|
|
| Inmate Who Fought for Prison Reform Dies |
| By The Houston Chronicle |
| Published: 11/21/2005 |
|
David Ruiz, a career criminal whose name became synonymous with Texas prison reform, has died of natural causes at age 63. Ruiz, who spent all but four years of his adult life behind bars, was serving a life sentence for aggravated robbery at the Goree Unit in Huntsville. Last week, he was taken to a prison hospital in Galveston and was pronounced dead at 4:58 p.m. Saturday, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Michelle Lyons. An unlikely crusader, Ruiz was a small-time criminal who read law books and wrote the lawsuit that took state prisons from overcrowded hellholes where favored inmates were put in charge of other prisoners to one of the largest and most modern prison systems in the nation. "The Ruiz litigation transformed our prison from a backwards Southern plantation-style system into a modern penal system," said Scott McCown, who defended the state as an assistant attorney general. McCown later went on to become a state district judge in Travis County and now advocates for low-income Texans as director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities. As a result of the case brought by Ruiz and seven other prisoners, federal courts exercised control over Texas prisons for 30 years. The oversight finally ended in 2002. "It was an important lawsuit for Texas to come to grips with running a modern prison system," said Carl Reynolds, who was general counsel for the TDCJ from 1993 until earlier this year. "Mr. Ruiz and his colleagues certainly deserve credit for standing up to the system back in the early 1970s." Ruiz already had been in prison for nearly a decade in 1971 when he drafted a civil rights complaint and asked an assistant warden to have it notarized. Instead, the writ was ripped up and Ruiz was punished with solitary confinement. He later made another copy of the 30-page document and gave it to a lawyer, who saw that it got to U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice. In 1974, Justice combined the writs by Ruiz and other inmates to form a class-action lawsuit. The trial began in Houston in 1978 and was not concluded until 1979. The following year, Justice ruled for the inmates and ordered extensive changes in the way prisons operated. Among the key changes were abolition of a "building tender" system in which certain inmates were used as auxiliary officers. Ruiz told the Houston Chronicle in 2002 that the building tenders used fear and intimidation to enforce their will. "They had permission to carry knives, hammers, blackjacks, sticks," he said. "The majority of the prisoners also packed. It was a jungle; the strong survived." Justice ordered improvements in sanitation and fire safety, as well as new recreational facilities and better health care. He made sure inmates had access to courts. Texas spent billions of dollars building new prisons to relieve overcrowding. The cost of complying with Justice's orders angered many Texans, and some came to view the powerful federal judge with disdain. Justice, who took senior status and moved from Tyler to Austin in 1998, wrote in a June 2001 order that the case "has become a history unto itself." But he lauded the state for making vast improvements in a system that "at one point was incapable of description the conditions so pernicious, and the inmates' pain and degradation so extensive." |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Castaways Cove is a large pirate themed play and party centre in Sheffield that is open daily and has plenty to keep your little buccaneers amused, plus adults and under 1s get in free! Minibus Hire Carlisle Vehicle Recovery Newcastle Minibus Hire Bradford Car Recovery Glasgow Vehicle Recovery Birmingham Nationwide Car Breakdown Breakdown Recovery Services Cheap Breakdown Recovery Car Recovery East London Cheapest Roadside Recovery Car Recovery Newcastle Hire Coach Bradford Car Recovery Edinburgh Coach Hire Hull Breakdown Recovery Newcastle Vehicle Recovery Leeds Car Breakdown Recovery Breakdown Recovery Birmingham Airport Transfers Hull Car Recovery Birmingham Van Hire Peterborough Local Car Breakdown Recovery Hire Coach Peterborough Minibus Hire Hull Vehicle Collection And Delivery Car Recovery Manchester Van Hire Carlisle Airport Taxi Hull Emergency Car Recovery Local Breakdown Recovery Airport Transfers Bradford Vehicle Recovery Services Hire Coach Hull Best Roadside Recovery Breakdown Recovery Leeds Bradford To Manchester Airport Taxi Car Recovery Leeds Breakdown Recovery Edinburgh Nationwide Car Recovery Minibus Hire Peterborough Hire Minibus Carlisle Breakdown Recovery London Airport Taxi Peterborough Car Breakdown Service Local Vehicle Recovery Car Recovery London Cheap Van Hire Hull Coach Hire Bradford Breakdown Recovery Glasgow Cheap Car Recovery Breakdown Recovery Manchester Emergency Breakdown Service Local Breakdown Service Cheap Car Recovery Leeds Best Car Breakdown Service Recovery Truck Leeds Airport Transfers Carlisle Coach Hire Peterborough Coach Hire Carlisle Airport Transfers Peterborough Emergency Assist Breakdown