Bail litigation updates across Texas, and other stories

A bit of personal news: After Just Liberty's Executive Director, Shakira Pumphrey, left to join the new Texas House Speaker's staff to work on criminal-justice policy, your correspondent was elevated to her old post on an interim basis. Many thanks to Shakira for all her hard work for Just Liberty over the last two years, and good luck at the new gig! Meanwhile, as Grits struggles to fulfill his new admin duties, here are a few odds and ends that merit readers' attention.

New Harris judges propose bail-reform framework
Just-elected judges in Harris County proposed a new bail framework that will become the basis for a settlement offer in the county's ongoing bail litigation. Reported the Houston Chronicle:

Under the new administrative rule, 85 percent of people arrested on misdemeanors automatically qualify for release on no-cash bonds, according to the county’s pretrial services division. People arrested for bond violations, repeat drunken driving and family violence are the only exceptions. These defendants must appear before a magistrate or judge within 48 hours, at which time they may also qualify for personal recognizance bonds.

DA may be liable in Galveston bail litigation
Federal bail litigation in Galveston survived a motion for summary judgement and may now go forward, a District Judge George Hanks, Jr. ruled this week. Hanks said defendants must be provided counsel at their bail hearing, a provision which tracks rulings in Houston and Dallas. (Most Texas counties do not provide attorneys at the bail-hearing stage, so this litigation result could be replicated nearly everywhere in the state.) Interestingly, Hanks also found that Galveston District Attorney Jack Roady, "who controls the county's bail schedule, was liable for his role in perpetuating a wealth-based detention system. Magistrate Edison had ruled that magistrate judges 'always strictly adhere' to the bail amounts recommended by Roady."

Chaos surrounds Dallas County bail-reform proposal
Despite having months to put together a proposal, in federal court this week, Dallas County officials appeared confused and unprepared, reported the Dallas Morning News. County officials wanted to put lawyers from the Public Defender Office at bail hearings, but judges appoint attorneys and some have told the county, "We're not going to participate," the paper reported. That's foolish. Providing defendants counsel at bail hearings is the one, crystal clear requirement that we can already tell will apply to all Texas counties based on bail litigation thus far (including the 5th Circuit's reaction to the Harris Co. bail suit). The Legislature should simply require it in a statute, or else federal courts will require it one county/lawsuit at a time. MORE.

Tea-leaf reading on execution-stay vote
The Court of Criminal Appeals stayed an execution in a case involving bite-mark evidence and Texas evolving, SCOTUS-dictated developmental-disability standard in death cases. On Twitter, your correspondent engaged in some tea-leaf reading over the vote count. I'm worried the Government Always Wins faction may have gained a new member. In other, related, news, I already miss Judge Elsa Alcala's voice on the court.

'Dead Suspect Loophole' in Public Information Act decried
In Austin, several recent cases have brought to light what local media are calling the "Dead Suspect Loophole" in the Texas Public Information Act. The Legislature changed the law in 1997 to say only information about cases that result in a conviction must be made public, and when a suspect dies (say, because they're shot by a cop or die mysteriously in jail), they're never prosecuted. The problems with the law-enforcement exception to Texas Public Information Act go much deeper than that, and the Legislature should address them, but I'm glad this aspect is being highlighted. That said, the loophole is discretionary. Local officials don't have to use it. This is a transparency issue that should be re-raised when the various pols' primaries roll around.

Which crappy, failing bureaucracy should run the Harris County Jail?
Sen. John Whitmire suggested the state should take over the Harris County Jail after its fifth suicide in two years. If the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did a better job, Grits might agree. Suicide attempts at TDCJ are quite high. Weird that the Governor wants the state to take over Houston ISD, now Whitmire wants the state to take over the jail ... there's a theme being developed around the capitol that local officials' autonomy in Harris County should be restricted. The recent blue-wave election there could exacerbate that dynamic in the still-red-as-roses Texas Lege.

Convict leasing history, victims unearthed
The Houston Chronicle has been providing good coverage of the discovery of dozens of black prisoners bodies buried in unmarked graves near Sugar Land. They were inmates leased to the Imperial Sugar Company, for which the town is named. For more on Imperial Sugar and the convict leasing system, check out Texas Tough by Robert Perkinson.

Rangers pulled off LaSalle Corrections investigations for alleged conflict of interest
The Sandra Bland Act required counties to have a separate agency investigate all deaths in county jails, and may have used the Texas Rangers, including at 7 jails run by LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor with a problematic history. The Dallas News reported alleged conflicts of interest, with the company hiring a former Ranger who's son presently oversees the Rangers at DPS. While not alleging misconduct, the Commission on Jail Standards has decided to pick a different agency to investigate LaSalle-run facilities.

