Texas Prison Bid'ness

This is the first of a three-part report to Texas Prison Bid'ness based on research on the Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility conducted by Grassroots Leadership. The Mineral Wells facility is a contract-facility under the jurisdiction of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. For more information, please contact Nick Hudson using our contact form.

After receiving a steady stream of reports about unsafe conditions at Corrections Corporation of America's Mineral Wells Unit, and a reader's report of a large disturbance at the facility in July, Grassroots Leadership filed an open records request for data on the 2,100-bed Pre-Parole Transfer Facility. This report documents the pattern of abuse and mistreatment suffered by prisoners at Mineral Wells that has been corroborated by multiple family members of people held at Mineral Wells.

We requested any documents referencing major uses of force, sexual assaults, riots, or criminal cases at the facility between January 1, 2006 and July 23rd of this year. The documents we received indicate that, between January 1, 2006 and July 23, 2008, the CCA-managed prison reported one sexual assault allegation, opened eight criminal cases involving sexual contact between guards or facility personnel and prisoners, recorded thirty-one major uses of force by officers at the facility, and detailed one large disturbance in August of 2007 involving 36 prisoners and 20 staff members that lasted almost four hours and ended only after CCA staff used chemical agents.

We weren't able to confirm through documents the large disturbance reported by one of our readers in July. TDCJ received our request on or around the day of the reported riot, though, and it's probable that the agency excluded it from disclosure based on the original date printed on our request. If we are able to confirm that the riot occurred, it would be the second large riot at the facility in less than a year. We're following up with further inquiry.

This will be a three-part report. Today, I'll be reporting on sexual assault and sexual contact data. Next Monday, we'll investigate use of force allegations at the facility. On November 10, we'll report on details of the August 2007 disturbance.

Reported Sexual Assault and Sexual Contact Between Guards and Prisoners at Mineral Wells

We were provided basic information on nine files referencing either sexual assault or sexual contact between Mineral Wells staff and prisoners at the Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility between January 1, 2006 and July 28, 2008.

One criminal file we received regarded an allegation of sexual assault at the facility during the period of our request. We weren't provided with any information on how the case proceeded, but we will work to determine whether it resulted in any convictions. Below is a brief summary:

#06-2153 a case regarding allegations that a prisoner was sexually assaulted by four other prisoners every night for a period of about six months.

In addition to the criminal case above, we received information on eight criminal cases pertaining to sexual contact between guards or facility personnel and prisoners at Mineral Wells; the contact in all cases was ostensibly consensual, but sexual contact is understandably classified as a violation of the prisoners' civil rights punishable as a state jail felony in Texas. At least one of the cases referenced resulted in the prosecution of a staff member from the facility.

One of the eight reported sexual contact cases remains inexplicably open. An allegation of sexual contact was made in January of 2006, and the case file remains unresolved by the OIG almost three years later.

Two of the eight sexual contact cases, both from 2007, were declined for prosecution; they did not result in a conviction or deferred adjudication. The case files still contain information to support future reconsideration of criminal charges against employees, though.