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SwvVol. 80 No. 100 GSPS 045360 16 pages
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College Station, Texas
Wednesday, February 20, 1985
Prison reform costs
could hit $800 million
Associated Press
AUSTIN — It would take up to
$800 million in construction and
more alternatives to imprisonment
for Texas to have enough prison
cells over the next 10 years, accord
ing to a consultants’ report given to
state leaders Tuesday.
The State Board of Corrections
had planned to release the lengthy,
$200,000 report at a meeting Tues
day. But Chairman Robert Gunn
said Gov. Mark White and legislative
leaders instructed him to keep the
report confidential until Friday.
It was a matter of “protocol,”
Gunn said.
The report was presented to
White, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and
House Speaker Gib Lewis during a
two-hour closed-door briefing in
White’s office.
“Everyone that has looked at this
thing decided it was just so com
plex,” Gunn said.
But Dick Merkel, spokesman for
Lewis, said the speaker “certainly”
didn’t ask that the report not be re
leased Tuesday.
Steve Dial, spokesman for Hobby,
said the lieutenant governor did not
object to the release of the report. In
fact. Hobby released a written
statement in anticipation that the re
port would be distributed.
Hershel Meriwether, an aide to
White, said the report was still pre
liminary.
“He (White) wanted to look at it
and to give some input before it was
released,” Meriwether said. “The in
formation is going to be made pub
lic. That’s not a problem.”
The proposed 10-year prison plan
was prepared by the consulting firm
of Henningson, Durham and Rich
ardson at the prison board’s request.
Lawmakers who were briefed on
it told reporters the study offers a
detailed, unit-by-unit review of
whafs needed to meet growth and
bring the Texas Department of Cor
rections into compliance with orders
from U.S. District Judge William
Wayne Justice.
“It’s awfully sobering,” said Bryan
Sen. Kent Caperton, adding that
hundreds of millions of state dollars
are needed “despite the fact that we
have continued to put significant
dollars into the prison system, de
spite the fact that we enacted signifi
cant reforms last session.”
“My impression is to bring the
present prison system into compli
ance, you’re probably talking about
$350 million” worth of construction
and renovation work, said Sen. Ray
Farabee, D-Wichita Falls.
The “minimum” cost Of the 10-
year program would be $700 mil
lion, and that would require new
laws that would send fewer people to
prison, said Farabee, chairman of
the Senate State Aff airs Committee.
The report presented Tuesday in
cludes only facilities, it did not speak
to money needed for additional
TDC staff.
Much of the money appropriated
in past years was “squandered” by
the TDC, said House Law Enforce-
Prompt reporting
aids crime probes
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Isosceles Staircase
Mike Leggett, an engineering technology
major from Wiesbaden, West Germany,
takes the staircase down in the Blocker
Building on his way outside Tuesday.
Student representation
Elections to be discussed
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By SHERRIE COUCH
Reporter
Elections for student body presi
dent, Student Government exec-
(jjjutive vice presidents, yell leaders,
Residence Hall Association exec-
j ])0l utive officers, Off-Campus Aggies
representativestives, class officers
and Graduate Student Council posi-
* j WI ^ ke March 27-28.
, „nf§ Students interested in filing for
Vake f j &
the na” r
adb
call
egan 10 c
e
ns ,
of other
any of these positions in the Univer
sity elections should attend an infor
mational meeting Thursday in 501
Rudder.
A short presentation explaining
important dates and general rules
for campaigning will be made to the
prospective candidates, election co
commissioner, Laura Madia, said.
Then, representatives from each or
ganization will talk to candidates
about the positions the candidates
are applying for.
A minimum grade point ratio is
one of the requirements that must be
met by candidates.
Students may begin filing for po
sitions Monday in 214 Pavilion from
9 a m. to 4 p m. Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday; and from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Filing
ends March 1.
By CATHIE ANDERSON
Staff Writer
Bryan-Gollege Station is modern-
day America, says Bob Wiatt, direc
tor of traffic and security. If stu
dents think they’re in some backwa
ter town, they’re wrong, he says.
“This is the modern world,” he
says. “This is not Wonderland, and
we are not Alices.”
(Times are committed in College
Station and on campus. Wiatt ad
vises prudence on the part of stu
dents to help avoid becoming a pos
sible victim and a quick report to the
police when a crime is committed.
Wiatt says police investigations
into crimes on the A&M campus
have been hampered in the past be
cause students didn’t contact the
University Police quickly enough.
Police officers might have cap
tured a man who recently committed
an assault in Keathley Hall if the vic
tim had contacted the police earlier,
Wiatt says. Instead she talked it over
with her friends before reporting it
two hours later to the police.
The victim was pot physically in
jured, but the incident has been
listed by police as assault because the
young woman was threatened by vi
olence.
The assailant was described as a
20-year-old black male, about 5 feet
11 inches tall and weighing 120
pounds.
Since the young woman gave an
accurate description and noticed un
usual things about the man, police
my
Subtle sex discrimination possible: prof
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2nd D G ^Editors note: I his is the first nr ti
lde cle in a two-part series on possible
urge 011 '' discrimination against women at
| e n. Texas A&M.
sd SJ By SARAH OATES
* d t0 ^| Staff Writer
■ said).■Whether women are discrimi-
ake it 10 ' nated against at Texas A&M is a dif-
Jt ’ ficult question to answer. While
j n gint°: there is no statistical evidence show-
(he ing that a problem exists, one A&M
t stuck 1 professor says discrimination could
W' be So subtle students don’t recognize
it.