Transcripts, deposition detail alleged 'Brady' violation

After the Houston Chronicle published a story about a directed acquittal following an alleged Brady violation (withholding exculpatory evidence) by former prosecutor Jon Hall in a Galveston District Court, Grits linked to the article and lamented that the state bar had taken no action, basing that on the fact that no public reprimand had been issued more than two years after the event. My bad.

While it's true that as of yet there has been no disciplinary action, a source in Galveston informs me that, "The State Bar IS going after his license. They suffered a setback in a discovery hearing. They are appealing and I think they will win. [Mr. Bledsoe's] arrest was expunged. The DA used that as an excuse to say they cannot turn over their file, which contains  evidence of the prosecutor's [alleged] misdeeds." Grits must apologize for jumping to the conclusion that the state bar sat on their hands on this one: Sounds like they're at least taking the shot, which is all you can ask.

In a related update: Ask and ye shall receive! Grits mentioned earlier that it'd be interesting to read the underlying transcripts in the case, so many thanks to the long-time reader who passed them along. (This is model reader behavior, people: Please replicate it widely!) For those interested in more detail on the case, here's the portion of the trial transcript where the court and defense counsel first raise with Mr. Hall a 911 recording that contradicts key witness testimony the prosecution presented to the jury without reservation. Here's the part where Judge Susan Criss tells the jury what happened and issues the directed acquittal. And here's a copy of a deposition of the defense attorney, Jyll Rekoff, providing a detailed account of the events in question and accusing him of similarly withholding a 911 recording from defense counsel in an earlier case. Both the judge and defense attorney in open court said this wasn't the first time Mr. Hall - who was a prosecutor in Brazoria County for ten years before moving to the Galveston DA's office - allegedly failed to disclose evidence in their cases.

As it turns out, the revelation about withheld evidence wasn't due to an extraordinary defense investigation, though the defense attorney in the case seems to have done a good job. Instead, a cop testifying on the stand referred to a witness statement and a 911 recording that had not been turned over to the defense. Defense counsel told the judge she'd never seen those statements and got hold of copies that evening. On the 911 recording the state's star witness - who later picked the defendant out of a photo lineup - said the perpetrators wore ski masks and she couldn't even discern their race. That anyone would even show her a photo lineup after that - much less present the results to a jury without mentioning the 911 call - truly beggars belief.

Part of me would like to think this episode represents a sort of death rattle for behavior from the bad old days. The events took place before Texas implemented improvements to eyewitness ID procedures. And open-file policies mandated in this year's Michael Morton Act should reduce the sort of behavior alleged in Galveston. Over time, those changes should help a lot in similar situations. Moreover, the attitudes of the judge and the state bar are heartening - those who're supposed to exercise oversight did so in this case, or in the case of the state bar, at least tried. Still, my more cynical side accepts that as long as there are competitions there will be people who cheat to win. One can teach ethical behavior but it's more difficult to instill it.

Fort Bend DA failed to notify defense of alleged misconduct by DPS lab worker

Kudos to the Houston Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg for the first MSM coverage ("Area prosecutors interpret duties to justice differently," March 18) since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals began tossing out convictions based on the allegedly fraudulent performance of Jonathan Salvador, who was fired from the DPS crime lab in Houston last year after it was discovered he faked results in identifying Alprazolam tablets. Her report compares the response by Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady, who promptly notified defendants and agreed to habeas writs dismissing cases where Salvador's evidence was key, and Fort Bend County DA John Healey who has yet to notify any defendants except for a few, informal conversations with defense counsel around the courthouse.

in Fort Bend County, no letters were sent, no panel appointed. In terms of the cases already tried, District Attorney John Healey told me last week that lawyers in a few were notified verbally, but that he had planned to wait until retesting from DPS before sending a broad alert to those convicted and their lawyers.

As a result, many sitting on probation or in prison based upon what could well be falsified evidence are unaware of that fact. 

Wrote Falkenberg, "If you need another example of the varying ways in which prosecutors in this state interpret their duty to do justice, here it is." She quoted the Fort Bend DA justifying his stance:

Healey found the recent appeals court ruling "illuminating and instructive" but disagrees with the court that the relative few errors identified in Salvador's cases have "the potential to taint his other work."

That said, Healey says he now feels compelled to send notices to those who may be affected

Damn nice of him, isn't it, to comply with his Brady obligation even if he disagrees with the Court of Criminal Appeals? What hubris! Don Bankston, the former First Assistant DA in Fort Bend County, speculated that Healey was "trying to save their cases" by delaying notification.

