Back Gate Back to Regular, Excellent Publishing Regimen

Though their remodeled site does not have permalinks, making it impossible to link to individual stories (please guys, fix this and you'll get a lot more traffic from me, at the very least!), The Back Gate, a blog operated by Texas prison guards, has published some excellent, informative posts in the last couple of weeks, including an item by a Sergeant who was accidentally pricked with a prison tattoo needle (pictured) during a cell search. He describes the torturous wait for medical test results to come back, and how the preventive treatment regimen changed his life for months thereafter.

Virtually everyone who goes to prison comes back with one or more tattoos, though all of the required equipment is considered contraband. In New Mexico under Republican Governor Bill Richardson, state prisons actually set up tattoo parlors inside the walls to reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C through dirty needles. With medical costs rising, that might be something to think about; it's not like the current system has eliminated the practice of applying prison tats.

Another Back Gate story informs us about a Farmers Branch-based company called Unique Performance that used Texas inmates to build muscle cars. The vehicles were allegedly fraudulently marketed and never delivered to hundreds of customers around the globe. Another Back Gate story lets us know about an instance where a company using prison labor wound up competing directly with a local company for contracts, drawing political backlash that included intervention by Texas legislators and Ag Commissioner Todd Staples.

Good stuff from our friends at TBG. Visit them for more.