—It also could be that students sim
ply don’t care, said Dr. Terry Ander
son, associate professor of history.
“The general idea here is that you
put your head in the sand,” said An
derson, who has acted as faculty ad
viser to women’s organizations on
campus.
A&M's 33,859 students — about
14,000 of which are women — have
very little “equal rights awareness,”
he said.
This could have something to do
with the current trend among stu
dents toward conservatism, Ander
son said.
“We have very little feminist awa
reness,” he said. “I teach women’s
liberation in my recent history class
and most of the women don’t even
know there’s a state equal rights
amendment.
“Part of it is being conservative.
To many, this means being de
tached, uninterested. A lot of the
women here aren’t aware of what’s
going on with women’s rights, prob
ably because A&M is more techni
cally oriented. Liberal arts institu
tions tend to have more student
activism.”
Anderson said most female stu
dents probably don’t feel discrimi
nated against.
“There isn’t any blatant discrimi
nation against women except in the
Corps,” he said. “It’s a more subtle
form of discrimination. For exam
ple, I’ve had a couple of female stu
dents say they wanted planned par
enthood facilities on campus. Forty
percent of the campus population is
female, so why don’t we have that?”
The reason is not a lack of aware
ness, but of facilities, said Kathy Jin-
kins, a Registered Nurse at the AP
Beutel Health Center. While the
center calls in two local gynecologists
on a consulting basis, it does not run
a women’s clinic or offer birth con
trol counseling.
A 1984 national study on discrimi
nation against women on college
campuses says it takes many forms
and occurs in all areas of campus
life. The Project on the Status and
Education of Women found discrim
ination against women may be as bla
tant as verbal or sexual harassment,
or as subtle as ignoring a female stu
dent’s opinion.
Inequitable pay structures for
See Sex, page 13
ment Committee Chairman Ray Kel
ler, R-Duncanville.
Farabee said the immediate prob
lem is support facilities, not beds.
The report said TDC’s current ca
pacity is about 43,000. TDC re
ported 37,400 prisoners as of Tues
day.
“We have run TDC somewhat like
a blind dog in a meathouse,” Fara
bee said. “We have tried to respond
to immediate crises. We have built
more buildings and we have not pro
vided all the support facilities that
you have to have.”
What’s needed, he said, are kitch
ens, urinals, showers and recreation
areas.
He said the consultants offered
three scenarios: TDC population
would hit 92,000 by 1995 if no
changes are made in state criminal
laws. With some reforms to ease
punishment, the population would
be 62,000. A major change in atti
tudes on punishment would result in
a 1995 prison population of about
50,000.
“It was pointed out that Texas in
carcerates three times as many peo
ple as most states,” Farabee said.
“There are other ways that are less
expensive. They may not be as satis
fying. They may not be quite as se
cure. But we have to look at these al
ternatives for low-risk offenders.
Caperton said, “We are tough on
criminals in Texas. I think we should
continue to be so, but we can’t be
mindless in our approach.”
officers probably could have caught
him in the vicinity, Wiatt says.
Wiatt says security will not be in
creased in the dorm area. But police
officers patrol the campus, and a car
shouldn’t be too far away if there is
trouble, he says.
“We don’t have the manpower to
put two or three officers near every
dorm on campus,” Wiatt says.
The suspect told the young
woman that he didn’t know where a
dormitory room was, Wiatt says, so
she decided to show him how to get
there. When they were going down
the stairwell, the man fondled her.
Wiatt says that the excuse given to
the victim in this instance also has
been used in similar circumstances
on campus. He says A&M has had
relatively few assault cases.
“Students shouldn’t feel obligated
to take the extra, good citizen’s
step,” Wiatt says. “They’ve got to
start using some prudence in their
actions.”
Jan Winniford, assistant director
of student affairs, agrees that
prudence is the best precaution for
students.
Winniford says students living in
the residence halls tend to think of
fellow residents as being “one big,
happy family,” but by taking this
kind of attitude, they’re setting
themselves up for a crime.
Most research indicates that indi
viduals committing assault or theft
look for an available situation, Win-
See Crime, page 6
Supreme Court
to consider
school prayer
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Su
preme Court said Tuesday it will
consider letting public schools al
low students to meet during
school hours for prayer and reli
gious worship.
The justices, urged on by the
Reagan administration, said it will
review a ruling that banned such
meetings at a Williamsport, Pa.,
high school even though the
school allows students to conduct
virtually all types of non-religious
meetings during the same peri
ods.
Administration lawyers at
tacked a federal appeals court’s
ban on the meetings, saying it
casts constitutional doubt on a
new federal law requiring public
schools to provide “equal access”
for student religious groups.
The high court’s decision is ex
pected sojnetime next year.
The school prayer dispute, an
other outgrowth of the Supreme
Court’s 1962 decision outlawing
organized prayer sessions in pub
lic schools, arose when a group of
students at Williamsport Area
High School sought permission to
form a religious group.
The students wanted to meet
twice a week during the 2,500-
student school’s 30-minute activ
ity periods.
During those periods, held just
after homeroom, about 25 differ
ent student groups as varied as
the Future Homemakers of
America, the Spanish club, and
the school newspaper meet.
The student religious group
initially won approval to meet,
but after about 45 students at
tended the first meeting they
were told further meetings would
be “legally improper.”
Ten members of the group
sued the school district in 1982,
charging that their freedoms of
speech, religion and association
and their right to equal protection
had been violated.
A federal trial judge ruled for
the students, but the 3rd U S. Cir
cuit Court of Appeals overturned
the ruling.