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By STEVE MCVICKER and BILL MURPHY
Harris County officials were warned almost two years ago of a looming
explosion in the county jail population, but still have taken little
or no action.
Despite the ominous September 2003 forecast in a Sam Houston State University
report, nine months before a state watchdog agency first decertified
the jail because of crowding, one department head concedes that county leaders have done little more than monitor the problem.
"We've been watching it and looking at it," Budget Officer Dick Raycraft said.
Indeed, rather than help deal with the problem by putting more deputies to work in the jail, county officials in recent
years have been diverting officers to patrol duty, Raycraft said.
"It was a collaborative decision by the sheriff and the Commissioners
Court," he said.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which last month decertified
the county jail for the second year in a row, now says jail crowding
has created dangerous and unsanitary conditions.
Inmates and guards who spoke to the Houston Chronicle last week described those conditions in detail.
Two veteran jailers, independently of each other, described the jail system as ripe for violence.
And, they say, inmates already are suffering from staphylococcus infections.
Both jailers contacted the Chronicle after seeing the newspaper's July 16 report on the jail's decertification.
The state jail commission has warned that decertification can expose the county to greater civil liability. The panel
also has the power, as a last resort, to shut the jail.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the two jailers charged that
Sheriff's Office officials sometimes hid inmates from state inspectors.
"They played a game of musical inmates," said one jailer, who also is a deputy sheriff. "They would take them from
one building to another through the tunnel system."
The downtown jail system consists of main buildings at 1200 Baker and
701 N. San Jacinto, and a smaller facility at 1307 Baker. A tunnel
connects the two larger jails.
After the inspectors left, the deputy said, the inmates were crammed
back into units that already were fully occupied, a practice he called
"sardining."
The jail commission decertified the county lockup after inspectors found in June almost 1,300 of its more than 9,000
inmates sleeping on mattresses on concrete floors, some next to toilets.
Hiding inmates denied
Chief Deputy Mike Smith, who oversees jail operations, denied that any inmates have been concealed from inspectors
and said no inmates are going without mattresses.
He also said he is unaware of any widespread staph outbreak.
"You know, we have to work here, too," he said.
Staph bacteria commonly cause minor skin infections, but also can cause infections in the blood, bones and lungs.
Smith said the Sheriff's Office is working on ways to ease the crowding. He said 450 inmates who require less supervision
were moved Saturday to lower-level security housing adjacent to the
two main jails. That shift will still leave 1,200 to 1,400 inmates
sleeping on the floor, Smith said.
The crowding resulted from a shortage of guards.
According to the commission report, large sections of the jail have been closed because of understaffing while other
areas are populated beyond capacity.
County officials have placed much of the blame on what they say is a backlog of inmates awaiting transfer to state
prisons.
However, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice insists it is accepting
all prison-ready inmates well within the 45 days required by state
law.
According to Raycraft, Harris County pays $12,000 a year to Charles M. Friel, a professor at Sam Houston State's
College of Criminal Justice, to forecast trends in law enforcement
each quarter. In a report presented to Commissioners Court in September
2003, Friel predicted that the county jail population "could rise to 8,600 by the end of July 2004, a 12-month increase of 15 percent."
Jail policies blamed
Additionally, while noting that a portion of the backlog consists of prison-ready inmates and parole violators, the
report by Friel also pointed to the policies of Harris County's criminal
justice system as a large reason for the increase in inmates.
Specifically, he cited the growing numbers of defendants unable to post
bail while awaiting trial, as well as nonviolent offenders given jail
time instead of alternative sentencing.
In subsequent reports, Friel has continued to warn the county about the expanding jail population.
When fully staffed, the three facilities have an official capacity of 9,383 inmates, according to commission records.
Because of the guard shortage, however, jail officials had closed two
floors at 1200 Baker and parts at 1307 Baker at the time of the jail commission's
inspection last month.
