Inmate transfer process takes off
First bus carries 43 passengers at risk of heatstroke to cooler facility
NAVASOTA — A plain, white school bus left the Wallace Pack Unit under moonlit skies Wednesday morning, transporting the first group of more than 1,000 heat-sensitive inmates to cooler climes under federal court order.
The bus entered the rural Grimes County facility at 4:13 a.m. and returned around 5 a.m. along an access road that smelled of fresh manure, likely emanating from the prison’s swine and cattle operations.
The air-conditioned bus carried 43 passengers, officials said, but its windows reflected only the dark night sky.
The predawn transit marked a major turning point in a legal battle over inmates’ living conditions at the Pack Unit that has played out in a closely watched civil rights lawsuit.
“This is the first time that the department has taken actual steps which we can say for certain will reduce the risk that these inmates will suffer a senseless heatstroke,” said Jeff Edwards, the lead lawyer representing the Pack inmates.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials assured U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in a Houston courtroom Tuesday that this Blue Bird bus outfitted for correctional use would be air-conditioned, as would all other vehicles used to deliver elderly and medically compromised inmates from the sweltering conditions in the Pack quarters.
Ellison ordered prison officials to complete the transfers within three
weeks, giving what he said was sufficient time for “a massive move of humanity.”
Just one bus left the Pack Unit on Wednesday with 43 heatsensitive inmates headed for the Mark W. Stiles Unit, a facility near Beaumont that can accommodate CPAP machines and other medical devices, officials said.
“The transfer went smoothly, and we do not anticipate any issues at this time,” TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday. “The agency has significant experience in moving inmates and doing so in a safe and secure manner.”
Two transports are set for Thursday, with more on Saturday. The bulk of the transfers to 11 air-conditioned facilities around the state is set to take place next week, another official said.
Inmates displaced by the Pack Unit transfers will move to state prisons that are not airconditioned, but the move will be temporary — the state plans to return the Pack inmates to the Navasota site once the hot weather subsides.
Inside the prison, inmates were told to gather only legal papers, hygiene products and personal fans.
The rest will be shrinkwrapped and loaded onto pallets for transport, according to Gaylyn Dutton, whose 55-year-old son, Stephen Parker, is serving his sentence at the Pack Unit.
Dutton said her son, who has hypertension, called to tell her 100 inmates had been moved to the gym for the next group of transfers. He wasn’t one of them.
“He sounded real down, just not knowing what’s going to happen, just the uncertainty of not knowing,” she said. “He doesn’t know how soon they will let him know and tell them to get on board.”
Dutton questioned why the prison system couldn’t just add a cooling system to the Pack Unit.
“They could have used the money they used to fight (the lawsuit) to take care of the problem and not have to move a bunch of people,” she said. “I’ve heard of too many accidents. Everybody I’ve talked to on Facebook, the mothers, that’s a concern.”
The rapid-fire transfers also stirred concerns among prison guards.
“The transfer of so many has everyone on needles to make sure that it’s done quickly yet accurately,” said one guard, who asked not to be identified because he did not have permission to comment.
A group of inmates at the minimum-security Pack Unit filed a federal lawsuit in 2014, accusing the state of violating their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment and the Americans with Disabilities Act after a series of heat-related deaths.
The unit houses more than 1,400 inmates, many of whom are elderly, mobility impaired or have health problems.
In July, Ellison issued a temporary injunction ordering the state to find cooler living quarters for Pack Unit inmates who are vulnerable to heat.
In a court hearing Tuesday, officials finalized plans for the transfers and outlined potential adjustments to the prison’s heat wave policy.
The suit is being closely watched by civil rights groups and inmate advocates who see its potential to turn the tide in Texas. More than 30,000 inmates in Texas have been designated as sensitive to “extreme temperature” because of age, health conditions or medicines they take, according to documents obtained by the Chronicle through the state open records law.