Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Thirteen Former Corrections Officers Indicted for Racketeering and Drug Charges

Anyone who has watched TV knows that prisons are seriously screwed up places. They call them "correctional facilities," but very few believe much is being corrected inside the walls. And if you believe TV and movies, prison guards are often corrupt bullies who just want to kick prisoners asses and t ... More >>

TDCJ's Existing Nonexistent Facebook Policy: Its CFO Was Facebook Friend with Inmate, Too

A prison guard fired for being Facebook friends with an inmate was reinstated after it was discovered that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's chief financial officer was Facebook friends with the same dude. The alleged idiocy was uncovered by The Backgate, a blog run by TDCJ employee Duane ... More >>

Michelle Lyons: Ex-TDCJ Spokeswoman Sues Over Alleged Gender Discrimination

Michelle Lyons, who left the Texas Department of Criminal Justice last month after accusing her bosses of retaliating against her for answering a media inquiry from a blogger critical of the Department, has sued the TDCJ in federal court. Filed on Monday, the suit alleges that Lyons was demoted fro ... More >>

"Duck Taco" Lawsuit

Michelle Lyons: TDCJ Flack Says Agency Retaliated After She Questioned Policies

A veteran Texas Department of Criminal Justice press officer has resigned, accusing officials of retaliating against her for questioning department policies, and copying Senator John Whitmire's office on e-mails detailing her concerns. Michelle Lyons, who had been with TDCJ for eleven years, was on ... More >>

Prison Employees Say The Man (i.e., TDCJ) Is Monitoring Their Facebook Friends Lists

Some employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are accusing wardens of disciplining, and in some cases firing, them for having Facebook friends with criminal records. Duane Stuart, who runs a private TDCJ employee forum, thebackgate.org, tells Hair Balls that wardens regularly inspect e ... More >>

Three Meals a Day for Texas Prisoners: The Petition Campaign

More sir, please.​The daughter of a Texas inmate is getting thousands of people to sign a petition demanding the state resume feeding its prisoners three times a day seven days a week. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced this fall that budget constraints were forcing them to fe ... More >>

Alejandro Smith: TDCJ Prison Guard Was Also Heroin Dealer, Prosecutors Say

TDCJ: Who's guarding the guards?​A Texas Department of Criminal Justice guard has been arrested and charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Alejandro Smith, 21, worked in Huntsville's Eastham Unit; police got a tip that he was "providing contraband to prisoners," the U.S. ... More >>

ACLU: When Facing Death, Lizards Are Treated More Humanely Than Humans

Does Cleve Foster deserve a death at least as humane as that of a lizard? The ACLU thinks so.​The pets of those on death row would be treated more humanely than their owners, if the animals were sitting in the execution chamber instead of them. According to a report released by the American C ... More >>

Prison Pays: How It Started

Texas first contracted with private prisons to honor the Constitution, not to save money.

Prison Pays

Despite a history of abuse and bad conditions, private prison corporation GEO keeps getting contracts from the state.

Montrose Murder

Paul Broussard's killer, up for parole, may not be model prisoner.

Texas Has Fewer Inmates; What The Hell Are We Doing Wrong?

​The U.S. Department of Justice recently released a report about state prison populations, and Texas was one of six states with large decreases in the number of people incarcerated.  These numbers continue, the report says, "the trend of slower growth observed in the prison population since 2 ... More >>

TDCJ Comes Up Against The Cell Phone Companies

A lot of people who read about the epidemic of cell phones in Texas prisons had a basic question -- if you can't discover and confiscate the things, why not just block them? Set it up to jam transmissions in the prison?It turns out TDCJ has thought about that, but it's easier said than done.The pris ... More >>

Crime Doesn’t Pay(back): A Houston Press Special Report on Court-Ordered Restitutions in Texas

More than 90 percent of Texas parolees walk away without paying off what the state ordered them to.

Busted for Blow Jobs

Beaumont officer says they were okayed

The Elderly Come And Go In TDCJ

Four-Dollar Gas Doesn't Stem Felons From Flooding Houston

More Banned Books in Texas Prisons, and Cactus Jack Gets Sued

We get answers! Some make sense!

Banned Books at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice

No logic needed

Now Hiring. No Age Requirement.

Penal Violations

Texas prisons say they can’t allow condoms because they don’t allow sex. So they don’t need condoms. They just need $12 million a year to treat all the HIV-positive prisoners.

Don't Buy the Hype

A serial killer isn't getting out, no matter what TDCJ says

Writer's Block

Texas prisons start barring book authors from inmate interviews

Lite Sentences

TDCJ cuts the calories for convicts, leaving them and guards grumbling

Letters

Prison Break?

Critics wonder if massive TDCJ cuts will be a prelude to privatization

Mail Sacked

The state says Texas prison inmates can't write to one another

On the Defense

Internal feuds and investigations cripple the agency representing accused convicts

Hanging Up

TDCJ finally halts monitoring of attorney-client phone calls -- sort of

Prose and Cons

Crusading convicts turned the docile Echo newspaper into a voice for prison reform. Fellow inmates cheered, but alarmed TDCJ officials preferred silence.

Rejected

Thousands of inmates rely annually on a capricious parole board for their freedom. Most, like George Dismukes, return to their cells without ever knowing why they were denied.

Graham's Goree Details

The government stands Pat in its high-profile cases. And Pat pursues his freedom.

Letters

Ministry Magic, Rice Wars, Cross to Bear

Party Lines

A judge has serious hang-ups over state prisons listening in on inmate-attorney calls

Unnecessary Roughness

Inmate Mark Knox claims Texas prison guards brutalized him. The ACLU fears that in an expanding and unwieldy TDCJ system Knox is far from alone.

Job Insecurity

For 13 hours, guard Jeanette Bledsoe wondered if she would see one more murder inside prison walls -- her own. Now she wants to make sure TDCJ protects those who protect us from society's rejects.

Best Bicycle Day Trip

Houston to Fulshear

Death Row Show

The media makes causes of more and more capital murder convicts. Meanwhile, John Albert Burks dies almost unnoticed, just another inmate moving along on the efficient execution assembly line of Texas justice.

Let's Make A Deal

Convicted felons Mike and Pat Graham are at it again, trading allegations for favors

Trouble in Mind

Texas's mentally impaired used to go to treatment centers. Now they go to prison.

Keeping the King Quiet

Following the Money

Critical Diagnosis

If you think your HMO is bad, check out what Texas has created for its prison inmates

A Last Bite of '97

The Brothers Graham (Part I)

Once upon a time in Humble, there lived two guys named Pat and Mike. They had a way of making people believe, and those people included some of Texas' highest public officials. While it turned out that their stories usually were just too good to be true,

A decade of struggles for sexual equality means that male prisoners today are having to answer to female jailers.

Now everybody, it's claimed, will be on their best behavior. Really?

Down on Peckerwood Hill

It's the last stop for some Texas prison inmates

Hung Out

A gay prison employee has his personal life ripped up and exposed by his superiors

A Visit to Gatesville

A gray November day spent in the gray world of the inmates and staff of the Texas State prison for women