New prisons lockdown under way


By Mike Ward | Wednesday, September 16, 2009,

More than 35,000 convicts at 14 of Texas’ toughest prisons have been 
placed on lockdown status in a new crackdown on contraband smuggling 
— the largest in months, officials just confirmed.

The shakedown involves cell-by-cell searches and is the most 
significant such action in Texas’ prison system in almost a year, 
since Gov. Rick Perry ordered a lockdown of all 112 state prisons in 
October 2008 after a death row inmate used a smuggled cell phone to 
call — and later threaten to kill — the state senator who heads a 
legislative prisons committee.

“We’re doing cell searches, and the units will remain locked down 
until we complete that,” said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the 
Texas Department of Criminal Justice that operates the state 
corrections system.

“The units we have locked down are the ones that have the most 
contraband seizures … from inmates and on visitors. The goal is to 
keep contraband out.”

Prison officials identified the prisons as the Polunsky Unit that 
houses death row outside Livingston, the Ferguson Unit in Midway, the 
Lewis Unit in Woodville, the Michael, Beto and Coffield units near 
Tennessee Colony, the Central Unit in Sugar Land, the Clemons Unit 
near Brazoria, the Scott Unit in Angleton, the Darrington Unit in 
Rosharon, the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, the McConnell Unit in 
Beeville, the Connally Unit in Kenedy and the Allred Unit outside 
Wichita Falls.

All are maximum-security prisons, Lyons said.

Today’s crackdown came after Senate Criminal Justice Committee 
Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, blasted prison security earlier 
this month after discovering a threatening letter attributed to death-
row inmate Richard Tabler posted on a Web site, blogginginmates.com.

In November 2008, Tabler threatened to kill Whitmire and this 
reporter in a letter mailed to prison investigators. Tabler had 
called Whitmire the month before and Whitmire had summoned 
authorities, who busted Tabler, his mother and sister for contraband.

The subsequent shakedown of all state prisons resulted in the seizure 
of dozens of cell phones and other contraband, including more than 
two dozen cell phones and cell gear from death row — arguably 
supposed to be the most secure part of the prison system.

In a lockdown, convicts are kept locked in their cells and routine 
operations and programs are suspended as special teams of 
correctional officers conduct a cell-by-cell search for contraband 
and other prohibited items. Such shakedowns can take several days to 
complete.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/
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