"The average TDCJ employee is but a step away from being the next TDCJ inmate"

At the Back Gate, a Texas prison guards' blog, we find the assertion that Texas prisons operate in an:

environment where the average TDCJ employee is but a step away from being the next TDCJ inmate, we have no pride, or work ethic. Harsh, maybe, factual , truly so.

Ouch! That's pretty rough, but it sadly jibes with reports of poor morale, not to mention these arrest statistics. See the rest of Duane Stuart's essay, "TDCJ in 2006: Where did we fail?," which drew several interesting comments from veteran guards.