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An outstanding letter by a Texas Jail Project member was published in the online version of the Fort Bend Star and that inspired the paper to do a story on the subject of moving inmates. 

If you know of inhumane treatment in your local jail, please follow Sue Ann Lorig's lead and write your paper. Please feel free to ask us for suggested topics--we can provide research assistance for your letter.

SENDING PRISONERS TO ANOTHER FACILITY DISTURBING

Dear Editor,

The decision to send Fort Bend County jail inmates to Dickens County Correctional Facility, a private prison 500 miles away, is troubling in many respects. (Fort Bend Star – “Inmates being transferred to Dickens County” and “Jail contractor has negative history”).

Although some of the Fort Bend County Commissioners find the location a joking matter, long-distance separation is not humorous to the families of inmates. When inmates are hundreds of miles away, few families can visit. Children especially suffer. Children of incarcerated parents are at higher risk of incarceration themselves and they exhibit many problems that accompany parental separation, especially they can’t even visit. For the inmates, family connections can mean the difference between future success and recidivism. Studies have shown that continued contact with family can reduce prisoner recidivism.

Other areas of concern are the liability to Fort Bend County if harm comes to the inmates, additional transportation and security expenses, and our county’s lack of power over conditions and treatment. Remember, Texas counties can be sued when harm comes to county prisoners held in private jails and prisons under their jurisdiction.

Concerns about inmates’ safety are very real. Last year, the Idaho Department of Corrections’ head of health care toured the Dickens’ facility shortly after an inmate’s suicide there and described the lockup as the worst he had ever seen and “beyond repair.” HYPERLINK “http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/scandals/msnbc-reports-squalid-conditions-dickens”http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/scandals/msnbc-reports-squalid-conditions-dickens

Here are examples of reports on the Dickens County Correctional Facility:

Conditions were described as “squalid” in an expose by the Associated Press after the suicide of Idaho inmate Scot Noble Payne, including a filthy and cold solitary confinement cell with a blanket, sheet, and pillow that were covered with blood and human excrement. When Scot’s mother testified before Senator Whitmire’s committee last year, she attributed his suicide to the conditions and the long distance from home. (2007).

A former guard was convicted of providing contraband to a prisoner and sentenced to five years of probation, $1,000 fine and 120 hours of community service. He was using the prisoner as an intermediary to sell contraband to other inmates and may have been involved in an escape (2007).

The Dickens facility is now under the management of another private prison company with a disturbing history, CiviGenics.

Last month, 21 year-old Luis Chavez-Chavez took his own life by hanging in the CiviGenics-managed Ector County Correctional Center. The facility was advertising six immediate full-time job openings to staff the 223-bed jail very recently (2008), so understaffing may have played a role.

In Texarkana, a former CiviGenics jailer was arrested for violating the civil rights of a female inmate and accused of sexual activity with a person in custody (2005). Three prisoners, including a murder suspect, escaped from the same jail and were loose for 28 hours (2004).

At a CiviGenics unit in Waco, a guard was indicted for having sex with a female inmate (2004). Also in Waco, an escaped prisoner was charged with killing a woman while he was a fugitive and a guard was charged with facilitating the escape (2001).

Our Commissioners need to reconsider shipping Fort Bend inmates across the state to a distant facility run by a corporation with a bad reputation on safety, ethics, and security.

I appreciate the Star’s reporting on this issue and hope that you will continue to keep the public informed.

By Sue Ann Lorig, Missouri City

 Sue Ann Lorig is a wife and mother who has lived in Fort Bend County for 17 years. She volunteers in community and social justice activities.