OVERVIEW
Texas justice advocates seek candidates who are willing to listen to the concerns of prison families and other advocates and who will make some commitment to working for reforms in the Texas prison system and criminal justice system…reforms to make things safer and more just for all Texans.
One of the most pressing needs is that the situation inside Texas prisons is a powder keg with a lit fuse. Because of Covid and other hiring and retention issues, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is currently short more than 7,300 Correctional Officers, more than 30% of the budgeted staff persons who are directly related to inmate oversight and day-to-day prison operations. The extreme staff shortages are causing violations of inmates’ human rights, including subjection to cruel and unusual punishment and a lack of adequate medical and mental health care. Shortages also increase risks for remaining staff.
Some political candidates utilize fear tactics in an attempt to misinform Texas voters. These candidates would have voters believe that reforms will lead to easy sentencing and the release of people who are incapable of rehabilitation.
We believe punishment and incarceration are necessary.
However, our current system is completely broken. It is not meeting the needs of the state, community members, victims of crime, and certainly not the needs of those who find themselves caught in the culture of mass incarceration. Our prison system is crumbling, both figuratively and literally. It cannot meet expectations for rehabilitating inmates or for assuring the safety of employees and persons housed there.
Somewhere along the way, Texas has forgotten that being sent to prison IS the punishment; people are not sent to prison FOR punishment. We have a responsibility as a society to ensure we apply just laws and take proper care of those who are imprisoned.
The system is broken. The Texas criminal justice and prison systems are huge industries with large budgets... budgets funded by taxpayer dollars. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has grown to unsustainable proportions.
Texas justice advocates see dire needs for criminal justice and prison reform in the state of Texas.
The issues presented below are merely the tip of the iceberg. Please visit again as we continue to add content.
The term "criminalization of poverty" is used to describe the snowball effect through which a poor person becomes increasingly enmeshed in the criminal justice system because of inability to pay fees, post bail, or engage effective counsel; lack of transportation to required programs; etc.
According to Texas Appleseed, almost "three-fourths of the individuals held in Texas county jails have not been convicted of any crime but are being detained awaiting trial, usually because they cannot afford the bond amount set in their cases. In most counties, no risk assessment tool is used to determine the likelihood that each defendant would commit a new crime or fail to appear in court if released. Personal, non-financial bond is rarely used in most counties across the state. Instead, judges often determine bond amounts based on bond schedules, where the offense dictates a pre-set bond amount. As a result, low-risk, low-income defendants remain in jail for no other reason than they cannot afford bail. Texas Appleseed is working to reform the current bail bond system so that decisions about pretrial release and detention are based upon risk level and research, rather than the amount of money a defendant has.
The Texas Commission of Jail Standards, which governs county jails, maintains Humane Temperature requirements, limiting cell temperature to between 65°F and 85°F. No such standard is in place in Texas prisons where many inmates are subjected to below-freezing temperatures in the winter and temperatures reaching 150 + degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. When animals are housed in these types of temperatures, the public outcry is "cruelty to animals."
The lack of climate control has resulted in many deaths over the years and have cost the state millions in lawsuits. Texas Prisons Air-Conditioning Advocates...now Texas Prisons Community Advocates...(TPCA) has done extensive research on this issue and has determined cost-saving alternatives to eliminate this type of cruel and unusual punishment. See the RESOURCES page of TPCA for important Heat Related Research.
"Continued funding for the agency’s major repair and renovation is necessary to maintain our existing physical plant, numbering over 100 correctional facilities statewide, with many of these facilities over 75 years old," states the TDCJ Legislative Appropriations Request for Fiscal Years 2022-2023. "The size, scope and complexity of our physical plant requires substantial ongoing repair and renovation."
Loved ones inside many Texas prisons report persistent standing sewage water, and continuous and frequent water shutoffs due to plumbing issues. These problems have resulted in a lack of water for hygiene and handwashing, so necessary during a pandemic.
