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Prison advocacy: General population allowed to mix with and harm safekeeping

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TPI is posting advocacy letters we have written to provide examples of violence against persons in prison, primarily against trans and queer persons in Texas prisons. Personal identifying information has been removed for all incarcerated persons, and named staff or other persons causing harm is removed on a case by case basis.

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 person in this letter has identified to TPI as a transgender person and may be a non-binary or queer gender. They were primarily reporting a consistent issue of endangerment to TPI where persons in safekeeping designation were being threatened or harmed by persons in general population due to staff failure to secure the doors leading into the safekeeping housing sections. Sometimes this is done deliberately as a means of mistreating or harassing persons in safekeeping because many people in safekeeping are trans or queer, or have other characteristics that mean they are vulnerable to violence in in general population.

tpi_2022-01-18ombudsredactedDownload

United Nations Petitions for Humane Treatment in Texas Prisons, Staff Shortages

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By the first National Lawyers Guild – Prison Chapter

Members of the first Prison Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have created a series of four petitions that they have called Project Blitz. The Prison Chapter is submitting the petitions to the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning inhumane treatment in Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons. The NLG – Prison Chapter, as per NLG communications, is

a collective of jailhouse lawyers, writ writers, and incarcerated paralegals with the common goal of challenging the systemic abuses and inhumane conditions of the Texas prison industrial complex. We endeavor to raise awareness of the injustices forced upon incarcerated people and advocate the cost-saving and social benefits of alternatives to incarceration. We believe that mass litigation coupled with solidarity action is the most effective and efficient way to challenge mass incarceration from within. We are dedicated to meaningful litigation that demands accountability and active resolution to the on-going inhumane and unconstitutional conditions within Texas prisons.

Below is a scan of the petition concerning staff shortages that are extremely severe at some Texas prisons, with security staff in some as low as 35% of staff needs. Already severe prior to the pandemic, Covid-19 conditions exacerbated staff shortages, and the problem continues. Staff shortages mean far more dangerous conditions at the units as sometimes only two or three people will be covering buildings with hundreds of persons. Staff shortages also mean people are not let out for medical appointments, recreation, legal visits and work, education and trade programs, and other necessary tasks.

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United Nations Petitions for Humane Treatment in Texas Prisons, Inhumane Feeding Practices

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By the first National Lawyers Guild – Prison Chapter

Members of the first Prison Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have created a series of four petitions that they have called Project Blitz. The Prison Chapter is submitting the petitions to the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning inhumane treatment in Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons. The NLG – Prison Chapter, as per NLG communications, is

a collective of jailhouse lawyers, writ writers, and incarcerated paralegals with the common goal of challenging the systemic abuses and inhumane conditions of the Texas prison industrial complex. We endeavor to raise awareness of the injustices forced upon incarcerated people and advocate the cost-saving and social benefits of alternatives to incarceration. We believe that mass litigation coupled with solidarity action is the most effective and efficient way to challenge mass incarceration from within. We are dedicated to meaningful litigation that demands accountability and active resolution to the on-going inhumane and unconstitutional conditions within Texas prisons.

Below is a scan of the petition concerning problems with the amount and types of food provided for incarcerated persons in Texas prisons. The meals are often nutritionally insufficient, lack variety, and may include rotten or spoiled food. The petition mentions manipulation of documentation by kitchen staff to cover up the issues. TPI’s complaints have also shown that TDCJ often only addresses complaints about food quality and quantity by quoting policy instead of investigating practices, and by claiming that because food equating a certain amount of calories is sent to each unit, that proves sufficient calories are provided to the incarcerated persons. That is quite a stretch.

nlgPrisonChapter_inhumaneFeedingDownload

United Nations Petitions for Humane Treatment in Texas Prisons, Excessive Heat

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By the first National Lawyers Guild – Prison Chapter

Members of the first Prison Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have created a series of four petitions that they have called Project Blitz. The Prison Chapter is submitting the petitions to the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning inhumane treatment in Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons. The NLG – Prison Chapter, as per NLG communications, is

a collective of jailhouse lawyers, writ writers, and incarcerated paralegals with the common goal of challenging the systemic abuses and inhumane conditions of the Texas prison industrial complex. We endeavor to raise awareness of the injustices forced upon incarcerated people and advocate the cost-saving and social benefits of alternatives to incarceration. We believe that mass litigation coupled with solidarity action is the most effective and efficient way to challenge mass incarceration from within. We are dedicated to meaningful litigation that demands accountability and active resolution to the on-going inhumane and unconstitutional conditions within Texas prisons.

