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queried belligerently. “Are you telling this court that all you have done is exercise a normal attorney-client relationship?” \(Many of Cruz’s clients have become excellent prison lawyers and have cases Upon being questioned about Beto’s proficiency as director of the TDC, Cruz said, “As an administrator, he is enlightened, highly regarded and well known; as an individual with knowledge of prison rights, he is reactionary.” She referred to Beto as a “promising George.” He says he’s available to the prisoners and he does see them; but then nothing is ever done for them. RED ARISPE Cruz testified of continual harassment by TDC officials throughout his prison life because of his numerous suits against the TDC. He said Warden R. M. Cousins choked him and threatened to “knock my brains out” if he continued to remain a client of Cruz. He said the choking incident occurred last year as he was being placed in solitary confinement for complaining he had been cursed by a guard. He said he was confined without clothes despite the fact he had the flu. He said that Warden Cousins, trembling and shaking with anger, told him, “I’m tired of letters from that nigger-loving lawyer of yours. No lawyers are going to take over my prison. If you don’t stop, I’ll send you home to your mother in a pine box.” Cruz testified he was placed in solitary confinement on another occasion after he was beaten by two building tenders and hospitalized for 12 days. Cruz charged that Beto manages to obscure the truth about what is really happening at the TDC from interested eyes and that the mask of respectability surrounding the TDC is furthered by the status of Dr. Beto. Dr. Beto was the plaintiff’s final rebuttal witness. He testified for more than three hours describing Fred s Cruz as a “non-conformist who looked at other people as being stupid.” Beto said he first met Fred Cruz’ 10 years ago when he became director of the TDC. He said Cruz had an “insolent attitude” and “refused to conform to rules.” Beto rejected allegations offered by numerous witnesses that building tenders exercised guard functions and carried black jacks and other weapons. “Guards themselves are not armed,” he said. He vehemently denied that brutality was permitted and said that while building tenders sometimes break up fights they use only ,their hands. 6 The Texas Observer He stated Ms. Cruz’ visits to the prison were “very numerous” compared to other lawyer-client relationships, that she spent unusual periods of time alone in a room with Cruz and that the wardens complained that she was a disturbing influence on the prisoners. Beto, scheduled to retire as director of the Texas Department of Corrections in August, spent most of his time on the stand defending his administration. He said he has upgraded the standards for prison employes and instituted training and education programs for the inmates. “My philosophy of prison administration in Texas is three-pronged: work, discipline and education.” Defense attorney Bill Kilgarlin during cross-examination attacked Beto’s attitude and manner of dealing with Ms. Cruz, saying Beto resented her criticism of his administration and her filing suits attacking the department’s policies. When pressed, Beto could not cite any proof that Ms. Cruz had instigated or caused any incident of violence. By J. D. Arnold Dallas County Jail, the first few days free on the outside are difficult. Ex-prisoners complain of headaches and bodyaches soon after they are released. Prisoners who find themselves in and out of the jail most of their lives have a theory about the aches and pains experienced upon release. According to their theory, fresh air, sunlight and mobility cause the headaches and muscle aches. While in the jail a prisoner never sees sunlight. 150 watt bulbs burn inside the jail constantly. Day and night never going out until they burn out. The constant, bright light is hated by the prisoners. It is only a minor aspect of the de-humanizing process in the jail. Still, the jail always seems dark and dank somehow. The colors are watered-down mustard and GSA green. The windows across a corridor from the cells are thick, opaque glass. Prisoners can know if it is day or night outside, but nothing else. It is either gray or black. Despite the 150 watt bulbs, sudden sunshine has a traumatic effect on a newly released prisoner. It seems to cause the headaches. That and the fresh air. The Dallas smog notwithstanding, the air outside feels different, tastes different than the sweat-coffee-urine-dry meat and beans-shit-blood-permeated atmosphere in the jail. A breath of the outside air causes J. D. Arnold is news editor of the Iconoclast. He recently spent a weekend in the Dallas jail in connection with contempt of court charges. Since then, he has been visiting sources in the jail each Sunday. Kilgarlin also implied that Beto’s main function is as a lobbyist and politician with the legislature and that he curries favor with state bar officials. The defense attorney quoted from a television program suggesting Beto has a reactionary attitude toward “liberal do-gooders.” Beto has said, he testified, that “some do-gooders have critized us for using inmates for stoop labor. I said that less than 3,000 are doing this and a good many taxpayers in this state are engaged in stoop labor.” Judge Bue, before he took the case under advisement, indicated he intended to write a fairly broad opinion with an encompassing analysis of the prison system. Defense attorneys said, after the trial, they felt good. “We found so many loop-holes, so many fallacies in the prosecution’s case, that we feel optimistic,” Kilgarlin said. “What we hope for is an indictment of the prison system. That is what the evidence warrants.” headaches, say prisoners. The body aches come from suddenly being able to walk farther than the length of a jail tank. For some prisoners this isn’t so. Most prisoners just sit around all day; the others pace up and down the “day room” like the big cats at the zoo. Back and forth, back and forth. While medical authorities reject the air and light differences as cause for the headaches and give only qualified affirmation to exercise-induced body aches, the prisoners swear it is true. The medical authorities haven’t been inside the five-year-old jail atop the new Dallas County Courthouse, say the prisoners. If they had been inside the jail they would have seen violations of state law and health regulations the basis of a successful suit by jail prisoners to change the conditions in U.S. District Court. The jail, when built, was designed to hold 1225 prisoners. It now holds 1500 \(on a current daily average with a high point of nearly The judicial status of the prisoners causes a paradox for county officials such as Sheriff Clarence Jones and County Judge Lew, Sterrett. They discount any sympathy for the prisoners because they are all “criminals.” Ninety percent of the prisoners, however, have never been convicted of the crime for which they were arrested. They have not yet come to trial or they are awaiting appeal. The other 10 percent are awaiting transfer to Huntsville or a federal prison \(usually only a few days or they are serving out misdemeanor sentences. ALTHOUGH COUNTY officials claim prisoners are all “criminals,” the jail The Dallas Jail