Texas Penitentiary System, Research Paper Example

Introduction and History

Texas Department of Criminal Justice System states, “The mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is to provide public safety, promote positive change in offender behaviour, reintegrate offenders into society, and assist victims of crime.” (2001). The original penitentiary system in Texas commenced in the city of Huntsville. In January of 1883 a second prison began to take convicts in the Rusk Penitentiary. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Board of Criminal Justice work hand in hand to operate and maintain the Texas prison system. Windham School District is in charge of administering adult education to the prisoner. Studies show that since the commencement of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice System only 55 police officers have died in the line of duty. The top prison in Texas, Huntsville used to house the spectacular annual rodeo which was performed by the inmates until 1986. The observation used to draw thousands of spectators annually. Huntsville still houses Texas Museum which is a favourite tourist attraction for many Americans and foreigners visiting the states on holiday. The museum conveys a typical life of the prisoner and the guard.

In the old days of Texas prison systems “convicts were used to work on railroads, plantations and mining corporations.” (Renaud, 1956).  There was so much corruption by 1910; the leasing system was vehemently abolished. Miriam Ma Fergurson was allegedly accused of making pardon to well over a hundred convicts in exchange for cash payments and tenures of land. This corruption led to the establishment of the Texas Prison Board which consist of nine members. The Texas Rodeo commenced in Huntsville in 1931 where prisoners would put on a pubic rodeo.

In the 970’s there were various violations of prisoner’s constitutional rights especially with preparation of various writs. Prisoners were limited to use of libraries and law books and discretionary power was used by prison officials to allow prisoners to have their writs officially notarized. In 1964 Muslim prisoners were denied access to the Holy Quran to practise their religion. Johnson v Avery [1969] strictly prohibited inmates from assisting each other with preparation of legal papers.

In 1970’s the prisoners finally began to get some legal relief “when a federal district court declared the entire Arkansas State Penitentiary unconstitutional and the verdict was upheld by a higher court in Holt v Sarvar [1971] and Newman v Alabama [1977]. Further Gates v. Collier [1977] distinguished these previous decisions by holding the Mississippi Prison System unconstitutional as well.” (Renaud, 1956). This was a very prominent turning point for the human rights/civil rights of prisoners.

Five Largest Texas Prison Systems

The majority of the prisons in Texas are overcrowded and advocates for criminal justice are advocating the building of new prisons as we speak. There are different factors to consider whey the prison systems are at full capacity of which will be discussed further in this paper.

Huntsville is the top prison system in Texas located about 65 miles from Houston.  It is also known as the Walls Unit where prisoners are housed prior to release back into society. There is a death row facility housed at the unit but there are no executions that are housed there. Notable inmates of Huntsville are Duane Chapman, Shannon Thomas and Cameron Willingham. The James Alfred Unit located in Wichita County, Texas is the second largest maximum security prison in the State of Texas housing over 3600 offenders. Records show there has only been one escape from this prison in the entire history. The escaper hid in a laundry basket and was wheeled out but later apprehended.  Pam Lychner Unit is a prison for men only located in Harris County, Texas and is the third largest prison in Texas. The unit houses low risk, medium risk and high security risk offenders. The unit provides full medical, educational and recreational facilities for offenders’ limited use. Hutchins Unit in Dallas, Texas houses over 2,200 prisoners and Central Unit in Sugarland, Texas is at ranking of number five housing approximately 800 prisoners. Central Texas Treatment Centre in Granger, Texas ranks close at a following sixth.  For the purpose of these rankings Texas jails were not factored into the rankings only the prisons.

Population per Race/Ethnicity

“Between 1980 and 2001, the total number of prisoners in Texas increased fivefold, from 28,543 to 151,003 prisoners. Approximately two-thirds (36,538) of TDCJ prisoners released to Texas addresses were state prisoners and approximately one-third (18,107) were confines. Most were male (86 percent), and nearly half (44 percent) were non-Hispanic black, a third (32 percent) were non-Hispanic white, and 24 percent were Hispanic. The median age at release was 34.” (Watson, Solomon, La Vigne and Travis, 2004). What is not surprising because of the overpopulation in the system is that one-third of the offenders had only been convicted of minor infractions/violations of probation, nothing of felony nature.

There are currently over 150,000 prisoners housed across Texas prisons. Research shows that 1:20 people in the state of Texas are on some type of controlled restriction with the law ranging from imprisonment to parole or probation of which most of the violations are not of violent nature. Further 65% of the imprisoned people in the Texas Prison System are of Black race. Activists state that private prisons are in violation of people’s human rights because people are being locked up for trivial things because the prisons need to make money. “Corporate stock holders make money off of prisoners; there are web sites to pay for, on-line catalogue ordering, advertising, construction companies amongst others who all profit from prisoner being locked up. Private contracting fosters an incentive to lock people up even for a short time. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one.” (Peleaz, 2008).

