Texas Prison Scandal 1996 when Bush was Governor?

Yesterday on CNBC, Capital Report, they did a story about a Texas prison scandal in 1996 when Shrub was Governor.

They said there was inmate abuse, blamed on a few bad apples. And then lo & behold, a video turned up. Prisoners beaten, dragged around, dogs used, etc.

Sound familiar?

I knew the Texas prisons were a disgrace under Bush, also heard about the executions. But I never heard that there was 1 big scandal that sounds like Iraq.

Anyone know more about this story? Any Texas DUers familiar with this?

CNBC showed part of the video...I think America should see it.

This is why we cannot trust him.

I do remember the local news showing the videotape(s) of dogs attacking the prisoners. Sad thing is I don't recall any real public outrage.

You reckon?

I left Texas when bush was elected governor. Came to Oregon. The two events weren't related, but I remember being really shocked that Ann Richards was no longer governor. She is a smart, classy, savvy politician.

abuse in Iraqi prisons, should see this film.

Wonder why the media doesn t show it? {Sarcasm}

Gloria Borger ended the piece with the comment (in the spirit of "fair" reporting) that they had been alerted to this story by a Democrat. I note that they don't add a footnote to all the stories that come straight from the WH propaganda machine. If only.

They reported that *Bush tried to downplay it, but then couldn't when the videotapes came out. Also that he mouthed platitudes about how awful it was, but that he never did anything to address the problems. I was a little amazed at how critical of the jerk this piece was. I suppose I wouldn't have been so surprised except for how little of this sort of thing (looking into *Bush's past) has been done.

It was at Brazoria Prison. Since CNBC is linked to NBC and MSNBC, I looked around a bit to see if the clip had been used elsewhere, but I didn't find it.... And CNBC doesn't do transcripts. Drat.

Anyway, if a Dem alerted them to the story, maybe it will be on some Dem site? I too think it should be shown more widely.

The problem in 2000 was the press gave him a free ride.

It means that bush's record in Texas,as governor, was a 'prohibited issue. Media din't look at his environmental record, or anything else. They are wretched creatures Pravda- Izvestia.

I just grabbed the first item I saw. There could be more--I'll keep looking. This is from an official FL site considering the problem of private prisons--outsourcing. VERY interesting, though no mention of *Bush here.

<<In 1996, Texas experienced five separate incidents of escapes and/or riots where state and local law enforcement were called in to capture escaped inmates or suppress disturbances caused by out-of-state inmates at private correctional facilities. One of the incidents occurred in August, three occurred in September, and one in October of last year.

September 18, 1996
The Brazoria County Detention Center was opened in 1995 and once held several hundred state inmates because of crowding in the Texas prison system. However, the $35 million county jail had a surplus of beds when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice expanded its prison capacity and curtailed contracts to house state inmates in county jails. In May 1996, the Brazoria County Commissioners Court agreed to lease 512 beds at the 1,161-bed Brazoria County Detention Center to Capital Correctional Resources Inc. (CCRI). Guards in the portion of the jail used to house out-of-state inmates are hired by CCRI. Due to its overcrowded prisons, the Missouri DC contracted with CCRI to house 415 inmates at the facility in Texas.

On September 18, 1996, a drug raid inside the jail by guards in riot gear was videotaped by guards, reportedly for training purposes. The videotape showed the inmates, who had arrived that same day, being forced to lie down. A police dog attacked several inmates and the tape showed one inmate being bitten on the leg. The videotape also showed a stun gun being used and several inmates being kicked and dragged while lying on the floor.

Until recently, the videotape had not been made public. It was aired at a county government meeting held to discuss a $100,000 suit filed against the county sheriff by a Missouri inmate who alleged he was among those abused. The tape became public when a local newspaper obtained a copy. The videotape of the incident aired nationally in August 1997.

The allegations are still under investigation and events are continuing to unfold; however, a series of developments have transpired since the videotape was aired nationally, including:
--The Missouri DC, concerned about the alleged abuse of its inmates by the private company, canceled the $6 million contract and brought back the 415 inmates being housed at the facility.
--The Missouri DC canceled two other contracts with CCRI and brought back approximately 300 inmates being housed at other facilities managed by the company.
--The Missouri Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Brazoria County, Texas, for breach of contract for withholding information about what happened to its inmates in September 1996, and refusing to release information, including officer reports, inmate requests for medical attention, and medical records as required in the contract.
--The Oklahoma DC canceled its contract and began transferring 250 of its inmates out of a different facility operated by CCRI.
--One of the CCRI guards, seen in the videotape pushing an inmate to the floor with his foot, had previously in a separate incident plead guilty to federal misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to five months in jail for beating an inmate with a riot stick while working as a state prison guard.
--The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an investigation regarding the allegations of abuse and civil rights violations raised by a Missouri inmate.
--State Representative Ron Wilson (D-Houston, Texas) has requested a statewide investigation into the thirty-four privately operated jails in Texas.>>

http://www.fcc.state.fl.us/fcc/reports/final97/97priv.html

http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=45&num=11829


the clip with prisoner with the broken ankle was featured prominently on Houston area news.

One of the lawyers involved in the Texas case is now defending one of the guys on trial for Iraqi abuse.

Just for people to think about. It should be made public.

Typical of pathological killers.

They always leave their trail behind.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0510-01.htm

<snip>
Conditions inside Texan prisons during Bush's reign were so notorious that federal Judge William Wayne Justice wrote, "Many inmates credibly testified to the existence of violence, rape and extortion in the prison system and about their own suffering from such abysmal conditions."

In September 1996, for example, a videotaped raid on inmates at a county jail in Texas showed guards using stun guns and an attack dog on prisoners, who were later dragged face-down back to their cells. Funding of mental health programs during Bush's reign was so poor that Texan prisons had a sizeable number of mentally-impaired inmates; defying international human rights standards, these inmates ended up on death row. A prisoner named Emile Duhamel, for example, with severe psychological disabilities and an IQ of 56, died in his Texan death-row jail cell in July 1998. Authorities blamed "natural causes" but a lack of air conditioning in cells that topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a summer heat wave may have killed Duhamel instead. How many other Texan prisoners died of such neglect during Bush's governorship is unclear.

As president, Bush presides over a prison population topping 2 million people, giving America the dubious distinction of having a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other country. When considering that the US has three times more prisoners per capita than Iran and seven times more than Germany, the nation looks more like a Gulag than the Land of the Free.

Abu Ghraib has left administration officials falling over themselves with protestations of compassion, but it's worth remembering that the Bush White House has fought hard against the International Convention Against Torture.

...more

This is a really powerful article on prisons in the US--just the first para is about Brazoria, with graphic description of what's on the tape. But I urge you to read the whole thing.

<<Abroad at Home
By Jonathan Cohn, New Republic 13/5/04
May 14, 2004, 11:07

The footage is not easy to watch: In one clip, a prisoner screams as an attack dog mauls his leg; in another, a prisoner with a broken ankle gets zapped in the buttocks with a stun gun because he's not crawling along the floor quickly enough. These aren't the infamous video from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. They were taken in 1996, at the Brazoria County Detention Center outside of Houston. "Welcome to Texas," one guard announces as he literally drags a prisoner across the floor. "Enjoy the ride. It's like Astroworld." Eventually, the tapes ended up on the nightly news, prompting a probe by the FBI, jail sentences for two guards, and a class-action lawsuit that procured, for Texas prisoners, $2.2 million in damages.>>

>>much more.
http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=45&num=11829&printer=1

On Edit: Oops--looks like I was scooped by Peekaloo. Sorry.