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March 2007

Lawmakers Seek to expand Private Prison Capacity

Thu, 03/29/2007 - 17:01 — Nicole

The ACLU recently opposed legislation (HB 198 by Corrections Chairman Jerry Madden) that expands private contract capacity in Texas prisons. Today, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice can only contract 4,580 beds in state prisons. A current piece of legislation raises that cap by 1,000 beds to 5,580. read more »

Improved Oversight Needed for Private Jails

Tue, 03/27/2007 - 21:15 — Nicole

Lawmakers are trying to identify mechanisms for oversight of Texas correctional facilities in light of recent prison sexual assault scandals. Officials recently settled with the family of a raped prisoner who committed suicide in the private Val Verde County Jail, managed by GEO Corp. read more »

National Prison Rape Elimination Commission in Texas this week

Mon, 03/26/2007 - 17:09 — Nicole

This week the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission is holding hearings in Texas to discuss the prevalence of in-prison sexual assault. The commission will address sexual abuse in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). More than 1,600 sexual assault allegations reported by states last year; over 500 were in Texas alone. Since 2004, 13 allegations of prison sexual assault were reported from private prisons in Texas. read more »

How bad does it need to get before we close Hutto?

Mon, 03/26/2007 - 16:47 — Kathleen

Earlier this month, the ACLU filed multiple lawsuits to close Hutto, a prison-for-profit that confines people who are awaiting their immigration detention hearings, and if they're parents, confines their children too. The prison was built as a medium-security prison, but now it's holding families, and roughly half of the people confined there are children. read more »