ustxtxb_obs_1982_09_17_50_00023-00000_000.pdf

.\\.11 and Associates 502 W. 15th Street Austin, Texas 78701 REALTOR ‘9 Representing all types of properties in Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty 477-3651 E 66 Sorry for All As a life-long Democrat and a 3-year Texan, I was really sorry to read “A Family Affair” in your 8/6/82 issue. With all the terribly important issues in Texas today, this is an unfortunate article. I don’t agree with Ms. Cunningham’s point of view. I think it would upset most Texans. It stereotypes liberals as outside the main stream of decency. If I were the boy’s father I would do my utmost to get him away from Cain/Gobel. I feel sorry for all involved but what is The Observer trying to prove? This ain’t Manhattan, Mr. Dugger. John J. Raymond, 706 Laguna Drive, Richardson, TX 75080. Socialism & Paranoia Dear Sir: I was rather taken with your lead headline “HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?” pertaining to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The answer is that there is no such thing as enough. The present administration represented by Mr. Reagan and Mr. Weinberger has never met a weapons system which it does not like. The Pentagon has an open check book no matter what the cost to our economy and no matter what the threat to our existence. Reagan has resisted and opposed every type of arms agreement attempted by five presidents and, being a 1950 anti-communist idealogue, he fails to see that the mounting level of armament plus nuclear proliferation to other countries heightens the danger and the chance for the holocaust. He has militarized our foregin policy with attitudes toward Russia the sole criteria. We may soon become an isolated armed camp with our own society drifting towards national socialism and irreversible paranoia. Richard Nixon, no patsy for communism, wrote in the New York Times Thursday, August 19th “Even if we and the Soviet Union both reduced our nuclear weapons by half, we still would have enough to destroy one another and much of the rest of the world many times over.” Even Mr. Nixon might say there is enough. Jesse H. Oppenheimer, 620 San Antonio Bank and Trust Bldg. 711 Navarro, San Antonio, TX 78205. OHr4 11% A.,`,.:!,* OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 106 AND OPEN NDAY -I WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS 472.4190 THE POLITICIAN THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LYNDON JOHNSON The Drive for Power from the Frontier to Master of the Senate By RONNIE DIMMER Send us $20 and we will send you an autoName graphed copy of Ronnie Dugger’s acclaimed book on Lyndon Johnson. \(Postage included; Addr :ess City State Zip The Texas Observer 600 West 7th Austin, Texas 78701 inny COPYING SERVICE Copying Binding Printing Color Copying Graphics Word Processing Austin Lubbock Son Marcos RU1Z \(Continued from Page young man is tossed into a cell with older inmates, where he is repeatedly beaten, tortured with cigarettes, and raped. 4 A paraplegic, who is denied a wheelchair or any assistance, moves only by dragging his hands along the floor and scooting on his buttocks, a painful process which stretches short trips \(sometimes over oner rejects sexual overtures from inmate building tenders, the tenders force him to stand in a commode while they attach electric wires to his body, torturing him until he submits. 6 A prison official bribes a lifer to intimidate a writwriting inmate, and the lifer obliges by slashing the writ-writer’s throat.” Unlike the politicians and the public, Judge Justice could not close his eyes to these incidents, could not discount them as isolated. His first task, the district judge realized, was to alleviate the suffering. The issue was not punishment versus coddling; it was punishment by imprisonment according to law versus punishment by rape, mutilation, and torture according to force. Laboring to re-establish lawful authority inside Texas prisons, Judge Justice performed a great service to the state. To begin with, Judge Justice deserves credit for prodding the settlement of many,issues during the litigation, such as the state’s agreement not to tripleor quadruple-cell and to discontinue the use of inmate building tenders to guard their fellow-prisoners. In addition, many of Judge Justice’s orders were upheld on appeal, such as the limit on the total number of inmates who can be housed in an institution and the requirement of a classification plan to protect younger, weaker inmates from predatory prisoners. Finally, even on the issues reversed by the Fifth Circuit such as the single-cell requirement, the order to construct smaller prisons, and the call for more community programs, honor farms, and halfway houses Judge Justice has provided a blueprint for those who look beyond today. Perhaps his greatest contribution lies less in the issues resolved than in the issues raised, for it is hoped that not all Texans are satisfied with the constitutional minimum. Paul Coggins, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a Rhodes Scholar, is a practicing attorney in Dallas. Footnotes ‘Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F. Supp. 1265 \(S.D. Tx. Aff’d in part and rev’d in part, Ruiz v. Estelle, Nos. 81-2224, 81-2380, and 3/bid. at 3401. -Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F. Supp. at 1293 n.49. 51bid. at 1343 & n.162. 6Ibid. at 1297 n.64. 7Ibid. at 1295 n.60. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23