tate prisons face overpopulation
THE BATTALION Page 9
WEDNESDAY, APR, 21, 1976
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dHried about his safety,
jflrhe reason he worries, says Harri-
terling was (I
Associated Press
I and hisliJlLLIS PRISON FARM, Tex. —
, RonaldRt When William Harrison came back
Connally, to the “old neighborhood,” he found
or, who k lots of changes and now he’s scared
day 1 Texa to death.
ucial to Rb®jThe “old neighborhood” is the
Ellis Unit of the Texas prison sys-
lowthisfetem Harrison, a convicted mur-
vas hejohi derer and three-time loser, is now
lager?” Fori)
partner,"
H, is that the Ellis unit, like most
>w that,anc|rison units in Texavs, is bursting at
Ford rep the seams with inmates. More are
ion was ir arriving every day.
;e of a numhM The more prisioners are jammed
mts.” into this red-brick penal village
■nt said henorth of Huntsville, the more trou-
“the paper fie erupts. It follows a maxim of
with proba|mf|ial life that when prisons are
dal appoint®frcrowded, it’s the prisoners who
ny initialsi suffer.
There are more cases of fighting
says Harrison, an Odessa man
Bo served here in 1967-69 and two
years in the Ramsey Unit before
I- that
■ jQPfl “There are also more incidents in-
wfWPII volving weapons. I’m in more fear of
— my personal security now than the
CDNESD.i) way it was before.”
5:30 p.m, ■He paused a moment, then added:
Bldg. Yhu try not to think about things
SENATE like that in a place like this, though.
4. Hfclowever, Texas Department of
b, 7:30 p.i Corrections officials think about it
India, Pe and they’re worried, too.
ia. Brhey’re worried about bow they
'lub, Dr. i will handle an inmate population
lancer Wi ithat is growing faster than even the
most gloomy forecasts had pre-
vr ., , dieted. They’re worried about how
'Miil tv^ ^ V W '^ ^ ee ^’ house and protect a
prison that is exploding at the rate of
more than 2,000 inmates a year, in-
L'RSDAY Ending spurts of up to 500 new in-
^Rites a month. The inmate popula-
* _ V™' e! tion here has increased 42 per cent in
to oriOpn ] as ( s j x y ears .
lelr wor * MAlready, at several units, one-man
Hlls are now two-man cells and
nlDAi three-man cells hold four inmates.
UR Univei Day rooms designed for 75 men
to5:30p must somehow accommodate 110.
HICAL Si 1 Laundries must operate round the
mith, Que clock. The food service is straining to
rsityofloi keep up.
eography liHLand needed to grow the crops,
Reapprais livestock and fiber to feed and clothe
206X, 2 p.i the inmates will soon not be produc-
ing enough. More acreage is
fURDAY needed.
RY MEDItBpAVe have a rated bed capacity in
0 u S e9a.ra our 15 units of 19,504,” said James
GW s , )on Estelle, Texas Department of Cor-
,.. rections TDC director. “If the trend
Pntinues, by the end of the year
have more than 21,000. And
there’s no let up in sight.”
In many respects, the Texas
prison system is lucky. In the “sun
belt” — the fastest growing part of
the country — some prisons are at
the saturation level. In Florida,
more than 200 inmates are housed in
tents. In Louisiana, prison officials
plan to turn a ship into a floating
prison. Alabama is under court order
not to confine any more inmates in
its prisons.
The TDC says it is run more eco
nomically than any other prison sys
tem in the country. Its average daily
cost per inmate for food — 73 cents
— is the envy of scores of states
where the cost is $3 a day or more.
The rate of those who return to
prison in Texas is lower than other
states. Recidivism is about 33 per
cent, compared to many states
where the rate of prison returnees is
60 per cent or greater.
However, overcrowding could
change the picture for the state’s
prison system.
Estelle says nobody is sure why
prison populations in the south have
exploded. How can the trend be re
versed if its cause is unknown, he
said.
Among the possible causes:
V The general population increase.
But Texas population is growing
only 25 per cent as fast as its prison
population.
V The mood of the “free world
community.”
“Juries set the punishment in this
state and people may have reached
their tolerance level for crimes.
They’re giving longer and tougher
sentences,” Estelle said.