The next Court of Criminal Appeals "hand down list" will come out tomorrow. Based on their prior rulings, expect more of Salvador's cases to be on the roster of approved habeas corpus writs.

See prior, related Grits posts:

• The Weakest Link: TDCAA agrees nearly 5,000 cases 'may be jeopardized' by DPS lab worker misconduct
• Thousands of drug cases may be overturned because DPS lab worker allegedly faked results
• DPS crime lab SNAFU may overturn thousands of years worth of drug sentences
• Convictions overturned based on DPS lab worker misconduct, hundreds more likely to be challenged
• Bad apple at DPS crime lab could spoil barrel of convictions
• DPS analyst who faked results worked on 4,944 drug cases
• Drug analyst at DPS crime lab issued erroneous reports

Galveston prosecutors terminated following misconduct allegations

A pair of prosecutors in Galveston accused of prosecutorial misconduct had their employment terminated this week, reported the Galveston Daily News, though the District Attorney's office gave no reason for their dismissals. The story opened ("Two prosecutors out at DA's office," Oct. 3):

One prosecutor was fired and another resigned the same day, but officials aren’t saying whether the shake-up at the district attorney’s office is related to recent allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Reese Campbell was terminated and Jon Hall resigned Monday, Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Jack Roady confirmed Tuesday. Roady declined further comment on the matter.

Campbell worked for the district attorney’s office for nearly five years. His separation of employment was listed as involuntary and without cause, according to documentation released Tuesday from the county’s Human Resources Department.

Hall, who began his career with the office in 2009, gave written notice of his resignation, which became effective at the close of business Monday.

Both men faced accusations that they withheld evidence in criminal cases. In a July 2011 robbery trial, 212th District Court Judge Susan Criss claimed Hall “secreted” evidence, including a 911 tape, from defense attorney Jyll Rekoff. Criss ordered the jury to acquit the defendant.

At the time, Roady denied the claim, saying his staff never withheld the tape from the defense. Roady also implemented a new policy that required the documentation of what is provided to defense attorneys.

Last week, defense attorney Mark Stevens filed a dismissal motion in a criminal case that accused Campbell of prosecutorial misconduct, stating a lawyer cannot knowingly offer or use evidence that he knows to be false. The motion led to a mistrial. The defendant, however, reached a plea bargain and received no jail time in connection with the fracturing of her newborn’s skull.

Roady said last week he disagreed with the allegation of prosecutorial misconduct, but he said the prosecutor should have disclosed the witness’ additional statement to the defense before trial.

Galveston DA drops politicized prosecution against blogger

The District Attorney in Galveston has dropped online bullying charges after a local blogger was arrested at his home last week for online criticisms of a city council candidate's spouse. This wasn't a spur of the moment charging error but a big, fat public flip flop on a politicized prosecution. "Clear Lake Shores interim police Chief Kenneth Cook said his office worked with the district attorney before charges were filed," reported the Galveston Daily News.

Beaumont Enterprise argues both sides of recording confidential attorney-client communications in jail

There's an odd editorial in the Beaumont Enterprise about the Galveston County Jail ending its policy of taping inmate-attorney phone conversations. According to the Houston Chronicle, "Defense attorneys say the practice is common statewide." The Enterprise opines against the practice, favoring protection of client confidentiality, etc.. They close by pointing out that "Prosecutors wouldn't want defendants listening to their phone conversations. That right should be shared by both sides."

Then, strangely, in an argument as detailed than their own editorial judgment, they add:

ANOTHER VIEW: Continue for safety

Jail inmates need to remember an important reality: They simply do not have many of the same rights that other people enjoy. Most jails have a blanket policy of tape-recording all telephone conversations for a good reason: safety.

Jails are hard enough to run as it is. They are filled with many inmates who are dangerous or violent. Their interaction with outsiders has to be closely monitored, even with attorneys.

Prosecutors do not eavesdrop on these recorded conversations to learn tidbits they can use in court. The attorney-client conversations are simply included in the overall taping that goes on each day - again, for safety.

If this tradition is changed, what could prevent inmates from arguing that they should be able to talk to family members without being recorded? That could lead to all kinds of problems, such as inmates planning additional crimes.

This practice has not been a problem in our criminal justice system. It doesn't need fixing.

Grits finds this editorial construction fascinating: A publication basically arguing with itself, and giving its unnamed, theoretical opposition the last word. Is this a minority opinion from an editorial board member? Views expressed privately by the DA or law enforcement? Something somebody read on the Interwebs? Who knows? And what an argument, elevating this practice to a "tradition," no less!