“In 2002, 53 percent of all Texas admissions were because of parole and felony probation revocations. By the end of 2002, Texas held the second highest state prison population in the nation and the third highest incarceration rate.” (Kantor and Good, 2009). Texas did release over 50,000 prisoners from state facilities in 2002 of which were by ratio 84% male and 18% married. “44 percent were non-Hispanic blacks, 32 percent were non-Hispanic whites, and 24 percent were Hispanics.” (Kantor and Good, 2009).

Who Runs the Prisons?

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice System (TDCJ) is in charge of the state prisons, jails and parole system. The Institutional Division (ID) is in charge of the felony offenses. The Parole Division (PD) is in charge of operation and supervision of paroled or released prisoners under supervision. They are only in charge of administering the parole or supervision not granting or revoking as such.

Executions per Prisons and Types

Currently there are over 200 prisoners on death row in Texas Prison systems.

There are 103 whites, 129 blacks and 99 hispanics of which 45% are female and 30% are male. There are 8 scheduled executions for the remainder of 2009 and the entire 2010 of which 2 are female. Harris and Dallas County have the highest total number of offenders on death row with Harris County at nearly 300 and Dallas County at nearly 100. “The lowest reporting counties are Bailey, Brown, Caldwell, Grimes, Leon, Liberty, Limestone, Live Oak and others.” (“Texas Department of Criminal Justice”). Texas executions are done by lethal injection because the electric chair is considered inhumane. Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri and Wyoming are the only remaining states that use the gas chamber for executions of capital punishment. After Furman v Georgia [1972] death penalty was halted temporarily until a more humane means could be managed. Sodium thiopental, Pancuronium bromide and Potassium chloride work together to carry out the euthanasia aided forced suicide of what legislators called the death penalty. Euthanasia Programs were illegally administered in Germany during the rule of the Nazi’s to destroy the human force that was not acceptable in Adolph Hitler’s judging eyes.

Current Issues Within the Prisons

Research shows that there are overcrowding and disciplinary problems in Texas Penitentiary systems. Disciplinary function problems are attributed to the age of the incarcerated rather than to the overcrowding issues. As per Nacci, Teitelbaum & Prather, (1977) and Farrington & Nuttall (1980),“This is consistent with findings from the Federal Bureau of Prisons as well as data from English prisons.” (Sheldon-Elkland Olson 1983).  Overcrowding contributes to the degraded daily life of the prisoners but does not necessarily have a major impact on the disciplinary problems in Texas prisons. Another issue with the prison systems in Texas and across the United States are the ‘discretionary powers’ that the security guard possesses. What I mean by this is the guards can make or break an inmate based on the fallacy of personal liking or disliking to a person. Whatever goes on your file determines how long you stay in prison or more clearly stated if you will have your prison stay extended. There is a lack of proper legal appeal for the imprisoned and a lack of legal resources for the imprisoned. Sure you have a right to an attorney but you are allowed to contact your attorney at the discretion of the guards when they see fit and you are allowed to go to the library and check out law books when the guards designate a time and if the guards do not like you then you may lose your privileges and rights to seek legal information all together.

It is apparent that there is much political controversy and still some corruption with the judicial and the prison systems of Texas. Too many people are being incarcerated for minor offenses and re-incarcerated for minor violations of probation crimes instead of the judicial and prisons being concerned with the more violent and offensive crimes. They seem to be concerned with minor technicalities that at the end of the day don’t really hurt anyone of the public or pose any threat to the public’s safety. It is important to note why the population of the Texas prison systems are rising so much. Much of this rise is due to legislation solely accredited to the State of Texas that requires prisoners to serve longer terms on their sentences and attributions to failure of parole ratings. Research speculates on the reasons why crime began to rise after being stable until 2000 but there are no definitive reason only theories.

Further Research on the Texas Prison Systems

Texas has a rate of 38% above the national average for number of people in jail, under probation or under parole. There are 106 state and private prison facilities in the State of Texas. Additionally Texas has over 260 state and county jail facilities other than the prison facilities.

Phone privileges in the county and state jails are much liberal informally but email communications are totally off limits if a person is incarcerated for six months or less. It is like a mad house of total lock down 24/7. There is no privacy for the individual and the inmate is subject to search, seizure and turn over of bunk facilities and private issued (purchased goods) at any time by the discretion of the guards.

There are no human rights in the Texas Jail systems especially in Harris County of Houston, Texas. You are told when to breathe, eat, sleep, walk, and talk amongst other things. There is no formal protection from harm from the other cell mates for you are all housed together in one large tank area. If you complain to the guards too much you will be labelled as a ‘complainer’. You may make formal complaint to the head of the jail, but don’t expect a quick response. The best way to keep things under control is to stay quiet, mind the orders and protect yourself from your enemies by instilling fear in them.

Ever personal item must be purchased through the Texas Jail system hence the system is making all of the money. They do offer small packages free of charge if you are arrested without any money in your possession. If you have money in your possession at the time of arrest the system will deplete all of your money until your bank account is dry.

