Dogs, Bobcats, and Oh Yeah… Prison Reforms
May 11th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Between protecting bobcat caretakers and ticketing noisy dog owners (too bad our earlier coverage didn’t give them paws before passing this one), there was plenty of light-hearted action in the House last night.
On a more serious note, a couple of bills just made it in under the barbed wire — before the second-reading deadline for House bills — that would make for some good changes in Texas’ corrections system. They’re not blockbusters, but their passage would mean progress for a population that’s been seriously underserved by Texas’ jails and prisons: the guards.
Rep. Sylvester Turner’s HB 2244 takes on county jails, requiring one officer for every 48 inmates. That ratio has been in the Commission on Jail Standards rules for nearly 25 years, but it’s been easy to skirt by asking for a “variance,” to stretch the jail staff even thinner. Turner’s bill would turn that guideline into law, and would allow only “reasonable” variances. The bill would also only cover counties of more than 150,000 people.
At the bill’s hearing in April, Bexar County sheriff’s deputies filled one side of the committee room in support of the bill. They told the corrections committee their job often involves being stuck behind a desk in an open room, guarding 70-plus inmates at a time. Bexar deputies have long been pushing for changes, at one point even appealing to the public by putting a photo of a beaten guard on a billboard along I-10. The deputy in the ad, Luis Alva, had been left alone in a room with 74 inmates when he was attacked.
Dallas County Jail officials oppose the bill, and say they’re doing fine without sticking to the 1:48 ratio (though the U.S. Department of Justice says otherwise), and say that because staff move around during their shifts, they can’t be held to such a tight standard.
Turner’s bill would give counties some wiggle room, as long as they can prove their exception to the ratio is reasonable. On the bill’s second reading last night, Turner successfully fought off an attempt by Rep. Charlie Howard to remove that word from the bill. As it’s written now, the bill that could mean long-overdue changes at the Dallas County Jail.
Another Turner bill that passed yesterday, HB 2699, creates a special monitor to crack down on jails that repeatedly fail their annual inspections — for things like saddling guards with too many inmates.
Last night’s deadline also marked the end of the road for a few bills that TDCJ employees had been pulling for, including extending the career ladder for correction officers, and creating an oversight committee to speak up for CO’s and advocate for pay raises and training.
The $15 million fiscal note on the career ladder bill couldn’t have helped its chances, but the House did give the go-ahead to spend $5 million on improving hazardous duty pay for CO’s. Rep. Gonzlaez Toureilles’ bill would bump the monthly payment up from $10 to $12, for each year of service an officer has put in. It was one of the last bills read in the House last night, and an important bill for legislators to pass, even if they did so quietly.