I especially love the phony, red-herring question, "what could prevent inmates from arguing that they should be able to talk to family members without being recorded?' Uh ... perhaps the fact that attorneys engage in privileged communications with their clients while they're incarcerated and family members do not?

Grits doesn't doubt that recording attorney-client conversations in jail is common, and I wonder how often prosecutors or police sneak a listen, not for evidence to use in court but for leads, potential corroboration, etc.? Especially in high-profile cases where there's pressure to convict, but even under more workaday circumstances, the temptation to do so could be great without managerial checks, logs, etc. restricting who can access the data for what reason.

Possible false convictions from decades past

A pair of stories out this week raise questions about possible false convictions from 25-40 years ago in which new evidence points to the likely real perpetrators.

From the Austin Statesman, check out Chuck Lindell's latest offering, "Mystery filing could bolster prisoner's innocence," reporting on new evidence submitted to a closed court that may end up erasing the conviction of Michael Morton in Williamson County. Wrote Lindell:

Most of the discussion of the Travis County case took place in a closed hearing at the request of Morton's lawyers, who wanted to review the details in greater depth. A court reporter was present for the half-hour hearing, though Harle said the transcripts would be kept from public view, at least for now.

But piecing together statements the lawyers made in open court, the Travis County case appears to be a 1980s-era murder that includes DNA evidence of a suspect who matches the DNA recently discovered on a key piece of evidence in the Morton case — a blue bandanna found at a construction site near the Mortons' Williamson County home.

When Morton was prosecuted in 1987, tests on the cloth determined that the stains were human blood but could not identify who it came from.

But forensic tests conducted this summer over prosecutors' objections discovered that the bandanna contained Christine Morton's blood and the DNA of an unnamed felon with a lengthy record that included convictions for burglary and assault with the intent to kill. That man, identified from samples taken from felons and maintained on the national Combined DNA Index System, was not in prison or police custody as of last August, according to court proceedings.

The DNA evidence in Morton's case appears to point strongly to actual innocence, but Williamson County prosecutors told the court they want to re-test the evidence. (Good thing they didn't destroy it, which Williamson DA John Bradley has argued would prevent inconvenient post-conviction innocence claims like this one.) But that's not the only potential grounds for Mr. Morton gaining post-conviction relief. Yesterday in court, defense attorneys announced they'd discovered in prosecutors' old files evidence that:

suggests prosecutors hid a key piece of evidence that could have raised questions about Morton's guilt — a transcript of a police interview with Christine Morton's mother. That conversation, taped by police 11 days after the murder, revealed that the Mortons' 3-year-old son said that he saw a "monster" hurting his mother and that his father was not home at the time of the attack.

Defense lawyers didn't learn of the transcript until 2008, when it was provided by the sheriff's office under Texas open records laws.

On Monday, [defense attorney John] Raley said he found a summary of the transcript in the district attorney's files. The information gives Morton a second avenue on appeal — a violation of his constitutional right to view evidence that could cast doubt on his guilt — if his innocence claim bogs down.

Meanwhile, a septuagenarian prisoner has confessed to multiple murders committed decades ago for which at least three other people were convicted. Reported Lise Olsen at the Houston Chronicle:

Edward Harold Bell, admitted sex offender, convicted murderer and self-described serial killer, has given multiple chilling confessions from his locked prison cell of abducting and slaying teenage and adolescent girls in the 1970s, describing crimes even now unsolved.

In disturbing letters sent to Harris and Galveston county prosecutors in 1998 - but kept secret for 13 years - Bell claimed to have killed seven girls, including two Galveston 15-year-olds shot as they stood tied up and half naked in the chilly waters of Turner Bayou, according to excerpts and descriptions of Bell's letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

One of the men convicted of crimes Bell now claims he committed, Michael Self, died in prison two years after Bell first began sending his confession letters to prosecutors. Self was:

a League City mechanic, convicted in 1972 for the murder of Sharon Shaw. But his conviction was tainted by corrupt police officers who used Russian roulette to obtain two conflicting confessions and who themselves were later convicted of bank robbery. Self died in prison in 2000. His attorneys say he was never told of Bell's letters.

Self's case reminds me of Timothy Cole, who also died in prison before prosecutors revealed someone else had confessed to the crime for which he was convicted. But corrupt cops obtaining a confession via Russian roulette adds an even darker twist to Self's story.

At least one other case to which Bell confessed also resulted in conviction of others:

Harry Andrew Lanham and an accomplice, Tony Knoppa, were convicted in 1971 in the shooting death of Linda Sutherlin, a 21-year-old Houston woman found dead in Brazoria County. Lanham was awaiting trial for a teen's murder in Montgomery County and was considered a suspect in other cases when he was killed by police in a 1972 escape in Harris County.

