Texas Prison Conditions

Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plumb in my own backyard (Bryan/College Station) with this gem from the Texas A&M Battalion. Student journalist, Travis Holland, wrote this piece about the "cushy" conditions in Texas State prisons. In 23 comments to date, the informed public have ripped into Travis with a vengeance. Some of the comments so far:

Hate to tell you this is BS! I worked for TDCJ for many years, NO A/C and the there is 1 TV for 400 inmates (that the guards watch most of the time);

I'm sorry, but for every case of the Texas Prison System being too lax, there are PLENTY of cases where the system is being far too strict, bordering on (if not certainly) torturing prisoners - and this is NOT just in private prisons in the state, but in state ran ones;

I hate to tell you this but, your facts are completely incorrect. What about the innocent people in prison do they deserve the hell they live day in and day out. Until you have someone in the dept. of corrections you have no idea what things are like in there. You make a generalization that all inmates are terrible and all guards are saints. That is simply not the case;

I cannot believe the immaturity of this article and how factless it is. Until you have lived the torture of a loved one trapped in the Texas department of corrections you have no right to make the conclusions you have made;

What most Americans think is that they are too righteous and good to ever be caught up in the penal system. Surprise, on any given day in an unanticipated moment of anger, desperation, or perhaps even by accident any one of us may be facing a future behind bars. I am a former Texas sheriff and have long thought and stated that from 12-15% of inmates in Texas, and probably across the nation, are incarcerated for something they did not do.

I don't know if these folks are registered to vote or have Texas driver's licenses, but I sure hope they start showing up for jury duty in Brazos County. We just might start getting some justice around here.