A Letter from An Inmate Listener

To Whom It May Concern:

This report should be of interest to those of you who have loved ones and friends serving time at the TDCJ Murray Unit, and it is hoped that those who are incharge of providing a safe and healthy environment for elderly and disabled inmates will take notice and remedy the dangerous atmosphere that we inmates of the Murray Unit are forced to endure. Our unit warden, who who tends to overpunish things of little importance, apparently sees no need to safely house the older women and the handicapped. There have been numerous violent attacks on vulnerable prisoners by young violent inmates, and this situation needs to be dealt with before someone gets seriously injured or killed. The following examples will show why I'm concerned for the safety of myself and the other older and disabled inmates who are housed here in K-1A.

Although the warden finds it necessary to lock down the entire unit over fights between a few inmates, she does not see the need to create, at no extra cost, a separate dorm for older women and at-risk handicapped prisoners, even when two attacks with dangerous weapons were perpetrated on elderly women by younger violent offenders. Fights between youngsters take place all the time, and they are commonplace, subject to happen anytime. So there is no big deal about fighting between younger and more fight-prone offenders because they sometimes happen daily, and they are more or less part of prison life that is virtually unavoidable. But when an elderly 68-year-old Hispanic woman was recently beaten and seriously injured by a younger offender using a home-made weapon that consisted of a padlock stuffed inside a sock, that was a big deal. Yet nothing as of yet has been done by TDCJ. The family of the elderly victim had to file charges with a law enforcement agency in the free world in order to get their mother's beating investigated. The assailant went to SEG for a while, but was allowed the freedom to travel all over the unit when she got out. This person could again attack any elderly and/or disabled inmate that is housed on this unit. That should not be allowed to happen.

Another incident happened not too long ago where two young women attacked yet another older woman. One of the attackers used a broom handle, and the other used a home-made weapon where either a key or tweezers was placed inside a sock so as to give the attacker a better grip and ability to swing the weapon. The attacker with the sock weapon slashed open a hole big enough to put your finger through on the outside of victim's jaw, and the inside of her jaw was also badly cut. I'm not exactly sure how this attack was set up, but I do know that 5 COs were in the dorm area when it happened. All 5 COs were setting on the floor of the air conditioned officers' picket and were eating picnic style lunches from the Officers' Dining Room. None of the COs were watching the monitors. The one attacker was able to take a broom apart and place the handle against the wall without being observed by the COs on duty because they were all eating lunch and not paying attention to the dorm. This beating victim could have been seroiously injured or killed had two inmates not have gone to the picket and banged on the glass to get those officers' attention. This see no evil, hear no evil attitude on the part of the COs who oversee these dorms needs to change before another older or disabled inmates is seriously injured or killed.

The woman who was attacked in the second incident still remains on segregation, but the attackers are in regular housing, one of them in the same dorm where the attack occurred. One of the attackers was allowed to keep the same job inside the prison while remaining in minimum costody, and she is due to be released on parole in about 30 days. How is it that this inmate could be considered rehabilitated enough to deserve being released on parole? She currently has access to the whole unit as a maintenance worker, and she has access to all sorts of things that could be fashioned into a weapon. This person should be charged for assault, and her privileges should be revoked.

Another older black lady died recently in medium custody. The area where she was being housed was sealed with the windows shut. This inmate had terminal cancer. The heat index was running 107 outside that day, and it had to be much hotter than that in the cell block where she was housed. It is beyond doubt that the unbearable heat created by being in a sealed cell block contributed to this woman's death. Being condemned to life is not a term that is always applicable to those inmates who are sentenced to serve life in prison. Life inside Texas prisons is always Hell for those who are doing time, no matter what the length of their sentence might be. Each year there are heat related deaths. One year, inmates who were on a bus headed to John Sealy Hospital were left chained together on the side of a road in the summer heat, and of course there are always deaths attributable to situations like this. No reasonable person in the free world would leave even a dog cained up in the heat with no shade available like that. Even younger healthy people can die in extreme heat like that.

My point is this: Warden Strong and the staff here at the Murray Unit have little care or concern about the inmates who are housed in the cell blocks and dorms on this unit. There are many older inmates here who have served the mandated minimum time on their sentences, but because of the conditions they are forced to live under, they may never leave prison alive. We, the inmates of the Lane Murray Unit, are indeed condemned either to life or to suffer euthanasia in Texas Prison Hell.

Sherry Nance