Thursday, April 28, 2016

TDCJ will face 85th session with new leadership

Long-time TDCJ executive director Brad Livingston retired recently. Here's the job posting. If you're qualified, go for it.

With former TDCJ Chairman Oliver Bell replaced last summer by Dale Wainwright, Rissie Owens gone, and now Livingston headed out the door, change is wafting in the breeze in Huntsville these days. Whether it's a fair wind or foul remains to be seen, but the cast of characters is changing.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't hold your breath! Those who do the hiring will choose to welcome on board whoever will maintain the status quo and enforce the crazy system already in place. The snake will not change into a dove.

Anonymous said...

There are two other key personnel changes taking place in TDCJ due to retirements which will have a ripple effect as others are moved. It will directly impact the prison operations.
My hope is for Dr Linthicum to be gone. In her capacity with TDCJ, and as an employee of UTMB (salary over $383,000)
she sets the tone for apathy regarding medical treatment of offenders.
She fails to attend Board of Criminal Justice meetings, which I'm told, by Myra Walker, TDCJ Medical, (salary $73,000) that the Dr Linthicum is required to attend.
Dr Linthicum sets the tone, and others gladly following like lemmings, to scapegoat, and shirk any accountability.
The meetings of the CMHCC are much more clandestine than the Board of Criminal Justice, that posts their schedule months in advance on their website.
Why are they hiding? The rules of open meetings exist for a reason.

Grandmom said...

How will the new hires affect the biannual public participation at the Prison Board meeting? Last week public participation at the meeting was reduced from 3 minutes to 1 for the 18 people who were there. There were 3 cars from Houston; and one lady from Amarillo who didn't get to speak at all.

Anonymous said...

The time limits are determined by Board of Criminal Justice Members, not by TDCJ employees.
The limitation was set and voted into place by the Board many,many,many years ago. And there is a specific time alloted on the agenda,filed and posted approximately seven days in advance.
So,the short answer is TDCJ employees/personnel changes have nothing to do with it. Except that the replacement for Mr Livingston will be ONE of the Board members, the only TDCJ employee on the Board.

Anonymous said...

I was at that meeting and I am glad that I didn't have to listen longer to people complaining about offenders and social media. I eagerly the absurdity with my Husband (an Ad Seg inmate)that weekend. More people should learn how to prioritize, aka "pick your battles".
And, when given only a few minutes to be heard, reading a poem might not be the best use of your time.
Then there was the grandstanding alleged attorney,that had someone awkwardly setting up a tripod, to video his two minutes. I was so distracted by the "camera crew" that I have no idea what the guy's said. Most likely it was lost on the Board, as well.

Linda said...

I fear that nothing will change, it's fixed who will be the next Director, just another snake in the grass. I'm surprised that Livingston lasted this long, I have met no one that liked him, and the complaints against TDCJ have more than tripled in the last several years. It would be nice to get rid of some of the law-abiding Wardens (sic). My last comment is that their day is coming, there is a very fine line between the people that are caught and the ones that keep on, they will get caught. If their families were in prison, you bet things would be different

Anonymous said...

@Linda You'd be surprised how many DO have family locked. I personally know of two wardens that do,and the way they run their respective units is like night and day. One of them you know that he loves that family member, regardless of bad choices they made. The other warden...has some issues! Maybe the incarcerated was mommy's favorite, and this is his psychotic method of getting back. By using offenders in "his " prison as proxy whipping boys.
The statistics you have on complaints..."tripled over several years " ... would you share a link to those reports? Are they something that can be requested from TDCJ? Maybe the Ombudsman's office? Thanks in advance for sharing your resources

Anonymous said...

@Linda You'd be surprised how many DO have family locked. I personally know of two wardens that do,and the way they run their respective units is like night and day. One of them you know that he loves that family member, regardless of bad choices they made. The other warden...has some issues! Maybe the incarcerated was mommy's favorite, and this is his psychotic method of getting back. By using offenders in "his " prison as proxy whipping boys.
The statistics you have on complaints..."tripled over several years " ... would you share a link to those reports? Are they something that can be requested from TDCJ? Maybe the Ombudsman's office? Thanks in advance for sharing your resources

Gloria said...

The Texas Board of Criminal Justice will not change until we force it to. They have made it obviously clear they don't give a damn about prisoners or their family's concerns for them.

