TDCJ's Clements and Neal units, reported the Amarillo Globe News ("'An intervention' on water usage in Amarillo," Oct. 14) are together the second largest water customer in Amarillo, soaking up 44% more water than the city of Amarillo itself (395 million gallons and 275 million gallons last year, respectively). Grits has written before about prisons as water hogs. While TDCJ is the second biggest water customer in Amarillo, it's the largest in Abilene. In South Texas, the Connally unit had to begin rationing water and closed two wings because of excessive staffing vacancies and a chronic municipal water shortage.
Prisons' vast water use in mainly rural areas is a largely unexplored aspect of mass incarceration, but one wonders if, in the coming years, Texas' water wars might ever contribute to de-incarceration pressures? As water problems which are today viewed as annoyances become more acute, towns like Amarillo may begin to look at who's using up most of their water and decide whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze.
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9 comments:
Texas is in a water squeeze, the infrasructure will be blown shortly. No rain everybody cries, too much and maybe the dam breaks? Oh no! Dallas Morning News has been lamenting the ill repair and danger of a Lewisville Dam break. Dallas can cry a river or wait till the dam breaks and drown in the river... DUH!!
OR we can be intelligent, build another lake or two so the water isn't so BROWN in September!
People don't care now, but when poor planning of the government and my tax dollars results in an emergency DOWNSTREAM, myself and neighbors might be a little pissed!
This blog focusus on the ride, however, real criminal justice solutions remain on the front end, the rap...
Our unit waters the outside yard (not used by inmates) during the drought with a fire hose while the rest of the community is on restrictions.
The Clements unit waters the garden in front of the unit. Most of the vegetables are used in the prison by the 4000 convicts. A large amount of the vegetables are also given to poor people who need them in this area. Convicts waste a lot of water thinking they are hurting TDCJ. Lastly, valve maintenance in the housing area is very expensive. The legislature is cutting out budgets and expecting these huge units to just get by.
When I was at TYC, I saw the young inmates regularly use up 50 gallons of water each time they brushed their teeth and 50 more gallons when they shaved. They just let the water run down the drain as they took their good ole time during these two tasks. When I complained about this waste, I couldn't get anyone to see a problem with this waste. These supervisors I tried to talk to were not environmentalists. They didn't care or understand.
I completely agree about the misuse of our precious water here in Texas. Within TJJD, the youths are using water as revenge against the staff over them. When I worked at Cottrell House in Dallas, the youths would turn the water on and leave it because they could not get their way. I am going on record to say that the State of Texas TJJD and TDCJ spend more money on water and do not even realize the consequences it will have in the future. The superintendents of these facilities must be made aware of this revenue problem and correct it immediately.
10:22 said: "Within TJJD, the youths are using water as revenge against the staff over them."
Well, that may be, but I don't think the staff we hire have any understanding of where water comes from or what it takes to filter and clean dirty water. They almost never report leaks in faucets, etc. They just ignorantly let it run. TJJD has a firm belief that it's fine that half (or more) of staff members function at a 5th or 6th grade level.
While "residing" at the Gurney Unit, water was rationed as so that we, the inmates, lathered dry & had to rinse within three minutes or would be penalized with various forms of punishment. Whereas the unit itself was almost always green, so as to impress the visitors, who could truly care less as to how the unit looked.
75% of the convicts at Gurney are sex offenders Where do u fit in Glitch. It rains quite a bit in Tennessee Colony doesn't it. Only convicts who were rationed water were those who couldn't act right. By the way, the visitors wouldn't know what a nice lawn would look like.
The showers at the Gurney Unit are in an open dorm. Four showers per 54 man dorm. There has never been a time limit on the showers, and would be impossible to enforce. There is no way for an officer to turn off the showers and nobody has the time or stomach to sit there and time your shower. There are only two officers assigned to each 'building', housing 200 + offenders. The showers open after the 9am count and remain open until 'rack time' at night. Even in the much maligned and terrible (air conditioned) Ad Seg housing, the showers are not timed and it takes 4-6 hours to shower less than 50 offenders. Plenty of things to gripe about Glitch, but the showers are not it.
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