nominating committee member and fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and a past member of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Campaign Cabinet.
He received a bachelors degree from Texas A&M University and a law degree from the University of Texas. He replaces Pierce Miller of San Angelo and his term will expire Feb. 1, 2013.
McCombs is vice president of McCombs Enterprises, and is an executive board member of the San Antonio Sports Foundation and the University Health System Foundation. He is also a past chairman of the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the Joint City/County Bond Oversight Commission and San Antonio Mobility Coalition Inc.
McCombs received a bachelors degree from the University of Houston and a masters degree in business from George Washington University. He replaces Adrian Arriaga of McAllen. His term will expire Feb. 1, 2013.
Lord is a national consultant on crime victim issues, a member of the National Consortium of Crime Victim Assistance Standards and a curriculum developer for the National Victim Assistance Academy and Texas Victim Assistance Academy. She has a broad background focusing on homicide, catastrophic injury, death notification, ethics in victim services, and spiritually-sensitive victim services.
Lord received a bachelors degree from Phillips University and a masters degree from the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. She replaces Patricia Day of Dallas. Her term will expire Feb. 1, 2009.
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December 5, 2007
Corrections veteran hired by prison operator
Gary Johnson, the former head of Texas’ prison system, has been hired as a regional vice president for a Florida-based operator of private prisons that became mired in controversy two months ago over conditions at a West Texas youth lockup.
Geo Group Inc. announced that Johnson will head its central region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The territory includes the ill-fated Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, which made headlines in October after Texas Youth Commission officials yanked more than 100 youths from the lockup after alleging squalid conditions.
Geo operates private prisons in several states and in other countries.
Johnson replaces Don Houston, who heads to the firm’s Florida office. Its Texas office is in New Braunfels.
Johnson, a veteran corrections official, served as executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from August 2001 until he retired in late 2004 after 28 years. He has since been a corrections management consultant based in Austin.
He could not immediately be reached for comment.
His wife, Bonita White, is director of the criminal justice agency’s Community Justice Assistance Division.
While Johnson was executive director, the agency signed five-year contracts with Geo to house state prisoners at several lockups. He will oversee the operation of those lockups in his new job at Geo.
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Judge Meurer weighing DA race
The long line of would-be successors to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle just got longer.
State District Judge Jeanne Meurer, who’s retiring from the bench after 20 years, confirmed Wednesday that she’s weighing a race if Earle retires after more than three decades in office.
“It’s a high probability,” said Meurer about her possible candidacy.
But she added that she hasn’t made a final decision because Earle hasn’t announced his intentions.
“It’s real easy to say you’ve made a decision when there isn’t a decision to make,” Meurer said. “I’m very serious about it, but I would never run against Ronnie.”
Would-be candidates began lining up in the wings, pending Earle’s decision, a few weeks ago, although no one apparently would oppose Earle’s re-election.
Among those mentioned as possible candidates are several of Earle’s assistants — Gary Cobb, Rick Reed, Mindy Montford — along with First Assistant County Attorney Randy Leavitt and U.S. Magistrate Robert Pitman.
Although Meurer is retiring from the bench and building a house in Colorado, the 54-year-old judge said she wants to remain “engaged in working in this community.”
Meurer said she talked to the governor’s office about a post at the troubled Texas Youth Commission but nothing came of it.
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November 29, 2007
New TYC med chief
The Texas Youth Commission has a new medical director: Dr. Rajendra Parikh.
Parikh, a pediatrician, will start in February, officials announced this afternoon.
He is currently the medical director of ambulatory pediatrics and a professor of pediatrics at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Previously, he ran a private pediatric practice in St. Louis.
The job has been open for some time.
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Pepper spray specifics
For all you legal wonks, as requested, here’s the detail on the new pepper-spray restrictions at the Texas Youth Commission.
This, from Advocacy Inc. and Texas Appleseed, the advocacy groups who filed suit to stop a liberalized spray policy :
“Youth with respiratory/health problems that contraindicate use of OC spray will be identified and placed on a” no-spray” list, which will be circulated to all staff authorized to use pepper spray.
“As a general rule, pepper spray should not be used in the TYC facility in Corsicana, which houses youth with mental and emotional issues, unless necessary to prevent loss of life or serious bodily injury.
“If a youth’s mental condition would contraindicate the use of OC pepper spray, a mental health professional must be given an opportunity to establish control of the situation before OC spray is used. The only exception is if use of the spray is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
“For youth confined in a room in a security unit or an isolation room, pepper spray can only be used when necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
“TYC cannot use OC spray unless a youth’s behavior poses a risk of ‘imminent harm.’ This requires nonverbal aggressive behavior. In the absence of non-verbal aggressive behavior, TYC has agreed that manual restraint must be attempted prior to the use of OC spray.
