In six years, Texas has built a “lifer’s row” filled with 398 prisoners who will never be released through parole – a fast-growing group that already has outpaced the number of inmates serving a death sentence in the Lone Star State, a Houston Chronicle analysis of prison records shows.

Harris County prosecutors, who historically have led the state in seeking death sentences, have so far also been the most aggressive in pursuing capital murder charges and obtaining mandatory life without parole sentences in capital cases. Report by chron.com.

Texas became the last of the death penalty states to approve life without parole in September 2005, after Harris County prosecutors dropped their opposition to the change. The law applies only to offenders convicted of capital murder.

For the first time, it gave jurors and prosecutors a non-death sentence that guaranteed someone convicted of killing a child, killing multiple victims, slaying a police officer or committing another capital crime could not be released on parole.

In all, 110 Harris County offenders have been sentenced to life without parole since the law took effect, compared with 11 death sentences.

“Harris County is a tough law and order county on the really bad actors. That hasn’t changed,” said First Assistant District Attorney James Leitner.

The change has led to fewer death sentences in Texas and nationwide.

Fifty-one people were sentenced to life without parole in Dallas County. Tarrant County had 26; Bexar County had 22.

Texas offenders convicted of capital murder were six times more often sentenced to life without parole than to death: 66 people got death sentences compared with the 398 lifers. The life without parole law has been used in about one third of all Texas counties at least once, the Chronicle’s analysis of state prison records shows.

Recent sentences

Nationally, it’s viewed as a less expensive option that offers the benefit of being reversible – unlike a death sentence – if innocence evidence or other information becomes available after the fact, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

“Texas is certainly down, and life without parole is definitely playing a role there,” Dieter said. “And other states have found that as well.”

One of the most recent no-parole sentences went to former Houston Fifth Ward Pastor Tracy Bernard “T.B.” Burleson, 44, convicted earlier this year of persuading his 21-year-old son to shoot his 56-year-old wife, Pauletta, May 18, 2010.

“He could have been injected, but they gave him life, and I’m satisfied with that … I know I can’t bring my sister back. But he’s going to have ample time where he’s going to think about what he did,” said Fannie J. Aaron, the victim’s sister. “And that’s a lifetime. He won’t be able to get out and take someone else’s life.”

In August, Omar Javier Torres, arrested in North Carolina after two years on the lam, received a life without parole sentence for breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and shooting her boyfriend.

The no-parole option has been most controversial when used against juveniles; the U.S. Supreme Court last year issued a ruling in Graham v. Florida that banned the sentences for youths convicted of non-homicide offenses. Other appeals are pending.

Juvenile offenders

From September 2005 to September 2009, Texas allowed life without parole prison sentences for juvenile offenders who had been certified to stand trial as adults. The law was subsequently changed to bar such punishment. By then, 21 people sentenced for crimes they committed before age 18 had been sentenced, including eight from Harris County.

Chris Joshua Meadoux, the only juvenile offender serving life without parole from San Antonio, was convicted of killing two friends when he was 16.

Meadoux appealed his no-parole sentence to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that “juveniles are unfinished creatures whom we cannot label as irretrievably depraved.” He lost the appeal in November 2010.

Seventeen women are serving life without parole. Two were juvenile offenders. One is Ashley Ervin, a former Harris County area honor student sentenced for her role at 17 as the driver for a murderous robbery ring led by older males.

Minority groups

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit critical of the national explosion in such sentences, argued the offenders are more likely to come from impoverished minority groups who sometimes get unfairly targeted by police.

“We see that around the country that the race differences in life sentences are generally more extreme,” he said.

So far in Texas, 76 percent of the state’s “lifers” are minorities, compared with 70 percent of death row inmates.

Tammy Lifers, Texas

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) - Just hours ago the Nacogdoches County courthouse was busy with inmates making pleas before any indictment.

The “Jail Call” helped clear-out cells, but it adds to the case load of probation officers. Report by KTRE.

Half the jail was called to the courthouse. In all, about twenty inmates made the trip. Many pleaded guilty to their crimes, allowing them to get out of jail on probation.

“We have a wide range of sanctions that we use. Of course, with jail being the last one,” said Probation Officer Ty McCarty.

In the initial meeting, probation officers tell new probationers the importance of not messing up. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against them.

“It’s a little bit pessimistic I think for all of us when anyone goes on probation just because there is a pretty good likelihood that they’re not going to successfully complete the probation,” said Nacogdoches County District Attorney Nicole Lostracco.

Many probationers have a difficult time finding steady, good-paying jobs. They tend to be stuck in a cycle of poverty. Consequently, they can’t always meet the financial obligations associated with probation.

Lostracco also notes many probations are revoked over silly things as opposed to heinous crimes.

“Failure to do community service. How tough is that? My personal favorite, failure to report. All you have to do is show up and say here I am this month,” said Lostracco.