No word in the story of what happened to Mr. Knoppa. Cold cases investigators in Galveston had pegged Bell as the likely perpetrator of two other murders in their county, but couldn't nail down enough evidence to bring him to trial.

These cases have a ways to go before courts grant anyone relief based on actual innocence claims, and for those convicted of the crimes Bell claims credit for, two are already dead. But in both these instances, it seems increasingly likely that the wrong people were prosecuted for offenses actually committed by others. As is so often the case, when an innocent person is prosecuted it's a double tragedy: Not only is an injustice done to them, but the guilty person remains free to commit more crimes in the future.

MORE: At the Texas Tribune, Brandi Grissom has identified the 1988 slaying which apparently matched DNA from the Morton case.

UTMB wants out of prison healthcare contract thanks to $61 million out-of-pocket costs

Might universities cease providing health care in the Texas prison system, reverting to TDCJ-employed doctors at the agency's 85 in-prison health clinics? Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman reports:

Making good on an earlier threat, officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are seeking to stop providing medical care to the state's 154,000 convicts at in-prison clinics it now runs.

Prison officials said Thursday the move could trigger a complete restructuring of how Texas provides health care to its prison convicts at a time when mushrooming costs are expected to leave the Galveston school and Texas Tech University tens of millions of dollars in the red.

"This is a fundamental shift they are proposing," said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

In a Nov. 22 letter to Livingston, UTMB proposed ending its 16-year contract with the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee , a state agency created to oversee and monitor prisoners' care, and contracting directly with the prison system.

Dr. David Callender, UTMB's president, said in the letter that the university "is principally interested in continuing to provide offender health care services at UTMB facilities on Galveston Island."

The acute care at the prison hospital is the most lucrative part of the prison health care system; the 85 in-prison clinics have been tagged in the past as money-losers.

UTMB said recently it will be carrying $61 million in debt outside its budget by the end of FY 2011 (next August) to care for Texas prisoners. A recent column in the Galveston Daily News, forwarded to me by an alert reader, argued for exactly this approach, claiming the university should continue to provide hospital services in Galveston but that:

The other 76 percent of the contract makes no sense. That money is spent at the prisons. There is no academic interest there. Doctors are not trained there. Neither are nurses.

The services the medical branch provides are on a contract basis, and the state resolutely has declined to pay for the costs. That leaves the medical branch to cover the debt until the legislature belatedly appropriates the money to cover the bills.

From the state’s point of view, there are several reasons the medical branch should be saddled with that contract. It’s got a good record-keeping system. It’s a leader in telemedicine — and consulting with doctors using remote technologies is far, far less expensive than loading a prisoner in a van and paying guards to haul him halfway across the state.

But from the medical branch’s point of view, there’s no benefit.

Ironically, because of high transportation costs, keeping hospital services in Galveston probably only makes sense if they're providing medical care at the clinics. There's an odd Catch-22 going on here. (As an aside, I guess the whole "telemedicine" thing wasn't the terrific cost saver it was made out to be.)

Really, of course, the solution is for the Legislature to pay what it costs - $9.88 per inmate per day, according to a presentation to TDCJ's board yesterday - for inmate healthcare, which would amount to a $61 million bump in appropriations. But TDCJ has already been ordered to slash $75 million and will likely be subject to even greater cuts before the 82nd Legislature is complete. So how can this work? I'm not sure that the University of Texas just gets to walk away from this contract, but this certainly ups the ante.

I've said it before, but with Texas prisons essentially at capacity and the programming responsible for slowing the rate of increase in inmate numbers presently on the chopping block, it bears repeating at this moment: The only way to solve this nexus of problems is to do exactly what was done at the Texas Youth Commission: Reduce the number of incarcerated inmates by policy, close units, and divert a portion of the savings to diversion programs and in this case, paying the agency's healthcare bills.

These are tough problems facing the Legislature, and particularly all the new freshmen in the House, some of whom will inevitably populate the key committees governing these questions. But there are ways to solve overspending on incarceration while safely cutting the budget. Conservatives at the Lege need only ask themselves: What would Ronald Reagan do? And if they can't recall, one hopes Marc Levin will be around to remind them.

