January 2008

Sad news out of CCA's Henderson Unit last week. From a story in the Longview News-Journal,

HENDERSON — An inmate at Bradshaw State Jail in Henderson was found dead in his cell this past week, a Texas Department of Corrections spokesman said.

Gregory Cole, 30, was discovered hanging by a bed sheet from the light fixture in his cell at about 11 a.m. Jan. 15, said Jason Clark. Jail personnel performed emergency care on Cole, and he was taken to a hospital. He was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m.

In June 2006, Cole was sentenced to 10 years in state jail for possession and intent to deliver a controlled substance in McLennan County, Clark said. The spokesman did not know where Cole lived.

Of course, after any inmate's death there should be a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. The article sheds a very small amount of light on the process for a private or public prison in dealing with a suicide.

Clark said investigators with the inspector general's office were notified of the death. He said the inspector general's office always is notified when an inmate dies. A call to the inspector general's office was not returned Tuesday.

The Texas Department of Corrections has more than 155,000 inmates in jails across the state, Clark said. Thirty-two of the department's inmates committed suicide in 2007, and 30 inmates committed suicide in 2006, Clark said.

Clark said he did not know if Cole had been placed on suicide watch.

Bradshaw State Jail is a privately-operated facility owned by Corrections Corporation of America. A spokesperson for the jail did not return a call Tuesday.

We'll keep you updated on any developments in the investigation into this tragic death.

Via a reader, and confirmed by an article in the San Marcos Record, Caldwell County voted on January 16 to officially reject a private immigrant detention center proposed by Louisiana-based Emerald Corrections. As we've reported, the facility was the topic of a heated town meeting where 150 opponents asked an Emerald prison developer tough questions about the facility and held an informal vote against the prison. From the Record article:

(Commissioner Joe) Roland said initially, the proposal “seemed like an opportunity” that could bring much-needed jobs. He said there was also “a lot of misunderstanding” surrounding the proposal and that the people housed at the facility would not have been hardened criminals, just people who broke the law on a misguided path to a better life.

He said the community meeting was “something I did on my own to find out, to get the pulse of the community.

Public opposition would have been only the first hurdle for the project; commissioners would also have had to figure out how to supply the facility with the estimated 80,000 gallons of water it would need every day.

Our previous coverage of the Caldwell County detention center fight:

• Caldwell County Residents Defeat Emerald Proposal

• Caldwell County Commissioner Pitches Emerald Detention Center
  

• Emerald Proposes Caldwell County Detention Center

Texas prisoners will have access to telephones in the next few months. The service will be provided via a private contractor who will install the phones in prisons around the state. According to recent reports, about 4,000 phones will be installed in state prisons. Texas is the last state to provide this service to state prisoners.

This policy is a long time coming. Advocates and family groups have worked for years to provide telephone access to state prisoners. According to Lisa Sandberg in the the Houston Chronicle, "All calls to relatives and friends on an approved list will be recorded, and prison officials will be in charge of monitoring them".

It is certainly a step in the right direction for improving the conditions of Texas prisons. As Grits for Breakfast mentioned, telephone access among prisoners is a behavior management tool and serves to keep prisoners in contact with their families and friends. That is significant since the majority of Texas prisoners will return home.

Undoubtedly, telephone contracts will raise a need for vigorous advocacy as watchdog groups monitor the contracts and make sure that families are not being overcharged for prison telephone calls.

The Vera Commission reported in it's 2006 report Confronting Confinement that the price of prison telephone calls minimized the condition of prisons by reducing the ability of prisoners to maintain contact with family and friends. The Commission found that safety is promoted in correctional facilities when prisoners are allowed to communicate with people in their home communities and maintain personal relationships. This is particularly important in Texas where prison sentences have increased in recent years and prisons are located in remote areas.

We will monitor these telephone contracts and and assess how the cost and management are impacting prisoners and their home communities.

Via Grits and Eye on Williamson County, there is a new website and an upcoming short documentary about the T. Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor, Texas. The film and interactive website are called Children in Jail, and based on the trailer, the film looks really good:

We recently named the controversy around T. Don Hutto our the one of the top five private prison story for 2007, and have highlighted another great short film on the detention center - Hutto: America's Family Prison. Here's hoping Children in Jail and America's Family Prison will continue the scrutiny on T. Don Hutto and the practice of incarcerating immigrant families for a profit in 2008. We'll keep you updated on upcoming screenings of both films.