Many probationers take chances, knowing jail is usually the last sanction….and for some a trip to prison isn’t a deterrent at all.

“We don’t like to see anyone go to jail. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to help somebody whose made a mistake and learn from it,” said McCarty.

A lot of people are learning the tough lesson. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, one quarter of Americans on parole or probation are in Texas.

According to a Texas Department of Criminal justice report… There was a 58-percent increase in probation revocations from 1994 to 2000.

That’s for probationers sent to prison for rules violations.

As a result, Texas taxpayers shelled-out $470 million dollars in 2001, paying for their imprisonment.

Tammy Probation and Parole, TX Nacogdoches County

Life on the outside proved too much for one Texas man.

Life outside of prison proved overwhelming for a Texas man, who set a house on fire months after his release so he could go back behind bars.

Randall Lee Church, 46, spent 26 years behind bars for stabbing a man to death, and when he was released in April, he found freedom too much to take. He missed his old prison job.  Report by NBC Connecticut.

“Everything had gone fast forward without me,” he told the San Antonio Express-News from Bexar County Jail. “I didn’t know how to use computers or cell phones or the Internet. The weirdest thing was walking into a store, like Walmart, and have parents hide their children from me, like I was supposed to jump at them.”

On July 10, three months after his release, Church poured gasoline through a window of an empty house, then threw in flaming rags and paper towels. He admitted his crime to police and has already pleaded guilty.

Church’s original crime in 1983 was stabbing a pal named James Alfred Michael in a fight over $97 Michael, correctly, accused Church of stealing.

Tammy Probation and Parole, Recidivism, TX Bexar County

Bexar County TX Commissioners’ Court voted to extend the GEO Group’s contract to manage the Central Texas Detention Facility in San Antonio, according to the SA Business Journal.

The 685-bed facility, which is owned by Bexar County, houses detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service. Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO has managed the facility since 1988. The new contract will have an effective date of April 29, 2009, and will last for 10 years. Officials with GEO expect the latest contract will generate $11 million in annualized operating revenues for the company at full occupancy.

“The Central Texas Detention Facility plays an important role in addressing the need for federal detention bed-space along the southern border of the United States,” says GEO Chairman and CEO George C. Zoley. “We look forward to strengthening our public-private partnership with Bexar County and the U.S. Marshals Service.”

vericatrajkova GEO, Private Prisons, TX Bexar County, Texas, US Marshall's Service

The Texas House has tentatively approved keeping the Texas Youth Commission a separate entity until 2021, skirting recommendations to roll the duties of the state’s juvenile prison system into a new state agency.  Report from the Dallas Morning News.

The Sunset Advisory Commission periodically reviews state agencies to eliminate waste, duplication and inefficiency. In January, it recommended that TYC and the state’s juvenile probation system by abolished and their duties rolled into a new Texas Juvenile Justice Department.   The House sunset bill instead creates an oversight board to help coordinate and improve the two agencies. The bill also requires the sunset commission to report back to lawmakers in 2011 on where TYC is in enacting reforms.   Those reforms were created by the 2007 Legislature after alleged sexual abuse of inmates by TYC staff.

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, Texas

State regulators may force Dallas County TX to move up to 900 prisoners out of its largest and most-populated jail tower because of lingering fire-safety concerns.  Report from the Dallas Morning News.

If so, the county would probably have to reopen the Decker jail that was recently depopulated so the county could centralize its jail operations on the Lew Sterrett Justice Center campus.  The moving of so many prisoners would not only be costly at a time when the county is staring at a $60 million budget shortfall, it also would create logistical headaches.  Because the north tower jail houses those accused of the most serious crimes, the question would be where to put them. Decker can hold up to 1,080 inmates but it is a minimum-security jail. The new $65 million south tower jail that recently opened can take another 400 inmates, officials say. But it doesn’t have high-risk inmates because its guards work inside inmate housing areas …

Faulty smoke-detection and removal systems there contributed to the county’s seventh-straight failed inspection in March. If the jail commissioners are not satisfied with the county’s progress, they might consider rescinding a 1994 exception to state rules that allowed the county to add 928 extra bunks to the north tower’s cells, some county officials say …

The county’s temporary plan is to install a portable exhaust fan system to help suck smoke out of the building, Price said. It will consist of gigantic fans with hoses that will plug into ports in the cells.  The longer-term solution is to hire a firm to re-balance the north tower’s air-handling system …  Ryan Brown, the county budget director, estimated that those fixes would cost a half-million dollars and take about six months to complete. Also, the county will replace about 1,600 smoke detectors at $100 each, he said.  ”My hope is that they can see we’ve done enough on a temporary basis to improve safety,” Commissioner Mike Cantrell said. “We’re trying to offer a solution.”

