October 2008

From the Texas Senate Commitee on Criminal Justice's website,

COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice
TIME & DATE: 10:00 AM, Thursday, November 13, 2008
PLACE: E1.016 (Hearing Room)
CHAIR: Senator John Whitmire

The committee will meet to hear invited and public testimony for the following:

Interim Charge 1: Determine how private prisons are complying with state laws and how cost, safety, living conditions and rehabilitative services at private prisons compare with state-run facilities. Include an assessment of the staff turnover rates and compensation of private contractors when compared with state-operated facilities, and of the contract bidding processes used by the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Interim Charge 4: Monitor the implementation of the new and expanded programs provided to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) within the Fiscal Year 2008 and 2009 budget, and identify their impact on the criminal justice populations. Study security issues within TDCJ, including staffing issues, use of lock down procedures, the control and containment of infectious diseases and the introduction and control of contraband within the institutions. Review the use of career ladders for employees of TDCJ and issues surrounding the retention of professional corrections staff. Study the issues of independent oversight of TDCJ, including the use and effectiveness of the TDCJ ombudsman system. Provide recommendations for the reduction or elimination of barriers to an effective corrections system.

Interim Charge 9: Review the processes for re-entry of criminal offenders into communities. Identify barriers to the successful return to law-abiding behavior, including the absence of employment opportunities created by restriction on obtaining certain state occupational licenses.Provide recommendations for improvements to our current statutes governing this matter.

That's an excellent question asked in an article by Mike Ward in Saturday's Austin American Statesman (Lawmakers demand that TYC cancel contract that pays for empty beds," October 19).

As a new controversy exploded over the Texas Youth Commission spending more than $1.26 million to lease prison beds that remained empty for three months, key lawmakers demanded Friday that the contract be cancelled.

Although top Youth Commission officials stopped short of agreeing to do so, they vowed never again to use taxpayer money to pay startup costs for a vendor — as they did for Youth Services International, the Florida-based company that runs the lockup in Eagle Lake that is still mostly empty.

Youth Commission spokesman Jim Hurley said 18 youths were moved into the lockup Friday — far fewer than the 119 needed to cover the $22,500-a-day cost to taxpayers under the contract.

He also said that the agency would not provide startup costs in the future.

The controversy erupted after the American-Statesman disclosed details of the contract, which was set up for taxpayers to pay for empty beds for three months to cover the company's startup costs — something other state agencies prohibit.

The company, which operates programs for troubled youths in at least seven states, previously ran the lockup under a contract with the Youth Commission that ended about two years ago, a state report showed.

Youth Services International is a former subsidiary of the GEO Group, the private prison company that had its own TYC contract rescinded after revelations of unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the company's Coke County Juvenile Justice Center. 

This story is a few weeks old at this point, but it certainly is worth a mention.  Idaho, the state with the most out-of-state prisoners held in private lock-ups in Texas has decided to bring some of its inmates back to prisons within its borders.  According to the Associated Press ("Idaho brings 80 inmates back from Texas, Oklahoma," October 1),

For a decade, Idaho has been shipping some of its prisoners to out-of-state prisons, dealing with its ever-burgeoning inmate population by renting beds in faraway facilities.

But now some groups of prisoners are being brought back home. Idaho Department of Correction officials are crediting declining crime rates, improved oversight during probation, better community programs and increased communication between correction officials and the state's parole board.

The number of Idaho inmates has more than doubled since 1996, reaching a high of 7,467 in May. But in the months since then, the population has declined to 7,293 -- opening up enough space that 80 inmates housed in the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla., and at Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas, could be bused back to the Idaho State Correctional Institution near Boise. The inmates arrived Monday night.

Of course, shipping inmates over 1,000 miles away to a largely unregulated private prison system can create pretty gruesome consequences.  Idaho's "virtual prison program" and Texas' private prison system more generally came under scrutiny after the tragic suicide of Scot Noble Payne, who died at GEO's Dickens County Correctional Center in 2007. 

Another Idaho inmate, Randall McCullough, killed himself in GEO's Bill Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield earlier this year after being held in solitary confinement as an administrative penalty for a fight.  According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards September 1st population report, the Bill Clayton center held 371 contract prisoners, presumably all Idaho prisoners, meaning a significant amount of Idaho prisoners will remain in Texas for the time being.

Why Texas continues to allow the importation of out-of-state prisoners to state private prisons when we clearly have our own in-house problems baffles me.  We'll keep you posted on developments. 

Citizens Opposed to the Prison Siting (COPS) turned out in mass on Tuesday to a provide testimony against MTC's proposed federal prison in Nacogdoches at a 30-minutes public hearing called by the County Commission. It certainly appears to me that COPS has provided a thorough set of arguments against building a prison in their community. According to the article in the Daily-Sentinal,

The Citizens Opposed to the Prison Site (COPS) filled the seats and lined the walls in the County Courthouse Annex, and the organized group sent six speakers to the podium, each addressing the court on a different topic, including the effects of prisons on tourism, university enrollment, and property values.

Dick Voigtel, who was an SFA faculty member for 36 years, said the low-paying prison jobs would create a financial burden on the taxpayers. Management and Training Corporation, the company that would build and operate the facility, has stated that the prison would create 300 jobs, with average salaries from $30,000 to $32,000.

"This tells us that these families will be seeking modest housing and will pay very little, if any, taxes unless they own their property. They will also be in need of more social services," he said.

Paul Risk, founder of COPS, recently submitted to the commissioners a petition with 853 unique signatures from Nacogdoches citizens opposed to the prison. He asked the court to consider the voice of the opposition. "You are our elected representatives. Please listen to your constituents," he said. "We want you to rescind your vote of support for this project."

A few proponents (my source in Nacogdoches says there were only two prison supporters) of the private prison also showed up to express support, and they appear to be winning the argument with the commissioners. According to the Daily Sentinel article,

(Commissioner) Cotton said he did not hear anything at the public forum that would prompt him to change his vote to allow the prison, but he would like to see the public continue to voice their thoughts to elected officials.

COPS also continues to utlize the argument that MTC has promised not to move into a community that does not want a private prisons. We'll keep you updated on further developments from Nacogdoches.