TX Civil Rights Project Publishes Jail Stories from Hurricane Ike

On the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, the Texas Civil Rights Project yesterday released this 34-page report (pdf) on the staff and more than 1,000 inmates who remained in the Galveston County Jail throughout the storm despite a mandatory evacuation order. Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Despite a mandatory evacuation order for Galveston County, and despite the evacuation of all state prison facilities in the path of Ike, now-former Sheriff Gean Leonard failed to evacuate over one thousand men and women in custody at the jail. “The animal shelter down the street was evacuated, but they didn’t evacuate people at the jail,” said Leonard Rodriguez, who was incarcerated at the jail during the hurricane. “They knew it was going to be bad. The guards told us they were talking about writing our social security numbers and birth dates on our arms in permanent marker so that our bodies could be identified if the jail flooded and we drowned,” Rodriguez said.

“The Sheriff’s decision not to evacuate the jail was made without any regard for the conditions that the inmates would be forced to endure after the storm hit,” Lauren Izzo, TCRP prisoner’s rights attorney said. These people for weeks faced filthy, flooded, unsanitary conditions, lack of water, inadequate food, an inability to communicate with loved ones, and a lack of adequate medical treatment.

The stories told by the men and women who were at the jail reveal a shocking disregard for their basic human rights. “There was no water, and the toilets were overflowing onto the floors. We were given buckets to use as toilets and we only had one five gallon container of drinking water to share between 48 people,” said Ray Lazare, who was at the jail during the hurricane. “I saw one guy in my unit get dizzy and slip on the wet floor. He hit his head hard on a bed frame and lost consciousness. It took a long time for the guards to revive him, and all they did was give him a Band-Aid for the gash on his head and a peanut butter sandwich,” said Michael Shane Smith, also at the jail during the storm.

Denise Forteson was three and a half months pregnant when she was at the jail during the storm. Due to the lack of water, Forteson became severely dehydrated and when she developed a urinary tract infection, she couldn’t take antibiotics because they dehydrated her further. “I really thought that I was going to die,” said Forteson. “We all kept thinking about what happened to the prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison during Hurricane Katrina.”

“The county declared a mandatory evacuation, but didn’t even evacuate the one group of people actually in county custody,” said Izzo. “Now that hurricane season is once again upon us, it is imperative to ensure that this sort of human rights violation does not happen again.”

Bottom line, this was an incredibly dumb decision and both the Sheriff and those he left behind got lucky. If the Hurricane had hit the island with full force as predicted before the storm (instead it hit just a shade north), it would have utterly flooded the jail site. What's more, even having survived the storm, the Sheriff's department was needed for other purposes in the storm's aftermath but instead found themselves distracted and unprepared to care for 1,000 prisoners in a disaster zone.

I may post again on this topic once I have a chance to read the whole thing. For now, see coverage of the TCRP report from the Galveston County News and some contemporary Grits coverage:

• Hubris: Galveston Sheriff leaves inmates, deputies in Hurricane's path
• Waiting for word on 1,000 prisoners stranded at Galveston jail
• Galveston jail unprepared for Ike aftermath

UPDATE: See the Houston Chronicle's coverage of the TCRP report. MORE: From Facing South.

What happens with prison healthcare if UTMB fails to rebuild?

According to an article titled "Emergency!" by Mimi Swartz at Texas Monthly, the University of Texas System may decide not to rebuild the UT Medical Branch at Galveston after Hurricane Ike, facilities which include the hospital responsible for most of the state prison system and "telemedicine" infrastructure that serves 80% of Texas prisoners.

Cheering state Sen. Steve Ogden's efforts to insist UTMB be rebuilt, Swartz predicts that:

unless Ogden prevails, UTMB will face inevitable death. Ogden is keenly aware that as an Aggie challenging the most powerful teasips, he’s vulnerable to criticism that he has it in for A&M’s longtime rival. Even so, he’s persisted. He understands that the proposed reduction in the number of hospital beds means a reduction in the number of patients needed to support a viable medical school; in order to become the best doctors, students need patients with a variety of illnesses and injuries. Victims of local emergencies, from car accidents to refinery explosions, would no longer have a Level I trauma center at their disposal; they’d have to depend on an ambulance or a helicopter to get them to Houston. Certainly Galveston’s residents would suffer financially and medically with a reduced UTMB, but so too would all the overcrowded public hospitals in Texas that would then have to take in more uninsured patients, or simply turn them away without treatment. “The longer the hospital stays out of commission the more people forget,” one longtime Island resident told me.

Maybe that’s just what the regents are hoping for.

To be fair, Swartz's article and Sen. Ogden understate the enormous problems with investing so much in infrastructure on a hurricane-prone barrier island. It's possible that's just an untenable idea that must be fundamentally reconsidered. But if UTMB isn't going to rebuild its medical infrastructure in Galveston, that leaves as an open question what happens to prison health care UTMB was previously providing through that facility.

