Category: Prison services committee

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and we will continue to bring to light abuses that sometimes are and always should be covered by PREA, even if PREA is rescinded.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 Goree 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 a standard as exceeded without support, vague or confusing statements, 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 ten standards, there is an indication of compliance is not met for two standards, and the report documents a failure to comply with one standard with no corrective action required.

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and we will continue to bring to light abuses that sometimes are and always should be covered by PREA, even if PREA is rescinded.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 Scott Unit. The audit report is available here.

Audit deficiencies discussed in our comment letter include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic language, rating standards as exceeded without required justification, 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 four standards, there is an indication of compliance is not met for three standards, and the report documents a failure to comply with six standards with no corrective action required.

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 Garza West Unit. The audit report is available here.

Audit deficiencies discussed in our comment letter include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic language, 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 ten standards, there is an indication of compliance is not met for three standards, and the report documents a failure to comply with two standards with no corrective action required.

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 Wallace Unit. The audit report is available here.

Audit deficiencies discussed in our comment letter include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic problematic language, and apparent failures to comply with minimum audit requirements. The report overall is cursory and provides scant detail substantiating conclusions. Very little information from interviews was used. Based on the deficiencies identified in this comment letter, it appears that compliance is questionable for at least nine standards, there is an indication compliance is not met for one standard, and the report documents a failure to comply with two standards with no corrective action required.

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 administration, TPI will continue to post PREA audit comments as long as they are released, and we will continue to bring to light abuses that sometimes are and always should be covered by PREA.

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 Middleton Unit. Access to the audit report is currently denied at the PREA Resource Center web site, and TDCJ has not posted the report online (they are required to make the report publicly available). If anyone would like a copy of the report, please contact TPI at admin@tpride.org.

Audit deficiencies discussed in our comment letter include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic problematic language, and apparent failures to comply with minimum audit requirements. The report overall is cursory and provides scant detail substantiating conclusions. Very little information from interviews was used. Based on the deficiencies identified in this comment, it appears that compliance is questionable for at least 11 standards, there is an indication compliance is not met for one standard, and the report documents a failure to comply with three standards with no corrective action required.

TPI is submitting comment reports about deficient PREA audits of Texas prisons. We note that even though funding has been maliciously cut for all PREA support activities by the current administration, TPI will continue to post PREA audit comments as long as they are released, and we will continue to bring to light abuses that sometimes are and always should be covered by PREA.

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 2024 audit of the TDCJ Lynaugh-Fort Stockton Complex. The audit report can be accessed at this link.

Audit deficiencies discussed in our comment letter include the reporting of questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic problematic language, and apparent failures to comply with minimum audit requirements. In addition, this comment letter documents questionable information in the discussion of at least 11 standards, false information for at least five standards, that one standard was assessed as exceeding compliance with absolutely no justification, and vague or inappropriate discussion of at least eight standards. Based on these deficiencies, it appears that compliance is questionable for at least eight standards, there is an indication of compliance is not met for three standards, and the report documents a failure to comply with two standards with no corrective action required.

TPI is submitting comment reports about deficient PREA audits of Texas prisons.

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 2024 audit of TDCJ Clemens Unit. The audit report can be accessed at this link.

Deficiencies noted in our report include a failure to spend the minimum required time conducting the audit, failure to provide accurate and truthful information (information about the numbers of interviews appears to be intentionally falsified), failure to meet minimum interview requirements, and failures and apparent failures to identify noncompliance and require corrective actions.

TPI is submitting comment reports about deficient PREA audits of Texas prisons.

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 2024 audit of TDCJ Murray Unit. The audit report has not been posted on TDCJ’s web site yet (reports MUST be published on the agency web site per PREA regulations), but can be accessed at the PREA Resource Center audit directory.

TPI’s review of the audit provides the following conclusions:

• Audit report overall includes questionable information, reporting of false information, use of problematic problematic language, and apparent failures to comply with minimum audit requirements.
• Questionable information provided for at least five standards.
• False information for at least two standards.
• Two standards assessed as exceeding compliance with inadequate justification.
• Compliance is questionable for at least eight standards.
• Indication of compliance not met for five standards.
• Report documents a failure to comply with two standards with no corrective action required.

TPI is submitting comment reports about deficient PREA audits of Texas prisons.

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 2024 audit of TDCJ Montford Unit. The audit report has not been posted on TDCJ’s web site yet (reports MUST be published on the agency web site per PREA regulations), but can be accessed at the PREA Resource Center audit directory.

In the past two years, TPI has been filing comment reports about PREA audits of individual facilities within the TDCJ system. Individual facilities are to be audited every three years. The agency as a whole is to be audited annually. TPI chose not to comment on the agency audit in 2023 because it involved a lot more work than we had time to do effectively. However, in 2024, we decided to put the effort into compiling at least some of the agencywide data that was necessary for an appropriate comment report. We also extended our auditor tool to provide agencywide data.

The result was better than expected, and we learned some surprising things that are already known issues published in TDCJ annual reports. We were able to compile some of this data to show that TDCJ acknowledges problems by providing data that any cursory review would identify as problematic, but which is not being addressed by TDCJ, even though that is a requirement under the PREA standards.

One item we have identified previously is the problem adequately staffing facilities, which the auditors all have ignored. This problem was highlighted by the Texas Sunset Commission in their recent audit of TDCJ, and their data well documented the problems that were known, if anecdotally. We could also show that even though TDCJ well knows housing people who are significantly older and larger than their cellmates leads to violence, including sexual violence, mishousing seems to be increasing, not decreasing (see Figures 2 and 3). Even though TDCJ gushes about their staff training related to sexual violence, staff have only identified 4 issues of potential sexual violence over eight years, compared to over 14,000 reports of the same by incarcerated persons (see Table 3). We found that nearly every measure of sexual violence in the system has increased based on available data (see Figure 4 and Table 7). And we found that claims of cameras being effectively used to curb sexual violence are not supported by data, which shows camera placement in areas of the highest incidence of sexual violence appears to have been deprioritized (see Figures 5 and 6).

These are just a few of the comments we had on the agency compliance with PREA standards. We hope that this report will be useful in drawing at least some attention to problems in the TDCJ system.

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 moderate risk. We are making this assessment because we include quotes and examples of incidents of anti-trans and anti-queer violence throughout this comment letter to help illustrate our points.