What can you tell us about the quality of life for prisoners in TDCJ?

Where is the line between giving prisoners something to do vs giving them to much?

Are we working on ways to keep prisons from being "Criminal University"?

>What can you tell us about the quality of life for prisoners in TDCJ?

Awful, No air conditioning, terrible food, not enough to do, terrible medical care, exactly what you would expect in Texas, only worse.

>Where is the line between giving prisoners something to do vs giving them to much?

Idle hands and so forth. Prison officials have very little with which to manage inmates' behavior. Anything that can stave off the intense boredom of incarceration would probably help in the management of prisons. Unfortunately for everyone, the Wyndham School System program (education for inmates) was recently cancelled in Texas to cut expenses. I expect that will just make it even more difficult for future ex-convicts to succeed in any meaningful way after release, increasing recidivism.

>Are we working on ways to keep prisons from being "Criminal University"?

I'm not sure what you mean, but we sure do seem to produce a lot of inmates in this country.

By "Criminal University" I assume they are referring to the phenomenon of a person going to prison for something minor, e.g. like stealing a bike, and coming out with intimate knowledge of how to commit more serious crimes.

In that case, yes, it's a real phenomena. People go in for minor things. They make contacts (network). After release many have no (real) alternative but to participate in criminal activity since they cannot find a job due to their background check.

1. What percentage of the inmates in your prison were there for drug related crimes? 2. What is your opinion on the "war on drugs" and the increased size of the inmate population that it creates?

1. That information is available to officers only when the situation requires it. I did have access to inmates' "travel cards" which detail their crimes and other information because I routinely transported inmates to other units; usually to medical or psychiatric facilities. I did not have the ability or occasion to compile statistics, but my best guess is that a lot of them were convicted of drug crimes. My best guess though is really no better than any random person's because there were so many prison units in TDCJ, and the populations of those units were classified partly based on their crimes. Most of the people I transported were violent offenders.

2. A huge and expensive tragedy of justice and of economic policy. Imprisoning people for non-violent drug charges takes what are often productively employed people out of the work force and turns them into a unit of negative productivity, taking with them, probably another additional person by the time you account for all of the officers and support staff needed for running a huge prison infrastructure. People imprisoned even for drug charges rarely re-enter the workforce, at least not at any reasonable level. After release, they are stigmatized and often victimized again through various ex-con hire subsidy programs.

How are they victimized through hire subsidy programs? I hadn't heard of that. Do you mean that because of the program people around them at their jobs know they're ex-cons and treat them worse?

In Texas we have a taxpayer subsidized program to incentivize employers to hire ex-convicts and otherwise help ex-convicts get jobs called Project RIO. I shouldn't imply that the problem is with Project RIO, but rather with some of the unscrupulous employers who participate. The worst problem that I am aware of is that sometimes employers will illegally withhold pay, and basically the program allows unethical employers to pay below minimum or at least below market wages to parolees, force them to work overtime uncompensated, etc. The close relationship between company and parole officer puts the employer in a position to induce a lot of undue influence on a parolee-employee.

Anecdote/heresay: There is just such an employer in my town. They treat regular employees pretty badly, and Project RIO types, even worse. These poor guys don't make enough to support themselves, and thus have low/no job mobility. They all live in a gov't housing thing, on the wrong side of the tracks. They are pretty much destined to fail.

Thanks, that makes sense. (Shudder.)

What level of security (minimum, maximum, etc.) was the prison?

I worked at three different units Beto I, Estelle, and Ferguson. All were maximum security. Beto and Ferguson primarily housed violent offenders aged 18-30. What fun! I probably visited a dozen other units in the system during my employment there.