Inmates about to be moved due to heat issues
It’s been a busy summer for prison bus drivers in Texas. First a federal court order prompted Texas prison officials to move vulnerable inmates at a geriatric unit into air conditioned facilities, and only weeks later an epic hurricane triggered evacuations at three prisons along the swollen Brazos River.
Now, a new court order has caused the Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials to hit the roads again.
Beginning Friday, officials said they’d move the majority of a Rosharon facility’s inmates who were housed during Hurricane Harvey in a non-air-conditioned facility in Navasota, to a third site in Beaumont. More than 700 heat-sensitive evacuees were expected to be transferred.
The decision to move the Rosharon evacuees to Navasota to escape extensive flooding brought about this new series of transfers.
Once the inmates evacuated from the A.M. “Mac” Stringfellow Unit set foot at the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota, they were protected under a standing emergency injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison, requiring cool living quarters to heat- vulnerable inmates.
Ellison ruled in July that the indoor living conditions were dangerous for vulnerable Pack inmates, and prison officials opted to move the Pack inmates rather than pay to install temporary air conditioning. The judge approved the plan to move vulnerable Pack inmates to air-conditioned prisons began in early August, leaving the rural facility mostly vacant.
During the storm, officials decided to make use of the space available at Pack Unit, citing it as an extraordinary circumstance in which they needed to consider inmates’ safety and facilities they could get to without traversing flooded areas.
Jeff Edwards, an Austin attorney for a class action by the Pack inmates, called TDCJ’s leadership short-sighted, saying it would have been easier to provide temporary air-conditioning on site in the first place.
“At some point, the leadership at this agency has to be held accountable not just for its indifference but also its incompetence,” Edwards said.
The judge issued his original order in a civil rights lawsuit brought by Pack Unit inmates, who sued after 23 inmates died of heat exposure at Texas prisons.
Ellison’s second order issued last week extends the injunction to heat-sensitive Stringfellow evacuees who were taken to the Pack Unit.
Buses were expected to complete the transfer of 710 inmates on Friday, with heat-sensitive Stringfellow evacuees moving from the Pack Unit to the Richard P. LeBlanc facility in Beaumont. In addition, 382 inmates housed at Travis State Jail, who were part of the initial heat-vulnerable group at Pack, were also being transferred to LeBlanc, according to Jason Clark, the TDCJ spokesman.
In all, Clark said he expects 3,352 inmates will board buses and change facilities in the coming days to accommodate the heat-related transfers, although some of these may include the same inmate boarding a bus twice.
Clark said it was a extensive logistical undertaking to comply with the judge’s order.