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| U.S. Ends Oversight of Texas Prisons |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/17/2002 |
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Texas prison system administrators and lawyers for inmates reached agreement recently on some unresolved issues to end three decades of federal court control of the state's prisons. Under the deal, which U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice is expected to formally sign off on this week, prison officials agreed to address concerns over excessive use of force against inmates, confinement of mentally ill prisoners in administrative segregation and protection of prisoners from assault and abuse by fellow inmates. 'The agreement to remove federal scrutiny from the Texas prison system is a very positive step and we can now proceed to continue operating a constitutionally efficient, safe and humane prison system,' said Gary Johnson, executive director of the criminal justice department. The case over prison conditions began in 1972 with a handwritten federal lawsuit filed by inmate David Ruiz. Justice, now a senior judge in Austin but then based in Tyler, found a prison system so crowded that 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 exposed a so-called building tender system in which some inmates were used as officers. Justice prohibited inmates from exercising any authority over other prisoners and ordered improvements in sanitation and fire safety, as well as new recreational facilities and better health care. Texas spent billions of dollars building new prisons and improving its system. Most federal controls of the Texas prison system ended in 1992 with a settlement, but Justice retained his right to monitor the state prisons on issues including crowding, staffing, discipline, health care and death row. A year ago, he said attorneys for the inmates had shown no evidence for him to continue watching those areas. Unresolved, however, were the three areas that were addressed with the agreement, discussed with Justice and the inmate lawyers at Justice's office. As a separate part of the agreement, the prison system will pay $1.93 million in fees to lawyers for the inmate plaintiffs. |
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