Monday, March 5,1990
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GRANBURY (AP) — Hood
County Sheriff Edwin Tomlinson
granted unsupervised furloughs sev
eral times to at least three felons
serving sentences for violent crimes,
a newspaper reported Sunday.
The furloughs, granted for in
mates convicted of crimes such as at
tempted murder, aggravated assault
and burglary, ranged from a few
HI
I seriously question the
wisdom of any policy that
allows a four-time loser to
be released from jail on
furloughs.”
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— Ralph Walton,
former district judge
hours to a weekend, the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram reported.
The furloughed inmates were
awaiting transfer from the Hood
County Jail to the Texas prison sys
tem, the newspaper said.
Although county authorities said
records of the furloughs were either
unavailable or non-existent, two in
mates told the newspaper they had
been freed several times without su
pervision in 1988 and January 1989.
One inmate also said he spent sev
eral furloughs at the home of a fe
male Hood County Jail supervisor,
the newspaper said.
Last week, Tomlinson said he had
granted two furloughs to a third in
mate in January but said those were
authorized by a state judge.
Texas furlough policies were
tightened last year after abuses were
found.
Authorities say the furloughed in
mates in Hood County did not com
mit additional crimes while free. But
convicted burglar Billy Ray Ratliff
failed to return to jail as scheduled
in January 1989 — prompting a
widespread manhunt and a stern re
buke to the sheriff from a state dis
trict judge.
“I seriously question the wisdom
of any policy that allows a four-time
loser to be released from jail on fur
loughs,” former state District Judge
Ralph Walton wrote Tomlinson Jan.
5, 1989, the same day Ratliff surren
dered to a Hood County district at
torney’s investigator.
Six months earlier Walton had
sentenced Ratliff to 25 years in
prison for burglary. It was Ratliffs
fourth felony conviction since 1984.
Walton told Tomlinson that any
additional furlough of prisoners
without court permission would be
considered a .“direct act of contempt
of court.” i
“Until Judge Walton wrote me the
letter, I thought when (the Texas
prison system) kept prisoners up
here under my supervision, that I
had the right to do this,” Tomlinson
said last week. “Evidently, I don’t
have the right.”
Unauthorized furloughs were dis
continued after Ratliffs disappear
ance, Tomlinson said. “It’s not good
policy,” he said.
Two of the three prisoners re
leased apparently would not have
qualified for furloughs once they
reached state custody under
guidelines used hy officials in the
Texas Department of Corrections.
Texas prison system furloughs
must be approved by a prison war
den and hy a three-person commit
tee that assesses community risk.
State, guidelines require that fur
loughed prisoners be within a year
of parole eligibility.
One of the prisoners who bene
fited from Tomlinson’s generosity
questioned the sheriffs practice of
furloughing inmates.
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Texas A&M pitching coach Jim Lawler turns off against LSU. The Aggies won 4-2 and finished
the sprinklers that came on during Friday’s game the weekend series 2-1. See baseball/Page 9
SWT tries
to clean up
party image
SAN MARCOS (AP) — Southwest
Texas State University is using the
most federal dollars for drug abuse
research and prevention among
schools in Texas, and officials say
the college is trying to shed the party
school image.
SWT is using some of the $3.5
million in federal grants awarded
since 1988 for anti-drug programs
to promote such natural highs as
skydiving, massage and bicycle rac-
ing.
SWT administrators say the col
lege, which has a 20-year reputation
for on-campus revelry, is addressing
its image “like a recovering alco
holic.”
“As long as you deny you’ve got a
problem, you’re going to keep that
problem,” said H.H. “Pancho”
Howze, director of the SWT Alcohol
and Drug Education Prevention and
Training Center.
“I hope the ‘party school’ image is
beginning to change,” he told the
Austin American-Statesman. “It’s
like being an alcoholic — it’s hard to
live down a reputation.”
Drug Awareness Week at the uni
versity began Sunday, touting the
distinction pointed out by U.S. Sen.
Phil Gramm recently, that the school
gets more money for drug programs
than any other in the state.
Killer bees could cost Rio Grande Valley millions
DALLAS (AP) — Africanized honeybees — so-
called killer bees — could pose a threat to the
$800 million Rio Grande Valley crops dependent
on bees for pollination, agricultural researchers
say.
The Africanized bees, now about 150 miles
south of Brownsville, are due to arrive some time
this month.
More aggressive than their U.S. cousins, the
honeybees are rarely deadly, but could cost be
tween $85 million and $135 million annually in
the first five to eight years, say Texas A&M Uni
versity researchers.
As many as 12 deaths in Mexico have been at
tributed to the Africanized bee in the past three
years, but Texas health officials don’t foresee a
threat here.
“This is not a panic situation,” said Dr. Anita
Collins, research leader at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Honey Bee Research Lab at
Weslaco.
“But at the same time, we want to inform peo
ple that at some time, we are going to have Afri
canized honeybees, a small but real threat to peo
ple and livestock,” she said.
Collins is leading research along the border,
where crews have set up a line of about 300 traps
from Brownsville to just west of Mission to detect
the arrival of Africanized bees.
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