Their agenda is NOT posted months ahead, Mr/Ms Anonymous. Neither is the time of the session when the public is so welcomed to speak, even though we have to sign up 15 minutes beforehand. For those planning to take off work or find care for children, plans cannot be made ahead of time.

There is no telephone number to call the board either. I called tDCJ, the governor and my state representative. Finally my state rep, Jessica Farrar, got me the number. I had used the e-mail form on the Board's web page TWO times asking for the agenda and time of meeting. NEITHER E-MAIL WAS EVER ANSWERED.

When I called the TDCJ administration to find out how to reach the board, I was treated rudely and called a bitch, even though I was on my best behavior. How I wish I had gotten that woman's name. My bad. Her lucky day. From now on I will record my interactions with TDCJ.

To limit to one minute the people who had driven for many hours to speak to the board was rude, unprofessional and uncaring. The lie they made up that they had another meeting and had to limit time of speakers was not true. I saw them driving out of the parking lot before we did. Must have been one hell of a short meeting.

Anonymous said...

@Gloria Read my post again, I said the agenda is posted AT LEAST SEVEN DAYS IN ADVANCE. Which it is. The dates are often posted months in sdvsnce.Your poor reading , research and basic communication skills clearly are the problem. Take a course on government, nothing fancy, just what most of us that stayed in school took in high school.Educstion is important. If you had any, you would know WHERE the open meetings are required to be posted by all state agencies. I'd tell you, but you won't learn if you don't study. I don't believe you that anyone called you a bitch, because if they were going to go that far, they would've called you an ignorant one. Read is fundamental.

Anonymous said...

*reading is fundamental. I bet I know which speaker you were Gloria. You opened by bitching about the amount of time alloted, using time so efficiently. Good plan.

Anonymous said...

@8:07, you should have stayed longer in school to learn spelling. Don't be a ass-hole.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 1:35 pffft my spelling ability is just fine, dummy. All entries done on cell phone. Doesn't change the facts as I stated them.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 1:35 pffft my spelling ability is just fine, dummy. All entries done on cell phone. Doesn't change the facts as I stated them.

Mizvit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mizvit said...

*education haha

Unknown said...

T.D.C stands for they don't care! It's very true. I'm an ex con I know I lived in this pathetic system far to long. And why would the Gloria lie about how rudely she was being treated over the phone? You think she gonna get brownis points for that? My family tried calling to get a release date and was treated unprofessional and was hung up on. Didn't get an answer. What kind of people you have working for you? Can't even answer a question a question that women gets paid to answer. Wow! That ought to be a crime in itself not doing your job what your paid to. Fucking pathetic! Theres people out here and in there that actually have hearts that understand and care for their family's and want them home. What if it was your family? And you were treated like shit! You by all means are not perfect and neither is your family so noone is good enough not to send to prison. You just haven't gotten caught yet. If lieing was a crime we all would be in prison and it is a crime in God's eyes..so just do your job make people happy and I can promise you that the world would be a better place.

Unknown said...

T.D.C stands for they don't care! It's very true. I'm an ex con I know I lived in this pathetic system far to long. And why would the Gloria lie about how rudely she was being treated over the phone? You think she gonna get brownis points for that? My family tried calling to get a release date and was treated unprofessional and was hung up on. Didn't get an answer. What kind of people you have working for you? Can't even answer a question a question that women gets paid to answer. Wow! That ought to be a crime in itself not doing your job what your paid to. Fucking pathetic! Theres people out here and in there that actually have hearts that understand and care for their family's and want them home. What if it was your family? And you were treated like shit! You by all means are not perfect and neither is your family so noone is good enough not to send to prison. You just haven't gotten caught yet. If lieing was a crime we all would be in prison and it is a crime in God's eyes..so just do your job make people happy and I can promise you that the world would be a better place.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous 4/30/2016 1:35pm. I'm pretty sure you mean "AN" asshole, right, but of course you know lol

Anonymous said...

I don't think Gloria lied about being treated rudely. I believe she lied about being called a bitch.

Anonymous said...

@Grits so it's now public, Bill Stephens, Director of CID retired, replaced by Lorie Davis, and Jay Eason retiring as Deputy director of Prison Operations, successor not named but my guess would be Cody Ginsel.

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