Friday, September 19, 2008

Hurricane News

TCJS heads to Galveston. Texas Commission on Jail Standards Chief Adan Munoz is headed down to Galveston today to check on the deputies and inmates who've been stranded in the county jail after Hurricane Ike without electricity, working toilets or running water.

Victoria jail still evacuated. It sounds like the Sheriff's emergency jail plans in Victoria were a lot smarter than in Galveston. They released 200 non-violent offenders prior to the storm and moved the rest to safety 36-48 hours before the hurricane hit. They're temporarily refusing to accept low-level arrestees in the Victoria jail until everyone gets re-settled, something which happened for a more extended period with apparently no ill effects in Chambers and Gregg Counties after Hurricane Rita.

Waiting to make bond. Texas City finally brought in a bond company Wednesday to get petty offenders out of their municipal jail who'd been kept there since before the storm. I don't know why they didn't release non-violent misdemeanants prospectively like in Victoria.

Sex offenders rounded up from evacuation shelters. The SA Express News reports that "About 1,000 sex offender parolees displaced by Hurricane Ike have been rounded up and sent to prisons and jails across the state." In Austin, police simply evicted sex offenders from evacuation shelters. “I have no idea where they went (after being put out) but they're not allowed to come back,” said James Mason, an Austin police detective. An ACLU analyst called Austin's policy "mystifying," declaring, “It's the opposite of keeping track of people.”

5 comments:

  1. Off topic but Google says there is a lot of FLDS stuff in the news again

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  2. Grits,

    Haven't you received the memo? Sex offenders have their humanity revoked, sometimes they aren't even released after completing their sentences.

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  3. I just came here to say "misdemeanants"

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  4. Seems kind of strange to me that the woman was able to talk to the son when supposed there is no electricity, no telephones and evern UTMB can't communicate from Galveston

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  5. Whatever law enforcement official has reports of rampant crimes committed in shelters by registered sex offenders, please step forward. The public deserves to know. I mean, there must be hundreds--thousands!--of cases, right?

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