To get to the goals of reducing population (and thus needed housing) and improving the basic quality of life for that population, let us start now, by purposing that every legislative session we will close two prisons and air condition three units with the immediate savings. Let us earmark the ongoing savings for true correctional measures for inmates and for restorative justice programs in counties.
People should be given credit for their rehabilitation efforts and hard work to transform their lives. Since each person and set of circumstances is unique, they should be evaluated on an individual basis, rather than categorized by the crime they are serving time for. After a certain time, staying in prison becomes detrimental to the people who are trying to rebuild their lives, and the communities that were left behind. See an overview of the Earned Time Credits issue by Prison Fellowship, a Christian prison ministry,.
Currently, there are close to 100,000 people listed on the Texas Sex Offense Registry-most are required to register for life regardless of their risk to reoffend. Life-long registry creates hardships not only for returning citizens but for their families, since it limits possible housing and work options. Other problems with the current approach include:
Decades of research has concluded that residency restrictions for people who have committed sexual offenses are ineffective and counterproductive. Better strategies are needed. See Texas Voices for Justice and Reason for more information.
Let's face facts, TDCJ has experienced increasingly severe staffing shortages for many years. Since COVID, the situation has become so severe that it is dangerous to both inmates and staff, resulting in cruel and unusual punishment.
The pay rate and working conditions (besides the inherent danger in working in close proximity to those hardened criminals who are not interested in rehabilitation, include working in long-sleeved uniforms in temperatures exceeding 150 degrees Fahrenheit) have resulted in an inability to maintain appropriate and safe inmate-to-CO ratios.
We suggest immediately redirecting the money earmarked for the hiring of 5000 “correctional officers” which TDCJ is unable to recruit, to the hiring and training of mental health workers, chaplains and teachers to work with inmates. Some of that money can also be utilized to provide better pay and better training for those security personnel, so that they might actually become correctional officers, in practice and not in name only. Raise the age requirement for hiring security staff to 25 years. Offer bonuses to hirees with some education/training in psychology or sociology. Require ongoing staff development in mental health and conflict resolution for all security staff.
Security personnel are aware of their need for better training in many areas, See "6 training standards correctional officers would like to see more of" at a prison staff website called Corrections One
In fairness, on paper, TDCJ has many programs that look good, and the agency continues to add more. Those programs include career training, behavioral health and rehabilitative programs. The problem is that there is not ample and timely access to these programs. Many programs are limited to certain units and it is very difficult for inmates to receive transfers to units offering the programs they need to be successful in their re-entry efforts.
Behavioral programs, such as substance abuse counseling and anger management, should be implemented on arrival for inmates who need them. These programs should be available as needed throughout a person's incarceration. If postponed to the later years or months of a sentence, the person may well have continued or revert to old habits and patterns, including keeping bad company, while incarcerated.
In theory, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is subject to the oversight of Texas Board of Criminal Justice, and to the State House of Representatives. In actual practice, TDCJ has historically operated with a great deal of secrecy and lack of accountability to anyone. Examples of issues are:
Prison families and advocates still maintain hope the new Ombudsman and his staff will have a better track record than the past one, although initial reports from prison families and advocates look like more of the same, with the Ombudsman's report being, "That did not happen." And, the new Ombudsman's office is still re-active, not pro-active. The new office reports it is not equipped to deal with the quantity and variety of issues presented to them. The new Ombudsman reports to TBCJ instead of directly to TDCJ, but the connection is still very close.
Many prison families and advocates believe an agency for independent oversight of TDCJ is long overdue. "Independent Oversight is Essential for a Safe and Healthy Prison System" by UT Professor of Law, Michele Deitch for the Brennan Center for Justice.
The Texas Parole Board uses a “secret sauce recipe” whereby certain static factors…such as the nature of a person’s crime and number of incarcerations… and whether law enforcement and victim families continue to write letters against parole…in order to repeatedly deny parole, without consideration of changes the person has demonstrated while incarcerated. Static factors cannot be changed and victims may not be well informed of the inmate’s character development. Consequently, many inmates who are eligible for parole according to time served are repeatedly denied with the same items noted over and over, sometimes for 10 or 20 years.
