TPI is submitting comment reports about deficient PREA audits of Texas prisons. We note that even though funding has been cut for all PREA support activities by the current federal administration, TPI will continue to post PREA audit comments as long as audit reports are released, and we will continue to bring to light abuses that sometimes are and always should be covered by PREA, even if PREA is rescinded.
TPI has developed a simple auditor tool for auditors to see current information about any unit that we have in our system, providing important PREA-related information concerning these facilities.
Content warning: Some of these letters describe threats and incidents of violence that may be disturbing. We will note whether each letter is considered a low, moderate, or high risk for being disturbing. We consider this letter to be low risk.
The following letter report is TPI’s report of deficiencies we were able to identify with the 2025 audit of the TDCJ Hightower Unit. The audit report is available here.
Audit deficiencies include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic language, assessment of standards as exceeded without sufficient support, vague and confusing statements or information, and apparent failures to comply with minimum audit requirements. Based on the deficiencies identified in this comment letter, it appears that compliance is questionable for at least seven standards, there is an indication of compliance is not met for four standards, and the report documents a failure to comply with two standards with no corrective action required.
Specific noteworthy deficiencies in this report include:
- false assertions about the genders housed at the facility, and a failure to complete PREA audit required documentation of actual genders housed;
- documentation of cross-gender searches conducted in defiance of PREA prohibitions, without corrective action required;
- false claims that screening tools evaluating risk of sexual violence include required objective scoring; and
- multiple false claims about policy (audit claims and actual text cited verbatim in the comment letter).