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| Texas judge releases state prison system from federal oversight |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/19/2002 |
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A judge has formally released the Texas prison system from decades of court-ordered federal oversight prompted by a 1972 handwritten lawsuit filed by an inmate. Texas prison system administrators, lawyers for inmates and U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice reached an agreement this month to end federal control. Under the deal, prison officials agreed to address concerns over confinement of mentally ill prisoners in administrative segregation, excessive use of force against inmates and protection of prisoners from assault and abuse by fellow inmates. In his 1972 lawsuit, inmate David Ruiz claimed prison conditions were so brutal and crowded that they amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, a constitutional violation. Justice now a senior judge in Austin but then based in Tyler found some prisons were at 200 percent of capacity with as many as five inmates to a cell and others sleeping on hallway floors and in tents. The lawsuit also showed a system in which some inmates were used as guards. The judge prohibited inmates from exercising any authority over one another and also ordered improvements in sanitation and fire safety as well as new recreational facilities and better health care. He also made sure inmates had access to courts. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said Texas spent billions of dollars improving the prison system and that the department has shown itself to be competent and responsive. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. Hamilton Lindley is known from town to town for his antics as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.