There is a great deal more data and background in the complete article.

vericatrajkova County-State Issues, TX Dallas County, Texas

An audit released by City Hall this morning shows that Dallas TX taxpayers could have saved about $2.2 million if the city had done a better job updating its jail contract with the county.  Report from Dallas Morning News.

Each year, the city and the county enter into an agreement in which the city hands over about $7 million for the county to handle its prisoners. According to the audit, the city hasn’t revised that agreement since 1997. And the agreement doesn’t account for “actual jail operating expenditures,” the audit stated.  So even as the number of city prisoners in the jail has fallen, from more than 85,000 in 2006 to about 61,000 last year, the city’s costs have increased.

Had the city revised its agreement with the county to tie costs to the number of prisoners held, it “would have save the City $2,161,787 from Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 through FY 2008,” the audit stated.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, TX Dallas County, Texas

Texas prison inmates are making routine phone calls for the first time.  The Texas prison board was told Friday the first of a planned systemwide program of telephone service to be available to most inmates began working this week at the Henley State Jail in Dayton, east of Houston. The system is being phased in this year throughout the 112 units of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the nation’s second-largest corrections agency.  Story from the Houston Chronicle.

Three more prisons — Vance, in Fort Bend County; Luther, in Grimes County; and Hobby, in Falls County — are to have phone service next week and should be among 13 brought up in April. Another 31 become active in May and the entire system should be up by the end of September, said Paul Cooper, director and general manager of corrections markets for Embarq Corp., the Overland Park, Kan.-based company that last year was awarded a seven-year contract with the Texas prison agency [to use Securus Technologies software] …

The new system will allow inmates up to 15 minutes per call to friends and family on an approved list of visitors. Calls to crime victims or the victims’ families will be barred … Phone privileges won’t extend to about 36,000 inmates with disciplinary problems, gang affiliations or those on death row … State prison officials long had opposed expanded phone access, fearing inmates could maintain their criminal connections to the outside world. But officials say technology has improved so the calls can be monitored, recorded and limited to those on the list of approved contacts.

There is considerably more detail and background in the full article at the Houston Chronicle.

vericatrajkova Inmate Telephones, Texas

The Randall County TX Sheriff’s Department want to reduce the cost of running their jail.  They have a bare bones Prisoner Re-Entry Education program in place, and this week they applied for a Federal grant to expand and improve the program.  Report (including video) by KFDA-TV.

It costs taxpayers $58 a day per inmate at the Randall County Jail. The Sheriff’s Department’s Prisoner Re-Entry Program is aimed at saving money. Sheriff Joel Richardson says, ”If we only affect [recidivism] by only half a percent or one percent we have made a big, big difference” …

Jail Administrator Captain Debbie Unruh says the program has specific goals. “First [they'll] be employed. That’s a requirement. They’ll learn to budget their money. They will start a savings account. They buy groceries. They cook, they clean, they do their own laundry” … Richardson warns this program is no walk in the park, but says it’s worth it. “This is not a fuzzy, feel good program. It will be a harder program than just sitting in jail.”

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Re-Entry, TX Randall County

At a midday rally in Austin TX, one speaker recalled how Daniel Nagle, a correctional officer at the tougher-than-nails McConnell prison near Beeville, predicted that someone would have to die before lawmakers listened to their demands for a pay raise. Thirteen days later, Nagle was dead, brutally stabbed by a convict.

“We are waiting and watching,” said Brian Olsen, executive director of a prison officers’ union, which rallied 400 correctional at the State Capitol today seeking a 20-percent pay increase — a jump that would move Texas from 48th in the nation in correctional pay to midway.  “We are not giving up … We remember Daniel Nagle’s words” …

Texas’ prison system has been chronically short of guards for more than a decade, so short that officials were forced to close parts of some prisons because they did not have enough staff to safely operate them. The agency is about 2,300 officers short now, down from nearly 4,000 in September 2007. “If they can find money for everything else, they can find money for us,” said Don McCoy, a 28-year veteran at the 1,100-convict Powledge Unit near Palestine in northeast Texas. “We’ll be back, again and again, until they approve it.”

Inside the domed statehouse, as budget writers continued work, the 20-percent pay hike proposed by prison officials last summer continued to shrink.  Last week, a House work group tentatively approved a 5-percent increase and put the rest on a long “wish list” of state needs. A Senate work group recommended the entire $450 million hike, but by today there were reports that only a 10-percent increase might survive …

In their proposed budget, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials sought 20-percent raises for correctional officers and parole officers, at a cost of $453.4 million.   That would bring the starting salaries of a correctional officer from $26,016 to $30,179, and the maximum salaries from $34,624 to $42,242.  Parole officers would see a starting-salary increase from $32,277 to $37,441, with the maximum salary increasing from $36,363 to $43,636.

vericatrajkova Officer Contract Issues, Personnel Issues, Texas