Category: Prison services committee

We have basically covered ICS under another vocabulary item: “running a team.” In TDCJ, ICS stands for “Incident Command System”, and calling an ICS means calling for an ICS team. In the federal system, it’s a SORT, or Special Operations Response Team. In the Texas system, an ICS can be initiated in case of any crisis situation, including a suicide threat. As mentioned in “Running a team” is generally meant to indicate the ICS is called to intimidate, harass, or assault a prisoner.

GASS stands for Gender-Affirming Self Surgery.

We have only seen this acronym used by one person in a different state, so we are unsure how widespread or common the use is.

This word has a different meaning at least in Texas prisons from its usual reference to a close or tight group of people, although the prison use does refer to a group.

Uses might include something like “they cliqued on me” or “they are threatening to clique me.” This use of the term means to be jumped on or assaulted by a group of people, usually at least three.

Refers to taking a bath using one’s sink in the cell rather than going to the shower.

There can be several reasons for choosing to take a bird bath, but safety is the most common. Trans persons may choose to take a bird bath for both physical safety and to avoid harassment and embarrassment in the common showers.

We don’t see it too often, but occasionally TPI receives letters without stamps and the words “Frank Mail” written where the stamp would be.

Frank mail refers to a custom of providing free postage to members of congress and other elected officials. Many prisoners believe that they have “franking privileges” for various reasons, and we do sometimes receive these letters. However, there is no allowance by the postal system for such “Frank Mail” that prisoners or indigent persons sometimes use, and the letters likely have just slipped through the system unnoticed.

In the TDCJ system, CMI stands for “Chronic Mentally Ill” and is often used to refer to the CMI-TP, or the CMI Treatment Program. The program was started in early 2019 (the official policy can be found here), and is claimed to offer additional assistance for persons dealing with certain mental health conditions. However, actual practice indicates it is a means of continuing to assign persons with mental health issues to what is essentially solitary confinement, which TDCJ claims to have eliminated, but which in practice continues under different names. A 2019 Texas Tribune article provides some more discussion of the program.

We don’t see this acronym often, but it is good to know about because when we do see it, it is usually just the “CMI” with no explanation of that that means.

Lockdown usually refers to movement being restricted for everyone in a housing section, area, or an entire unit.

Most often, this refers to the twice-a-year search routine (in TDCJ—other agencies will have different practices) where nearly all movement is suspended. During the lockdown, all prisoner property is packed and searched for contraband.

SPD is an acronym we don’t see too often, but it’s good to be aware of this code. It stands for Security Precaution Designator, and you can see a little more about it here. Generally, an SPD indicates someone is a risk for escape or staff assault.

SPDs can impact eligibility for housing assignments and programs. We don’t know enough about these, and we are pretty certain there are other designators used in a less formal manner.

Civil suits concerning the summer heat in Texas prisons, and the negative health effects related to that heat, have resulted in work and living restrictions for prisoners sensitive to the heat.

Most of the time when someone says they have a heat restriction, they are referring to work heat restrictions. It is important to understand that these restrictions do not govern housing in temperature controlled areas.

After a suit (Cole v Collier, settlement here) concerning excessive heat was won against TDCJ, new policies were implemented, including a policy for setting a “Heat Sensitivity Score” (HSS, or heat score) for “Cool Bed Priority” prisoners. A discussion of this policy can be found in Sain v Collier here.

Persons who meet qualifications based on medical conditions and prescribed medications are to be given a heat score of at least one point (P01, no heat sensitivity would be P00). The conditions include:

1. Heart and medical disease;
2. Mental health disorders;
3. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease;
4. Developmental disabilities;
5. 65 years of age or older with certain conditions or prescribed certain medications.

The discussion in Sain v Collier here provides further specifics about these qualifications.

We don’t know as much as we need to yet about these heat scores and how they are being assigned, but we hope to learn more in the future. Currently, when someone is advocating for housing in temperature controlled areas, we are asking them to find out what their heat score is, which should be a code ranging from P00 (no heat score) to P05 (highest priority).