Galveston jail unprepared for Ike aftermath

When the Galveston Sheriff chose to make jail inmates and deputies ride out Hurricane Ike despite warnings to evacuate or face "certain death," the justification was that the jail was on high ground and built to withstand hurricane force winds.

That overlooked two important factors: First, the main risk was flooding; fortunately the worst of Ike barely missed Galveston, but here's the official pre-storm prediction of how a worst-case scenario would have engulfed the jail along with the rest of the island had it happened. (The blog Facing South has an update including post-storm pictures of the jail released yesterday by the Sheriff.)

Second, and this is the problem they're struggling with now - once the storm has passed the jail is stranded in a disaster area with no electricity, running water or working toilets, reported the Houston Chronicle:

"We've been trying to get some power hooked up inside the justice center," [jail architect Dudley] Anderson said. "There's a small one in there now, but they need power." ...

Anderson said the only generator in the jail this morning was supplying a small operator area. He had another generator ready to help a bit with air flow, but the large generators expected from the federal government are what he's frustrated about. ...

Anderson said that, without air circulating in the closed facility in this climate, mold and mildew can start growing everywhere. The lack of water and properly working toilet facilities exacerbates the problem, he said. ...

Anderson said that, despite his frustration, he has had cooperation from two fronts: the weather and the inmates.

He said some of the inmates helped him repair the small generator that works in the control area.

And, he said, without the good weather these past few days, the jail area would be in a far worse situation.

It's certainly good news that no one was hurt during the storm at the jail, but that still doesn't make leaving the inmates there a good idea and this story shows why. Just like after Hurricane Katrina, the devastating aftermath in Galveston will continue for quite a while after the storm surge has officially passed. Any idiot could have predicted there would be no electricity and a "lack of water and properly working toilet facilities" at the jail. (A local church is providing charity packages for jailers, but not for inmates.)

Galveston officials are complaining to the press that FEMA hasn't reacted quickly enough to bail them out of their bad decision, but FEMA didn't force the Sheriff to keep his jailers and inmates on the island contrary to evacuation warnings, particularly when his jail doen't have sufficient generators to keep the lights on or air circulation flowing.

Staying on the island wasn't a very wise choice on the Sheriff's part. As I wrote on Friday, many Galveston inmates were sitting in jail awaiting trial or for low-level offenses who could have been released if the county had planned ahead. The rest should have been moved, just like they did with TDCJ inmates and at other coastal jails. Although the threat from the storm has passed, Galveston Island remains essentially uninhabitable and everyone pretty much knew it would be that way at the time the Sheriff made the decision not to move the inmates.

Waiting for word on 1,000+ stranded at Galveston jail (Updated)

Still no word on what happened with the 1,000 inmates and their jailers stranded at the Galveston County jail during Hurricane Ike. Perhaps we may find small comfort in the notion that if full-blown tragedy had struck there it would likely have been reported by now.

However, I can still find no report from any media outlet on the stranded inmates written after the storm passed. Things must be quite a mess right now. Did the jail flood? If so, how badly? What happened at the peak of the storm?

I'm sure their electricity is out. How about potable water? Toilets? How are they being fed? Was anyone hurt? Were there any health crises during or after the storm? The Sheriff reportedly only left behind a skeleton crew to manage these responsibilities.

Did the Sheriff stay at the jail himself or just abandon his deputies and inmates and skedaddle? For that matter, did all the assigned deputies stay, or did they abandon their posts and leave the prisoners behind as happened during Katrina?

There are so many unanswered questions. Any reader with information or who sees news coverage on the topic please let us know in the comments.

Let's hope that the storm's last minute shift in course, which spared the island from Ike's greatest fury, also kept folks in the jail safe. But I'm thinking this dastardly decision cannot be allowed to stand as precedent.

After every major emergency like this we learn things that allow laws and policies to be adjusted heading into the next incident. For example, after guns were confiscated from New Orleans residents post-Katrina leaving law abiding folks at the mercy of looters and criminals, the 80th Texas Legislature passed a statute insisting that law enforcement could not confiscate weapons during an emergency.

There will be similar lessons to be learned from Hurricane Ike during the 81st Texas Legislature next spring, and one of them should definitely be to formally require jails in mandatory evacuation areas to evacuate their inmates, especially when they're kept on the first floor as is apparently the case in Galveston. TDCJ does it, and their prisoners are a lot bigger security risk than county jail inmates.

UPDATE: Good news! A Dailykos diarist who picked up the story refers us to IngeniousGirl who brings this report:

I just talked to Deputy at the jail - here is what I learned. ... The Deputy would not give me her name, but she told me that the inmates are safe ...