Overall, space for 1,853 inmates was not in use because of understaffing, the commission reported.
At the same time, the North San Jacinto jail was almost 700 inmates over capacity.
As of Friday, the total jail population was about 9,100, sheriff's officials reported. Almost 1,000 were state-jail
felons sentenced to serve their time in the county jail, Smith said.
Almost 3,000 others have not been able to make bail and are awaiting trial.
"So should we have a different bonding structure and get a few more of these people out of here?" Smith asked. "
I can't answer that by myself and I can't control that. But, you know,
guess who gets them?"
Panel has yet to meet
After commissioners received Friel's report in 2003, Raycraft said the county would reconvene its Criminal Justice
Committee.
Made up of representatives from Commissioners Court and each division
of the county criminal justice system, the committee was created in
response to a jail-crowding lawsuit that kept the county jail under a federal judge's control for 23 years, ending in 1995.
However, almost two years after Friel's report, the committee has yet to meet. Raycraft said a meeting is planned
for Friday.
As for the cost of resolving the problem, Raycraft estimated that if, for example, 150 new guards are needed, it
would cost about $7 million.
Smith said Friday that the latest projections he has seen put the number of new jailers needed at almost 300.
But before that issue is settled, the committee will explore ways to reduce the number of inmates, Raycraft said.
Meanwhile, guards and inmates alike have voiced concerns about health problems, especially staph infections.
One civilian jailer claimed last week to have seen as many as 134 inmates crowded into a space designed for 94. Some
inmates sleep on the floor near toilets, he said, and some have no
mattresses or blankets.
Inmates sometimes go a week without a change of uniform, the jailer said, and some never receive shower shoes or
hygiene kits. He also said he has seen inmates with sores as large
as "the top of a soft drink can" from staph infections.
He added that most jailers are slow to allow inmates to obtain treatment in the infirmary.
"If you do, you're branded an inmate-lover," the jailer said.
Inmate tells of illnesses
Current and former inmates say crowding has led to increased violence among inmates, frequent arguments over toilet
paper, food and other items, and the spread of disease.
An inmate who asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation said he contracted a staph infection this month,
but jail personnel ignored his requests for medical treatment.
The inmate said his infection started with a bump on a leg, but it spread because he didn't get treatment, leading
to four more infections.
Detention officers, he said, told him doctors would see him only if an infection ruptured. He said he lied on a medical
form, claiming he had a ruptured boil.
The inmate said he agreed to pay the standard $16 fee to be examined, but the doctor refused to treat him because
he didn't have a rupture.
He said he wonders whether he contracted the illness because he lives in a dormitory-style area at 701 N. San Jacinto
that is designed for 24, but often houses 42 or more. Some inmates
sleep on mats on the floor near toilets, he said.
''There are two ways I could have gotten it," he said. "(The toilets) kept overflowing onto the floor, but I think
it's because of the clothes. They aren't washing them good enough."
Two others in his facility also have come down with staph, he said.
County officials are scheduled to explain to the state jail commission on Aug. 4 why, after the jail was decertified
more than a year ago, the problem remains uncorrected.
HARRIS COUNTY JAIL COMPLEX
1200 Baker: Opened January 2003
with 603,000 square feet. Houses Sheriff's Office and has beds for 96 mental health patients. The medical division, with 124 beds, has a "negative air flow" system to combat transmission of airborne
illnesses; the fourth floor houses female prisoners; and the sixth
floor houses a vocational law library.
1307 Baker: Built in 1998, with an addition in 2001. Designed as a "semi-direct
observation" facility where the staff monitors inmates 24 hours a day.
Originally built for the Texas prison system, now leased by the Sheriff's Office.
701 N. San Jacinto: Opened in 1991. Originally built in the 1920s as a five-story
cold-storage warehouse. Two floors were added when it was renovated
to be a jail.
Source: Harris County Sheriff's Office and Texas Commission on
Jail Standards
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