There is no smoking in all of the Texas systems. There is mandatory strip search when going to the bottom floor of the jail or transferring from one corridor to the other. It is a demarcation of one’s pride.

When you get to the judge even with an attorney you are not allowed to speak on your behalf at all except to say “Guilty or Innocent”. The judges will not tolerate any words from the accused in any form or fashion. There is no mercy despite you spending all of your money into their system. It does not matter if you have been charged with a felony or a misdemeanour, you are still treated the same. You are treated as though you are “Guilty before proven Innocent”. Are we in Pakistan? I thought this was America. Perhaps Texas is a “Little Communist Russia”. The average person serves 3 years in prison for a crime in Texas and only 60% of the convicted are allowed early termination of their sentences.

Let’s discuss this widely used and motivated “Deferred Adjudication” in Texas legal system briefly to show that the Texas legal system motivates the accused to take a plea under this Deferred Adjudication in order to get the accused in and out of court and with the advantages that they hold the power of ‘no chance to appeal’ whilst collecting outrageous monthly and transfer fees, mandating programs while the accused bests interests are not in mind at all. Texas is top rated in the country for pushing through Deferred Adjudication deals to accused people for both felony and misdemeanour natured crimes. Further when most judges are seeking to terminate probation early after complying with the terms of probation and serving half of the sentenced probation, Texas judges are finding reasons to deny early termination to keep the numerous fees coming into the Justice system. Its’ a no brainer!

Here are some facts and arguments pro and con on DA and you make the judgment call on if the Judicial and Prison Systems are utilizing DA for the benefit of their pockets. A common misconception about DA is that once you finish your probation term your record will be erased. This is not the case. You will have to file a motion for non-disclosure. Any offenses involving family violence are not eligible for non-disclosure (Class A). Misdemeanour assault offenses require a person to wait two years beyond the completion of their probation to file a petition for non-disclosure and felony assaults require a five year waiting period.

The advantage to deferred adjudication versus regular probation is that if the offender successfully completes the full terms of the probation there will be no conviction on his/her record. Deferred adjudication must be worked out prior to trial and not with a jury. If a person is in two years of a four year adjudication and violated probation the adjudication can be adjudicated and the person will have to serve the full sentence of the original crime. For example if a person committed a felony assault with a deadly weapon of which was a pellet gun but possibly intent could have been found but was not because they accepted DA, if into their seven year DA by three years they violated their probation and were arrested for another infraction of major issue, they judge could adjudicated and put the person in prison for the full punishment for assault with a deadly weapon of 2-5 years in prison. “The adjudication is based on the original sentence for the crime. It does not matter if the person is about to be released if they violate the probation.” (Bahr, 2008).  However it is up to the discretion of the Parole Officer if they want to report the violation or the judge to sentence to the fullest extent.

The purpose of explaining this DA is that the Texas judicial system pushes this on many first time offenders without giving them full information of the implications of the DA. Further lawyers often represent that this is an easy probation and the records will be sealed which is contrary to the truth. It is simply a great way for the District Attorneys’ and the court system to push people through the Texas Court system and make guaranteed money for a long time. Look also at the possibility that the judges are expecting the offenders to be repeat offenders by placing mandatory 2-5 year waiting periods after the completion of the DA to file a motion for non-disclosure of the offender’s records. Why shouldn’t a person be able to seal their record immediately after they have completed their probation? This brings many questions to citizens and advocates. The most prominent advantage of DA over regular probation is that regular probation will stay on your record forever and cannot be expunged unless pardoned by the Governor. Basically if you feel you can cooperate and not violate the terms the DA is the best way to go but if you feel you might violate the terms regular probation might be the best avenue for you.

Conclusion

With the recent rise of crime since 2000 essentially theorized by criminologist and not definitively stated it is postured that the Texas penal system is perhaps too strict on simple violations of probation and parole and should make preferred emphasis on felony violations of violent behaviour or those that would pose a threat to the public safety. With this psychology the overall prison population would slowly and steadily decline and there would be no need to build additional prisons. However, there is politics involved with kick backs form contracts with private systems which would be eliminated.

Works Cited

Bahr, F. (2008) Understanding Deferred Adjudication and Straight Probation Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://www.texasdefenselaw.com/recent_news/2008/01/understanding-deferred-adjudication-and.html

Kantor and Good (2009) As Texas’s Prison Population Experiences Five-Fold Growth Since 1980, Urban Centres Contend with Influx of Former Inmates Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://www.urban.org/publications/900689.html

Peleaz, V. (2008) The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery? Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

Renaud, J. (1956) Behind the Walls Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://web3.unt.edu/untpress/catalog/excerpt/press208.pdf

Sheldon-Elkland Olsen (1983) Prison Overcrowding and Disciplinary Problems: An Analysis of the Texas Prison System Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://jab.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/2/163

Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2009) Texas Department of Criminal Justice Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/counties.htm

Watson, Solomon, La Vigne and Travis (2004) A Portrait of Prisoner Re-entry in Texas Retrieved October 30, 2009 from, http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410972_TX_reentry.pdf