Plenty of heat, food, water, and the facility is 2 years old and is safe

She also said, the jail is not flooded.

All's well that ends well, but this was still a terrible judgement by the Sheriff that shouldn't be allowed in the future. Buildings can be constructed that withstand hurricane force winds, but on barrier islands like Galveston, flooding is the biggest danger. Everyone who chose to stay, including the jailers and inmates left behind, must count themselves lucky the storm shifted course at the last minute. If it hadn't the jail could have become the site of a serious tragedy.

NUTHER UPDATE (9/15): Here's the first MSM report letting us know everybody at the jail got by okay.

Hubris: Galveston Sheriff leaves inmates, deputies, in hurricane's path

Galveston Island residents were told to flee Hurricane Ike or face "certain death," but the Sheriff has inexplicably decided not to evacuate 1,000 prisoners from the county jail, even though serious flooding has already begun.

It's bad enough to risk the inmates' lives, but downright bizarre to me that the Sheriff is willing to risk his deputies. The National Hurricane Center has predicted waves that will top Galveston's seawall potentially by several meters, which would easily flood the town. Take a look at these scary projections of how much flooding might occur if Ike does its worst.

"We did this during (Hurricane) Rita (in 2005) and no one knew until it was absolutely done," said a Sheriff's spokesman. Of course, Rita didn't hit Galveston Island directly and there was never a serious risk that it would breach the seawall. By contrast, with Ike still two hundred miles away, the surge has already raised water levels more than five feet, with 25 foot surges expected.

In 1900, more than 8,000 people died on Galveston Island after a major hurricane (pictured). The Sheriff is definitely tempting fate to take such a risk.

UPDATE (9/13): The Galveston Daily News reported last night before the storm fully hit quoting a mother who'd spoken to her son in the jail:

“He said, ‘Mom. I’m worried, scared and hungry. All of us are here cramped into this little room on the first floor. The flood waters are rising and we’re not going to evacuate.’”

Nuzzo said her son didn’t see water in the jail, but heard it was rising on the island.

“I called but they’re not answering the phones. It’s ludicrous they left the inmates there.”

Tuttoilmondo said the jail is primarily one level. Its phones were ringing all day

So from this we learn that the jail is a one-story structure, while most of the people who stayed in Galveston lived on the second or third floor, which is why they thought they'd survive widespread flooding. Besides, those folks chose to stay; inmates were put in this situation by the Sheriff. The whole thing sounds like a recipe for disaster potentially worse, even, than the abandonment of thousands of prisoners in the New Orleans jail during Katrina.

The Sheriff's decision tees me off the more I think about it. If he didn't stay at the jail himself along with the prisoners and the deputies he left behind, the man frankly should be run out of town on a rail when the Hurricane is past.

I checked the most recent (Aug. 1) Galveston jail population report (pdf) which showed 1009 inmates at that time, about the same number in the jail now. The majority of them, 653, hadn't yet been convicted but were sitting in jail awaiting trial; 264 of those were charged with a misdemeanor or state jail felonies (low level drug and property crimes). The Sheriff said these prisoners couldn't be moved for security reasons, but that's a bogus claim. The truth is he could have RELEASED most of them without harming security.

NUTHER UPDATE: Officials announced at 9:30 p.m. last night that there was no Ike-related loss of life, but I can't find any reports mentioning the jail from after when the bulk of the storm hit. I found some tidal data for Galveston showing the surge - nearly eight feet above normal levels around 3 a.m. - has gone back down, thank heavens. But that's high enough to risk drowning inmates on the first floor if those floodwaters reached the jail. What security concerns could justify such a risk?

AND MORE: Still no word on the jail. There was an earlier report that six feet of water surged into the county courthouse next door, but this morning CNN reports "The storm flooded the historic district with 7 feet of water, which has since subsided to 4 feet, according to a Galveston county official. A foot of water flooded the city's main courthouse, where many people rode out the storm." If folks in the courthouse are okay, that's also a good omen, one would think, for the stranded jail inmates. Other areas of Galveston were harder hit. According to the New York Times:

[Fire] Chief Varela said flooding in the city was from 8 to 10 feet deep in some areas. On the way to a fire that his department couldn’t reach, he said he saw a pickup truck that had water over its roof.

“The low-lying neighborhoods are extremely flooded right now,” he said.

STILL NO WORD: As of this morning, Governor Perry's spokespers said she "did not know about any Ike-related deaths and did not have any information about inmates at a jail on Galveston that was not evacuated."