Inmates should be provided with a list of rehabilitative programs they will be required to complete when they first enter the system. Completion of those programs should be required prior to parole eligibility. Currently however, the list of required programs is not typically provided until an inmate has his first meeting with internal parole review, which is often many years after they entered prison.
Let us institute a system of “presumptive parole,” in which an inmate who appears before a parole board is presumed ready to go back into society, unless the board has concrete evidence to show otherwise….kind of like “innocent until proven guilty” in a trial. Unless a person has shown by persistent resistance to changing behavior during incarceration, he or she should be presumed ready to parole when the parole date is reached.
Remove the inherent bias in parole boards that are typically comprised of former law enforcement and district attorneys whose entire careers have been devoted to placing people behind bars and keeping them there. Provide balance to parole boards by including those with mental health training, clergy members and even successful former inmates.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers advocates for reforms in parole eligibility.
TDCJ is a challenging work environment for all staff, including medical providers. Doctors and nurses often become hardened. Patients in pain or other medical distress can be difficult to deal with, even in the free world. Inside prisons, caregivers have to navigate care for legitimate needs while also dealing with some inmates who are not respectful or who are trying to "scam" the system in one way or another. As a result of these hardened attitudes and short-staffing, aging and deserving inmates are often denied proper medical treatment.
Issues include:
The most basic problem with Texas prison medical service is that...exacerbated by the pandemic but true even before Covid...inmate requests for medical are frequently ignored. Our incarcerated loved ones have reported that staffing issues are so bad that people have died in their cells before anyone responded to requests for care and calls for help.
Journalist Keri Blakinger writes for the Marshall Project that "Prisons Have a Health Care Issue -- and it starts at the top, critics say." The problems are common in Texas prisons as well.
In Texas, roughly 1388 juvenile offenders currently have a life or de facto life sentence. The majority of those must serve a minimum of 30 years becoming eligible for parole. About 376 juvenile offenders are serving capital life sentences and must serve a minimum of 40 years before becoming eligible for parole. 12 Texas juvenile offenders are serving unconstitutional life without parole (LWOP) sentences.
The Texas Second Look Bill, aligned with scientific evidence and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the necessity of Youth Justice Parole Reform, proposes to grant juvenile offenders with extreme sentences (at least 40 years) parole eligibility after serving 20 years. Additionally, Second Look legislation would enhance the parole review for such youthful offenders by including consideration of chronological age and its hallmark features, such as immaturity, impetuosity and failure to appreciate risks and consequences, family and home environment, peer and familial pressure, and the degree to which a young person's developmental shortcomings may have prejudiced them in their criminal defense and their capacity for reform.
Decades of evidence show that lengthy, mandatory sentences do not reduce crime, but impose high economic and social costs on taxpayers and families. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws also tend to create unwarranted disparities by treating similar offenders differently and different offenders the same. FAMM...Families Against Mandatory Minimums believes that judges should have the authority to consider all the relevant facts and circumstances of a crime and an individual before imposing a fair punishment. Mandatory minimums are not the most effective way to make communities safer.
Possession of minor amounts of drugs in Texas resulted in 35 year+ sentences during the height of the "war on drugs." Sentencing reforms now result in no more than a 5-year state jail felony today for similar offenses. When sentencing laws are reformed, why is it such a battle to make those reforms retroactive? Do those who were previously convicted under the former harsh sentencing laws deserve more punishment than those convicted later?
