Prison staff
Welcome to Doctor’s Note. Today’s guest is an inmate well call Yishai. Here is his story: When people return to your communities from Texas prisons, have been run through the wringer of injustice, marginalization and cruelty. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) staff have taken upon themselves to be the enactors of punishment on inmates. Never mind the hardships of separation from society, family and friends, the inability to support one’s self and family, the inability to freely mobilize, the stripping of decision making, the limitation of Constitutional rights and stripping away of dignity with order after order to get naked, staff feels the need of barbarism. After years of dealing with the state employees who are hellbent on making prison life miserable and the lack of accountability to prevent it, ticking time bombs are released into society under the false flag of rehabilitated. When things go south, it’s claimed as a monster being a monster. Within the next few paragraphs we will explore some of TDCJ’s employee’s blatant disregard for policy which causes the criminal justice experience to be cruel and unusual.
One of the most common causes of contention is staff’s inability to adhere to TDCJ policy of hourly access to and from cells. This lackadaisical attitude has a domino effect of a myriad of problems. When inmates can not access their property on a regular basis, they have to either keep more property with themselves or store items close to their cell door for access. Both of which are policy violations. Staff force inmates to go three to six hours without granting access to their cell or from their cell. This is exasperated as temperatures reach the 90s and the 100s and inmates are trying to escape high temperature cells and seeking cold water or more air flow. The risk of having to spend hours in the day room with a bunch of knuckleheads encourages inmates to skip out on appointments which is again a policy violation. It is torture to not be able to lay down when tired or not get to shower when needed even though policy provides that access. The problem is systematic. Therefore, there is no getting ranking officers to remedy the problem. The forms that track staff’s compliance with ingress and egress (access into cells, access out of cells) are fraudulently completed, and no one reviews camera for complaints. This system is maddening.
Staff are held to speak to inmates in a respectful manner according to TDCJ policy. Unfortunately, it is common to hear guards yelling and berating inmates, even in front of their supervisors. Inmates are often met with a tirade of expletives and insults and there is really no recourse for the policy violation. Staff only need to say “I didn’t do that.” This aggressive instigation of an altercation is often met with equal or greater aggression in which the inmate is the only one held accountable. In my experience, I’ve noticed the more ignorantly you speak to staff, the more respectful staff becomes. Again, this is a maddening and unfruitful experience.
The TDCJ has Administrative Directives, Board Policies and Executive Directives which provides the rules, regulations and policies that govern the operation of the Agency. If followed, prison is strict, but rehabilitative. Instead of holding staff to know and follow rules, regulations and policies, and holding staff accountable for their violations of policy, the administration has encouraged cruel and unusual conditions by turning a blind eye to complaints and conditions in Texas prison. The end result is creating even more callous individuals who have learned where they’ve failed, and where others have failed and they have an greater disdain for people in authority.
This is who Texas citizens can look forward to being released into their communities after TDCJ. On that note, sleep well Texans.
This is Dr. Jeremy James. Thanks to Yishai for today’s insight. Thank you all for visiting today’s blog. Good day.