“In order for TYC staff to use OC pepper spray to protect youth, staff, or others from imminent harm or to prevent an escape, TYC must engage in a two-part test: they must first determine that imminent harm exists and that manual restraint is not a practicable method for dealing with the situation under the circumstances presented.”
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Prison fashion a go
“They look great.”
With those words from members of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the state’s prison system today got its first fashion makeover in decades.
The gray uniforms worn by guards in the nation’s second-largest prison since the 1960s will be supplemented by a new “Class B” uniform starting in a month or so: A navy polo shirt and gray military-style pants.
It’s a uniform style already worn by prison guards in most other states, officials said.
Nathaniel Quarterman, director of the institutions division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the new duds will be cooler for correctional officers who wear protective vests and have been well-received by the rank-and-file so far.
The new uniforms are the result of a two-year study, Quarterman said.
Guards who like the old uniforms can still wear them, officials said, in whole or in part. The current pants — gray with a blue stripe down the side seam — can also be worn with the new polo shirts.
The new uniforms were approved earlier by prison officials, and were modeled for the first time publicly on Thursday for the prison system’s governing board. They gave a quick thumbs up.
“They look great,” said Board Chairman Christina Crain of Dallas, echoing comments by others.
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Deal reached on pepper spray
After months of blistering criticism and litigation, Texas Youth Commission officials have agreed to restrict the use of pepper spray on unruly youths.
Two advocacy groups that had sued the troubled agency — Texas Appleseed and Advocacy Inc. — announced that Youth Commission officials have agreed to a compromise after more than a week of negotiations.
Under the deal, pepper spray cannot be used as a first option to control unruly youths, as it has been for several months.
It cannot be used on youths who refuse to obey orders but are not posing a risk of imminent harm. The use of pepper spray will also be limited at the Corsicana Residential Treatment Center that houses offenders with mental impairments.
Youth Commission spokesman Jim Hurley said the consensus covers “how we will proceed from this point forward under the old policy. We look forward to obtaining public comment at the hearing on Monday regarding the new use of force policy that we are proposing.”
Advocacy groups praised the compromise as a step forward.
“This new policy addresses our major issues and, if enforced consistently over the long term by TYC staff, it will better protect incarcerated youth in the state’s care,” said Texas Appleseed Chairman Jim George, lead counsel in a lawsuit filed against the agency by the groups over pepper-spray use.
Richard Lavallo, attorney for Advocacy Inc., said in a statement that he hopes the Youth Commission “will give this policy a chance to work before moving forward with any proposed change in its use of force rules.”
The agency has proposed a policy change that would allow a wider use of pepper spray. A public hearing on that change is set for Monday.
After a court hearing about 10 days ago in which testimony showed the use of pepper spray in Youth Commission lockups had skyrocketed since officials approved the spray as first option, Judge Gisela Triana ordered the two sides to work out a compromise.
“We believe that the Texas Youth Commission is now on record as supporting a more enlightened approach to use of pepper spray than what is being outlined in the proposed new use of force rules,” said Deborah Fowler, legal director for Texas Appleseed.
Texas Appleseed Executive Director Rebecca Lightsey said the Youth Commission has an opportunity to squelch the controversy and enforce a policy that protects both youth and staff. “With adequately trained staff, we would expect to see the numbers of pepper spray incidents drop under this new, clearly defined policy,” she said.
Texas Appleseed and Advocacy Inc. initially reached a settlement agreement with TYC in late September over their lawsuit challenging the legality of an Aug. 2, executive directive instructing employees to use pepper spray to maintain order before other less restrictive interventions, including physical restraints, were used.
The suit alleged the Youth Commission failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act in changing the pepper spray policy, claiming that three teen-agers with mental and emotional disabilities had been physically or psychologically harmed by pepper spray.
The spray can cause skin burns, disorientation, panic and breathing difficulties, officials have said.
Citing evidence that the Youth Commission was not following the terms of the settlement agreement, the advocacy groups had filed to force compliance. That landed the agency back in Triana’s courtroom and triggered the negotiations.
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November 27, 2007
TYC back on OT
Overtime is okay again at the Texas Youth Commission.
Just a few minutes ago, the agency announced that employees will start being paid for their overtime hours effective immediately.
Hours worked during the past month since OT was suspended will be paid in a special check to be issued by mid-December, according to a statement.
Acting Executive Director Dimitria Pope suspended OT in October after top officials were shocked because the OT bill had used most of the OT budget for the year, in just two months. At the time, agency officials claimed they could not properly track overtime payments and said they were investigating why so many extra hours had been logged.
