Effective Solutions for the Texas Criminal Justice System
July 16, 2005 Houston Chronicle "County jail conditions condemned in report"
Home | Solutions | F.A.Q.s | At the Legislature | In the News | Library | Events

County jail conditions condemned in report

Crowding woes enumerated, but local officials say the state's to blame

By STEVE MCVICKER and BILL MURPHY

A lack of guards has led to dangerous conditions in the Harris County Jail, where inmates are packed into cramped quarters, risking disease and violence among Texas' largest county jail population, says a state report.
 
Noting that almost 1,300 inmates are sleeping on mattresses on the floors while large sections of the jail sit empty because of a guard shortage, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards has decertified Harris County's lockup for the second year in a row.
 
While the action does not mean the jail could be closed anytime soon, the commission's executive director says county officials must show they are working to remedy the problem or they may be called onto the carpet.
 
County officials aren't in the mood for a scolding, however.
 
Calling the panel "a bunch of arrogant fools," Precinct 3 County Commissioner Steve Radack said Friday that the Texas prison system helped cause the problem by failing to take inmates off the hands of Harris and other counties on schedule.
 
"The state wants to send a proctologist down here to see what the problem is. And the problem is, (state officials) are the ones that have stacked up the system," Radack said. "If the state of Texas got its prisoners out of our jails and kept them themselves, we wouldn't have all these problems."
 
But commission Executive Director Terry Julian maintains that the problem lies with Harris County.
 
"They need to get adequate staff in there so that they spread those inmates out," he said, noting that some inmates sleep next to toilets and there is not enough room in the dining areas for all inmates to eat at tables.
 
Julian added, however, that the county's jail system is relatively clean and in good condition overall.
 
He warned that the commission's findings could expose the county to lawsuits and jeopardize the liability insurance of the Sheriff's Department, which operates the jails.
 
If county officials don't respond adequately, Julian said, they could be called before the commission in August.

Not the only one

But Harris County is far from alone in being cited by the commission, which oversees 265 county-level detention facilities.
 
Currently, jails in 40 counties are listed as noncompliant, largely because of staffing and safety concerns.
 
Radack and others maintained, however, that the failing of the state prison system has caused the problem here and in other counties.
 
"The state's not taking its prisoners," said Sheriff Tommy Thomas. "And that's not just here; it's statewide."
 
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice denied that.
 
Under an agreement between the state and the counties, TDCJ has a 45-day window to transport prison-ready inmates to state facilities. The prison system's Mike Viesca says the state is averaging 22 to 23 days in getting county inmates moved to state custody.
 
"That may be true and that may not be true," replied Precinct 1 Commissioner El Franco Lee. "I'm afraid this is on the verge of being the same problems we had before."
 
He was referring to the 23-year period in which Harris County was involved in a federal lawsuit filed by an inmate in connection with overcrowding at the jail. The county was released from the control of a special master overseeing reforms in 1995.
 
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, expressed concern this week about a possible return to overcrowding in state prisons and county jails.
 
Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, noted that TDCJ recently leased space for 300 inmates to deal with its expanding population. He also voiced disappointment about Gov. Rick Perry's recent veto of Whitmire's legislation that would have lowered mandatory probation terms from 10 years to five — a measure that Whitmire said would have reduced the prison population.
 
However, a spokesman for Perry said the governor could not agree to certain aspects of the bill, such as reduced probation for offenses such as assaults on peace officers.
 
In January, Texas prison officials told state lawmakers they expected to run out of prison space this year and may need an emergency appropriation to lease space in county jails.
 
The prison system was at 97 percent of capacity then, with more than 150,000 inmates.
 
Overcrowding in state prisons is caused in part by incarcerating high numbers of former inmates who violate probation or parole, a legislative report concluded this year.
 
Of the 77,000 offenders who entered prison in fiscal 2004, 11,311 were incarcerated because of parole violations and 24,490 because of probation infractions, prison officials told lawmakers.
 
In January, nearly 500 of the more than 8,000 inmates in the Harris County Jail system were former state prison inmates picked up for such parole violations as missing a meeting, a county jail official has said. On Friday, the system had 9,127 prisoners, records showed.
 
The Harris County Jail has a total capacity of 9,372 inmates in four downtown facilities. But the county has closed almost 1,600 jail beds, including two floors at its 1200 Baker Street facility, because of a staffing shortage, according to the commission report.

Seeking more jailers

Thomas, the sheriff, conceded that the county doesn't have enough jailers to deal with its prisoner population.
 
He also acknowledged that he has not asked county commissioners for money to hire more jailers but said he now believes he must.
 
However, a deputies union official said jailers already are being forced to work overtime.
 
"We have deputies complaining that they can't get time off," said Sgt. Humberto Barrera, vice president of the Harris County Deputies Organization.
 
In an interview Friday at the county's downtown Baker Street Jail, inmate Margaret Brown said she and about 45 others are imprisoned in a cell designed to hold 24.
 
"It's extremely crowded. There isn't any walking space. It's a literal human carpet," said Brown, who was sentenced to 90 days after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated.
 
Brown — who says a psychiatrist has concluded that she has dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder — is suing the county, calling the jail conditions cruel and unusual punishment.
 
County Attorney Mike Stafford said he expects to deny all of Brown's allegations.Sheriff's Maj. Don McWilliams said the jails are crowded but that the lawsuit does not accurately describe the conditions.
 
"This is not an environment here where things are just horrible, like in some prison movie out of the '40s," he said. "The typical inmates in the county jail are better fed, better clothed and have their medical needs better attended to than when they are not in jail."
 
Julian, the jail commission's executive director, said he hopes the county finds a way to hire more jailers so the panel won't have to take remedial action.
 
That action could include closing the jail, he said, although he could recall only once in the commission's 30-year history when that has happened.
 
The panel permanently shut down the Calhoun County Jail in Port Lavaca in June 2002 because of mold. The new jail is under construction.
 
Meanwhile Friday, an American Civil Liberties Union official charged that no one is dealing seriously with Harris County's problem.
 
"Harris County needs to step up and address this issue," said Alison Brock, director of the Prison and Jail Accountability Project for the ACLU of Texas. "People are worried about the situation getting back into crisis mode. But you know what? It's already in crisis mode."