Learn more about the evolution of sentencing and criminal justice reform history in Texas:
"The ways in which mental health care and the criminal justice system interact are in desperate need of reform in Texas. The rate of mental illness in Texas is higher than the current state of mental health care can provide for. While state hospitals were once the primary care facilities of those with mental illness, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has taken on that role in the last few decades; and when the criminal justice system becomes entangled with mental health care, it often leads to “unmitigated disaster.” If Texas continues to allow the TDCJ to act as the primary care facility of the mentally ill, the goal of the entire system will fail because successful rehabilitation can never be accomplished. "
"Recognizing the Need for Mental Health Reform in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice" by Kara McHorse, published by St. Mary's Law Journal, April 2020
"During the last 30 years, Texas has enacted laws and policies meant to enhance public safety, resulting in crowded prisons and jails, and a corrections budget that comprises a huge slice of the state budget. Laws that focus on incarcerating men and women have been founded in genuine concern. However, a considerable percentage of the people arrested, charged, and incarcerated have been low-level drug users. Since 1999, arrests for drug possession in Texas have skyrocketed. In fact, almost all drug arrests in Texas are not for delivery or distribution, but for possession of a controlled substance. These numbers include people arrested for possession of illicit drugs, as well as the increasing number of Texans who have become addicted to prescription drugs. Both of these groups share a common thread: their substance abuse problems are often rooted in addiction. A proper response to this public health issue is treatment, not incarceration.
Texas Center for Justice and Equity notes, "It is critical to establish a community-based, public health approach to substance use, behavioral health, and other issues that are better addressed outside prison walls." The article below notes bills passed in the 2019 Texas legislative session to promote increased access to treatment supports and safely reduce arrests among vulnerable populations. Making a law is different from implementing a program. There is still much work to be done. Even while state finances get tighter, we cannot afford to push these measures to one side.
Why should you care what happens to a person incarcerated by the state of Texas? According to our courts, they have been found guilty of a crime. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime,” as the saying goes. Indeed, most of our incarcerated loved ones are guilty of something. Leave aside for a moment those who are not guilty, those who need mental health care rather than incarceration, or who are suffering inordinately long sentences relative to the crime they have been sentenced for. Even those serving legitimate sentences in Texas prisons are still human beings and are someone’s loved one. It is we, as a state, who are diminished if we do not afford them basic care and dignity.
National statistics say that 1 of every 4 American women have a loved one currently incarcerated. Additionally, 50% of American citizens are impacted by the incarceration of a family member. Since Texas locks up a greater percentage of our population than most other states, it is reasonable to assume that more than one-fourth of Texas women are directly impacted by the incarceration of a loved one.
Prison families serve a “hidden sentence” when their loved ones go to prison. Not only do we deal with undeserved shame or feelings of failure, we suffer the loss of full emotional support from our loved ones and often the loss of financial support from them. Families are torn apart by incarceration. Children are traumatized by the loss of a parent and often suffer shame from peers. Worse, these children often become the next generation of those incarcerated - children who continue to feed the cycle of crime.
Many families cannot afford the cost of visiting their loved ones housed at great distances from home. Families pay the financial costs of keeping in touch with our loved ones by telephone and even the cost of stamps and stationery if we want to hear back from them more than five times a month…the number of stamps provided to indigent inmates. Families also bear the cost for our loved ones to have toothpaste instead of tooth powder, to have deodorant, shampoo, extra toilet paper, extra socks, a second pair of shoes…those are examples of things the prison system does not provide for our loved ones. Families also buy the small fans that inmates on some units are allowed to buy, and “cooling towels” available through the prison commissary. If a family makes any small contribution to their loved one’s account, as infrequently as twice a year, the inmate cannot be considered indigent and will not be eligible for hygiene items provided by some unit chaplains. Apart from treatment for chronic chronic conditions, which is free, if an inmate asks for any medical attention, a fee is charged to their account. Where does that money come from? Yes, from friends and family outside.
Family encouragement, moral support and communication with their loved ones has proven time and again to be the most important factor in the successful rehabilitation of those who are incarcerated. Yet, the current system routinely places insurmountable hurdles in the way...hurdles that prevent families from providing that support. Recurring, frequent, lockdowns due to Covid-19 and staff shortages result in limited communications with loved ones. Many family members and loved ones inside report feeling completely cutoff, leaving our loved ones isolated from the support systems on which they depend to keep them sane and focused on the ultimate goal of reentry to the free world.
We seek political representation from those who desire to serve ALL Texans, including those who are often overlooked by society. People can and do change. The system should be designed so that those who desire to change can be successful in their rehabilitation efforts and have a viable path to be restored to their families and communities.