The move angered many employees, who questioned why Pope and other Austin officials were so surprised by the cost, considering chronic understaffing that was plaguing Youth Commission lockups in many areas.
In this afternoon’s statement, the agency attributed that huge OT bill to “the shortage of juvenile corrections officers at numerous TYC facilities … Another factor was the lack of a uniform staff schedule throughout the institutions.’
Pope promised that a uniform staffing plan will be completed by early January to ensure all overtime worked is evenly distributed among staff, and to “develop strategies to work overtime more efficiently and consistently given the realities of current staff shortages.”
The cost of OT during the time it was suspended: $1.4 million, about what it was in the month prior.
The statement money for all the extra OT being racked up will come from money budgeted for staff positions that are currently vacant.
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Fashion price
From our news item about the proposed new uniforms for Texas prison guards came a flood of response. More than two-dozen emails and calls, in all.
You like the possible change. You really, really hate it. You want to know what it will cost.
From the Home Office in Huntsville: The “retro classic” uniforms cost $26.09 apiece, the new “polo-style” duds $27.62 apiece.
No bargain, perhaps, but not a Neiman Marcus deal either, by a long stretch.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice, after a scheduled unveiling of the new fashion design, is slated to vote on whether to adopt new design during a Thursday meeting in Austin.
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Pepper spray, an update
Another delay has surfaced in the court-ordered negotiations over use of pepper spray on incracerated youths in Texas.
Attorneys for the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission and two advocacy groups that filed suit in September to stop a new liberal “spray first” policy — Texas Appleseed and Advocacy Inc. — were unable to reach an agreeement by noon today.
So, they’re continuing work to try to agree on limitations on when Youth Commission guards and staff can spray — or not sppray.
This is the third extension, after State District Judge Gisela Triana eight days ago ordered both sides to work out an agreement.
Reported hangups: A provision proposed by the state that would allow pepper spray to be used once a high-security cell is opened, but not before. And wording to ensure that youths don’t get sprayed for passive resistence to a guard’s orders — for things like not getting out bed fast enough, not being in compliance with dress code.
Advocates want to ensure that kids aren’t sprayed as a first option, that it is only used after mediation and physical restraints fail. That’s what the agency’s current policy says.
Youth Commission officials say they must be able to use pepper spray to control unruly youths, to protect both staff and youths from injuries. They have insiisted the liberalized pepper-spray rules are necessary to give them flexibility to properly manage their youth lockups.
A deal is possible tomorrow, says a source close to the talks. But as the clock continues to tick, we’re not holding our breath.
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November 26, 2007
Deadline extended, again
A court-imposed deadline for new rules on when pepper spray can be used on youths incarcerated in Texas Youth Commission lockups has been extended again.
Negotiations have been underway for the past week between attorneys for the Youth Commission and two advocacy groups — Texas Appleseed and Advocacy Inc. — over restricting the use of pepper spray until the agency adopts a new use-of-force policy sometime next month.
The two groups sued the agency in September, claiming a new policy allowing the use of pepper spray as an initial option to quell unruly youths violated state law. The agency agreed in October to rescind the controversial rule, ending the suit.
But the case landed back in court a week ago, after the groups alleged in court filings that Youth Commission officials reneged on the deal. And state District Judge Gisela Triana, after hearing testimony that the use of pepper spray has skyrocketed in recent months, ordered the two sides to negotiate an amenable solution.
A Wednesday deadline was extended until today. And according to sources familiar with the negotiations, Triana extended the deadline again — until noon tomorrow — after a deal remained elusive.
Stay tuned.
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Prison guards' uniforms to get makeover
For the first time in almost 40 years, Texas’ prison guards are about to get a fashion makeover.
Officials confirmed today that in coming months, the state’s more than 25,000 correctional officers could begin wearing navy polo shirts and black, military-style pants as an alternative to the gray, police-style uniforms that have been a prison staple since the late 1960s.
Gone will be one longtime staple of prison life: Guards in gray, convicts in white.
One thing will remain the same: American flag on one shirt sleeve, prison-system emblem on the other and a State of Texas seal on the front.
The pants? Two cargo pockets, adjustable waistband.
The change is subject to approval of the prison system’s governing board, which will meet Thursday in Austin to consider the switch. Similar to styles already adopted in most other states, the new uniforms are to be unveiled at that meeting.
“The new uniforms are designed to be more comfortable, especially for those officers who have to wear (protective) vests on duty,” said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“I think people will be excited about them.”
Most everyone, it seems.
“Its a good move, but there’s been kinda mixed reaction so far because some old-timers like the current uniform that shows their years of service … stripes on the long sleeves, one for every five years of service,” said Brian Olsen, executive director of the union that represents Texas correctional officers,
“Inmates know those stripes. They’re less likely to mess with someone who’s been around for a while.”