Below is a scan of the petition concerning deadly heat at Texas prisons. This issue has been an ongoing problem for many years, and Texas has spent enough money fighting legal challenges that they could have paid for air conditioning many of the units, but instead wasted those funds on court battles. Currently, Texas law states that prisons must keep their hogs in air conditioning, but not the people in their custody.

nlgPrisonChapter_excessHeatDownload

United Nations Petitions for Humane Treatment in Texas Prisons, Habeas Corpus Injustices

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By the first National Lawyers Guild – Prison Chapter

Members of the first Prison Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have created a series of four petitions that they have called Project Blitz. The Prison Chapter is submitting the petitions to the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning inhumane treatment in Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons. The NLG – Prison Chapter, as per NLG communications, is

a collective of jailhouse lawyers, writ writers, and incarcerated paralegals with the common goal of challenging the systemic abuses and inhumane conditions of the Texas prison industrial complex. We endeavor to raise awareness of the injustices forced upon incarcerated people and advocate the cost-saving and social benefits of alternatives to incarceration. We believe that mass litigation coupled with solidarity action is the most effective and efficient way to challenge mass incarceration from within. We are dedicated to meaningful litigation that demands accountability and active resolution to the on-going inhumane and unconstitutional conditions within Texas prisons.

Below is a scan of the “Texas Triad of Injustice” petition, which covers the denial of counsel representation during habeas corpus proceedings, unfair barriers inhibiting efforts to obtain evidence supporting habeas corpus filings, and unconstitutional review of habeas corpus applications by a single judge instead of requiring a quorum of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

nlgPrisonChapter_TexasTriadDownload

Prison Economies

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At TPI, some of the people we work with in the prisons are advocates in a variety of ways. Our correspondent Courtney Sargent participated in research by The Marshall Project related to prison economies. In Texas and five other states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina), incarcerated persons like Courtney earn $0 for performing work in prison. That means folks who don’t have financial support networks on the outside have to hustle to get food and clothing and other necessities like hygiene beyond the minimal necessities provided by the state.

My family and friends send me money and food packages. If not for that, I’d starve. They don’t feed us very well. For example, today’s breakfast was a boiled egg and a peanut butter sandwich. Lunch was one small bean burrito, beans and corn. Dinner was a baloney sandwich, applesauce, overcooked vegetables. For a grown working man, this is not enough. On weekends, there are only two meals a day: breakfast and dinner. For people who have no family or friends, it is heartbreaking.

— Courtney Sargeant

You can read the full article, or jump to the segment based on Courtney’s experience here.

This is part of our blog series about the justice system, how it impacts trans and queer persons, and a framework for transformative justice. This post discusses an aspect of the for-profit justice system. For an overview, see our intro article.

Is Prison Rape Not Rape?

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This is part of our blog series about the justice system, how it impacts trans and queer persons, and a framework for transformative justice. This post discusses an aspect of the for-profit justice system. For an overview, see our intro article.

It is curious that rape in prison is not generally considered rape in our supposed “justice” system, at least in terms of how it is documented in data.

TPI has contributed to a national program that documents sexual violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected persons, but one issue we have brought up is that they never include any data on sexual violence in prisons. They have said they would consider it, but so far the issue has not been addressed in any substantive way.

TPI is not the only organization that objects to the intentional obscuring or covering up of prison rape. Paul Wright notes in his “From the Editor” discussion of the October 2021 issue of Prison Legal News:

For decades the Human Rights Defense Center and other activists have urged the FBI to include prison-based rapes in their crime statistics. They have declined to do so. Including prison rapes in official statistics would likely mean that more men than women are officially raped in the U.S. each year. Based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report that estimated 139,380 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2018. As this month’s cover story points out, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) indicates each year roughly 200,000 prisoners are victims of sexual assault.

Here, Prison Legal News is only referring to persons according to how they fit into the coercive gender binary of the prison system, which means that almost all trans women in the prison system are counted as “men” in the data. We know that trans women are imprisoned disproportionally, so this also means that accurate data here would also likely show extremely high proportions of trans persons, particularly trans women, in national sexual violence data.

Justice system biases and general cultural stigma determine what and how we document, and those biases certainly result in misrepresentation of the actual rate of violence against trans persons.

Medical Restrictions

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In writing letters and supporting our correspondents, we often are asked about restrictions. One type of restriction is health related, and these can cover certain housing assignments, work assignments, and may include disciplinary and transportation restrictions.

Some of the restrictions concerning housing include single story facility assignments, assignment to facilities with extended clinic operation hours, and single-cell or first floor cell assignment restrictions.

Most medical restrictions have to do with work assignments. These can include limited standing, no long work hours (limited to four hours), limited lifting, no climbing, and no work in extreme temperatures or humidity.

For a list and description of these medical restrictions, please see document A-08.4, Attachment A, titled Guidelines for Completing the Health Summary for Classification Form.