October 2007

T. Don Hutto will be on the Williamson County agenda (PDF) for next Tuesday's meeting. The county will be discussing the following items related to Hutto:

13. Discuss and take appropriate action on contractual relationships expressed in both the Inter-Governmental Service Agreement between the United States Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Williamson County, Texas and in the operation Agreement between Williamson County, Texas and Corrections Corporation of American concerning the T. Don Hutto Facility.

14. Discuss and take appropriate action on granting the United States Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authority to communicate directly with Corrections Corporation of American on specific matters relating to the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility.

Public comments will be taken at the beginning of the meeting, starting at 9:30. In order to get a seat or a place on the public comment list, you probably want to show early. (Last time the item was discussed CCA bussed in a group of 40 employees at least an hour early to take up all the room's seats.)

The room should have more Hutto protesters this time around as Hutto Walk III is scheduled to end at the meeting. Check out Eye on Williamson for videos from the last time Williamson County took up the Hutto issue.

Williamson County has been discussing terminating its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Corrections Corporation of America to operate the T. Don Hutto detention center. Several news reports indicated that a letter from ICE this spring had brought about the discussion of contract termination.

We've obtained a copy of this letter and attached it as a PDF (sorry about the quality; it's a scan of a fax). The letter, dated May 23 and addressed to County Judge Dan A. Gattis, is signed by ICE contracting officer Susan D. Erickson. It starts (emphasis mine),

This letter is in response to an incident involving inappropriate sexual relationship between a Correction Corporation of America (CCA) employee and a resident of T. Don Hutto Residential Facility (sic). The Office of Detention and Removal Operations reported that during the weekend of May 19 and 20, 2007 a CCA employee had in appropriate with ICE Detention Standards and procedures as require under the IGSA.

The letter outlines a series of corrective actions that must have taken place within 10 days of receipt of the letter including an explanation of why CCA's laser monitoring system was not in use at the time of the "inappropriate sexual relationship" and mandatory staff training on maintaining appropriate sexual relationships with detainees.

The letter goes on to say that two other incidents in which CCA contracted with workers not legally authorized to work at the prison. I don't know what that means, and the letter doesn't explain it.

In a story that doesn't seem to be getting much media coverage, the Austin American Statesman reported Friday that CCA's Willacy County State Jail had incurred a disturbance last week which raised existing demands for investigation and oversight of private prisons.

According to the story, the jail

remained on lockdown Thursday after a dispute between rival prison gangs over control of cellblock tables erupted into a chain of violence that left 19 convicts hurt, according to state prison officials.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, who has demanded greater scrutiny of private prisons, called for a full investigation into why the episode took hours to quell. Prison officials said such an inquiry was under way.

Officials with Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the 1,069-bed Willacy County State Jail, did not immediately return phone calls for comment.

No serious injuries were reported, and no staff members were injured.

Of course, Whitmire's concerns about private prison oversight were raised significantly by the recent investigation and closure of GEO Group's Coke County juvenile center by the Texas Youth Commission which lead to last week's hearings on private prison oversight.

Senator Chuy Hinojosa has said the committee would look into private prison operators' records as a way to make sure the state wasn't contracting with private prison companies notorious for mismanagement and abuse.

The House Corrections Committee had its own committee hearing about oversight of Texas lockups, with their focus on the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). Will Harrell, the TYC Omsbudsman appointed earlier this year, offered extensive testimony on his first round of visits to TYC prisons, addressing questions about his new office and how they collect information.

At about the 30 minute mark, Harrell started taking questions focused on the GEO Group's Coke County youth lockup, recently shut down by TYC for its horrible conditions. He describes one unit in the prison where youth were kept completely isolated for up to two weeks at a time, and only let out of their cells in shackles for showers, in direct violation of TYC policies. Before Harrell left the lockup, he met with the superintendent of the lock-up, who explained why he felt like the TYC policy didn't apply to this prison.

In turn, Harrell explained to the legislators:

"We always heard 'you should be careful about having private vendors provide social services because they'll cut corners.' In Coke County, they didn't cut corners, they didn't bother to build the corner to cut."