V Court pressure on county jails.
Both Dallas and Harris counties are
under federal court orders to im
prove jail conditions and reduce in
mate population.
“The word has gotten around,”
said one prison official, and county
sheriffs are dumping inmates on the
TDC. After one recent court action
against the Dallas jail, an official
said, a neighboring county leased a
bus and started hauling county pris
oners to Huntsville.
“It’s cheaper to buy or rent a bus
than to build a new county jail,” a
state official said.
VThe post-war baby boom. Nation
ally, about 76.4 per cent of all arrests
are of persons less than 24 years of
age. Currently, more than 50 per
cent of the Texas inmates are under
30.
VLimited use of parole and proba
tion. Some prison officials say an in
adequate budget cuts down on the
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number of prisoners who can be
paroled.
“The TDC could be stabilized at
19,000 to 20,000 inmates,” Estelle
said. “It would mean the parole
board would have to grant more
paroles. And I’m not talking about a
wholesale release of violent in
mates.”
A vigorous parole system in New
York, which has a population
roughly one-third larger than Texas,
has helped keep the prison popula
tion there to 15,000, about 5,000
fewer than in Texas. Illinois, with
about the same population as Texas,
has 7,000 prison inmates.
For inmate Harrison and for hun
dreds of other prisons, the most
dramatic effect of prison crowding is
in the cells, their homes in the penal
neighborhood.
Most cells are smaller than a
walk-in closet. One-man cells mea
sure four feet wide, 10 feet long and
nine feet high. For a bed, a metal
shelf hangs on one wall, about 18
inches off the floor. It’s covered with
a thin mattress. A commode, with no
lid, a small sink, a mirror and a book
shelf complete the appointments.
For a second prisoner in such a
cell, another bed shelf above the first
is bolted to the wall.
Texas’ prison population has ex
panded so swiftly that in some units
there are not enough bed shelves.
“We’ve had to put mattresses on
the floor in some cells,” said Bobby
Morgan, warden of the Ferguson
Unit, a prison farm north of
Huntsville.
The Ferguson unit has caught the
brunt of the inmate population
boom. The prison farm handles ages
17 to 22, age of most first offenders.
The unit was designed for 1,050 in
mates. Currently it holds 1,756.
The result is “the inmates don’t
get as much individual attention as
they once did,” Morgan said.
For their own protection, the in
mates are evaluated and separated.
The weak and homosexual are placed
in cell blocks away from the strong.
With crowded conditions, the
separations cannot be as precise,
Morgan added.
The result: more fights, more
homosexual abuse. Strength is the
law among the lawless.
Once Morgan had a “spillway.”
When his inmates reached age 22 or
became too mature for Ferguson,
they were transferred to other units.
“We don’t have that spillway
anymore,” he said. “The other units
are filled up, too.”
Morgan says what is needed is
more liberal parole policy.
“If kids get a dose of this prison, it
doesn’t take long for them to wake
up, ” Morgan said. “If a kid’s going to
wake up, he’ll do it in a year as well as
in two years.”
Morgan, Ellis Warden R. M.
Cousins and other prison officials
also notice a difference nowadays in
the inmates’ attitudes.
“To put it into prison language,
they’re sorrier,” Morgan said.
“They’re weaker, but more militant.
They have less respect for authority.
They’re not as scared, or at least they
put up a bolder front. ”
Cousins, whose prison includes
death row and a population of no
thing but high security risks, said the
inmates now are “bolder. They’re
resenting authority a little more.”
Stories in the media about other
prisons, where more lenient treat
ment is afforded, cause many at Ellis
“to get all swolled up, ” Cousins said.
Flarrison and another inmate,
Robert Farmer, 41, a two-time in
mate from Dallas, said they both
notice that Ellis prisoners seem
“rowdier, louder and more boister
ous” than inmates several years ago.
“Court rulings have taken away
the ability of prison officials to
punish the inmates now, and the
prisoners know it,” said Farmer,
serving 45 years for armed robbery.
“We could use a few more guards.”
Despite the increase in inmate
population, the number of guards
has increased only slightly.
There isn’t enough money to hire
more, an official said.
“It makes it more dangerous for
everyone,” he said.
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