Lyons and other prison officials said the new uniforms will be optional. Guards can continue to wear the old uniforms, or they can wear a combination of both.
Like the old uniforms, the new ones will be made by convicts in prison factories, Lyons said. She said the cost is about the same.
The last time Texas changed the uniform was about a decade ago, when the basic gray uniform was modified ever so slightly. Before that, the biggest changes involved allowing female guards to wear slacks instead of skirts and abolishing neckties and hats.
“This has been in the works for a long time, months and months,” Olsen said. “It’s change … and the system is very slow to accept change.”
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November 21, 2007
Pepper spray deadline extended
A deadline for court-ordered negotiations concerning the Texas Youth Commission’s expanded use of pepper spray has been extended until Monday to give both sides more time.
Janis Monger, a spokeswoman for Texas Appleseed, said a report from the talks will be filed next week with state District Judge Gisela Triana, in a court challenge over expanded use of pepper spray on incarcerated youths that was filed in late September by Appleseed and Advocacy Inc.
On Monday, after a hearing in which newly released state statistics showed a drastic increase in the use of pepper spray in recent months, Triana ordered attorneys for the Youth Commission and the two advocacy groups to try to agree on proper restrictions for using pepper spray.
Facing the lawsuit and continuing criticism, the scandal-racked agency is moving to adopt new rules on pepper spray use by sometime in December, officials have said.
The groups sued the agency in September, claiming an Aug. 2 surprise policy change by Acting Executive Director Dimitria Pope violated state law. A settlement was subsequently reached under which the agency rescinded the change and agreed to follow the Administrative Procedures Act in the future.
The Administrative Procedures Act mandates public notice and a public comment period before policy changes.
Then, a few weeks ago, the advocacy groups filed to reopen the court case, alleging that Youth Commission officials were continuing to use pepper spray under the Pope-approved change. That allowed guards and staff to use pepper spray on recalcitrant and misbehaving youths as an initial option, before trying to restrain them, rather than as a last option as required under the previous, longstanding policy.
Pope and other Youth Commission officials have defended the change, saying it was designed to reduce increasing injuries to staff and youths from the use of physical restraints.
But national juvenile-corrections experts have said the use of more pepper spray on incarcerated youths is a step backward, and one that could result in more altercations and a blow to a rehabilitation-centered environment.
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November 16, 2007
TYC pepper spray case to court
Texas Youth Commission officials are getting hauled into court over their pepper spray policy.
Agency officials have been ordered into a Travis County district court Monday morning to explain why they have not complied with an October court settlement in which they agreed to limit the use of pepper spray in juvenile detention lockups.
Under the settlement, Dimitria Pope, the Youth Commission’s acting executive director, agreed to rescind her Aug. 2, 2007, directive allowing guards to use pepper spray more frequently, before they try to physically restrain incarcerated youths.
Attorneys for Texas Appleseed and Advocacy Inc. had sued the Youth Commission to block the expanded pepper-spray use, arguing the change violated state law. Then, two weeks ago, they asked a judge to force the Youth Commission to comply with the settlement — which they quickly promised they would.
They didn’t.
Each of the plaintiffs has a mental illness or serious emotional disability, and one suffered skin burns after being sprayed three times with pepper spray to prevent him from harming himself, according to Texas Appleseed Board Chairman Jim George.
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November 1, 2007
TYC HR chief out
Within days of surprised Texas Youth Commission officials suspending overtime payments because they spent more than half the OT budget during September, the agency’s veteran human resources chief has announced his departure.
Eric Young, who has held the post since February 1991, announced in an e-mail to co-workers that Wednesday was his last day. He gave no reason.
But Jim Hurley, the agency’s spokesman, said the OT flap had nothing to do with it. “I think he’s said he would be leaving,” Hurley said. “The overtime issue did not figure into it as far as I know.”
On Monday, Dimitria Pope, the Youth Commission’s acting executive director, suspended the payment of overtime for guards during November after discovering the supposed cost-overrun. Instead of getting paid, she said guards will “bank” their OT until officials determine whether the expenses are proper.
The move has angered guards statewide, with some insisting they will refuse extra shifts beginning today. If they do, they would face disciplinary action — disobedience of an order to ensure that proper security and staffing levels are maintained at Texas’ youth prisons and halfway houses.
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October 30, 2007
OT suspension sparks furor
The Texas Youth Commission’s decision to suspend the payment of overtime for juvenile correctional officers starting Wednesday until officials can sort out the agency’s latest management snafu is not setting well with the rank-and-file, to say the least.
Our story today about the decision — which came after the agency spent nearly 57 percent of its 12-month OT budget in September alone