Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Years-long isolation of inmates under attack

By DANE SCHILLER HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Spread among 22 prisons, Texas has more inmates in so-called "ad-seg" than most other states in the nation. They have been deemed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to be "confirmed" members of gangs, too organized, predatory and violent to mix with the 150,000 prisoners in general populations. 

They serve their time in cages of about 9 feet by 7 feet with cement walls outfitted with solid steel doors or bars covered with mesh."We ain't the most likeable or most welcomed group in society," concedes 38-year-old Anastacio Garcia, a robber from the Rio Grande Valley who has been in isolation here for 15 years. "We sit here day in and day out, basically rotting ourselves away."
Another 4,000 or so inmates are serving temporary stints in ad-seg as punishment for breaking rules or being escape risks. Their cells are identical to those on death row. The American Civil Liberties Union and others contend ad-seg imprisonment is cruel and makes inmates meaner and more dysfunctional by the time they are freed

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7699504.html#ixzz1VERssein

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Backgate Says : 

The media along with the general public's perception of Administrative Segregation is way off base. Ad-seg is full of violent gang members, problematic major disciplinary  prone offenders, and escape risks. These offenders have proven themselves worthy of their assignment to that status. At what point are these offenders held accountable for placing themselves in one of those categories to win a stint in ad-seg ? Or even the fact that they willingly committed crimes on the outside that society saw fit to put them behind bars for in the first place. I invite the media to spend a full shift in a Texas prison working the Ad-Seg wing before making a judgement based on perception gained in an office setting watching prison based reality shows on TV...

What are your thoughts ?







3 comments:

  1. You're breaking my heart. Poor convicted felons. Here's an idea, what if these thugs could only FOLLOW THE RULES. . .END OF PROBLEM.

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  2. backgate i agree with u on ad-seg cause that is where i work. let these pencil pushers spend 1 day when there r uses of force and let them see first hand what we go thru on a daily basis.these thugs throw piss and shit on u because they can,they spit on u cause they think it is funny. ok pencil pusher sucking up the ac 8 hrs a day come on and deal with this on a daily basis but i think they might change there minds so they wont get their 1000 dollar suit dirty. these r CONVICTED FELONS look it up u ac sucking weenies.

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  3. you know it's not as simple as "follow the rules" my husband who is severly mentaly ill and just diagnosed in the last year was sentenced to 30 years after vernon state drs. deemed him severly bi-polar and paranoid schizophrenic and in competant. doesn't help he is quite a bit smaller than 85 %.3 days before x-mas he was somehow able to get his hands on a substantial amount of meth.( how is that possible #1),and had a psychotic break. he is now in fergusson for God knows how long. and through it all he has recieved no kind of treatment whatsoever. saddest of all... drs. believe with meds and therapy he would stand an outstanding chance at a nearly close to normal life. he/ we will never get that chance. so screw all of you who think EVERYONE there deserves to be there. oh yeah"best part"....his mental break; was brought on by him being falsely accused of a severe crime that was recanted but yet he was still convicted.

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