THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF TEXAS INMATE FAMILIES ASSOCIATION Vol. 22 No. 4 Oct

Justice Alliance and its partners, the were threatened by flood waters. This Texas Inmate Families Association, Texas involved moving approximately 4,500 Criminal Justice Coalition, American Civil offenders to higher ground. Later, two Liberties Union, Epicenter, the Campaign additional prisons were evacuated for Youth Justice, Grassroots Leadership, because of the Brazos, the Vance and and the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Jester 3 Units in Richmond affecting Youth will host the first annual Second approximately another 1,400 inmates Look Summit. This Summit brings assigned to those two facilities. together families of those currently and Eventually over 6,000 inmates were Second Look Summit formerly incarcerated, formerly incarcer- evacuated and relocated to prisons ated youth, survivors of crime, and throughout East Texas. Nov 17-18, 2017 community stakeholders to discuss the incarceration of youth in Texas prisons. The Beaumont area was also significantly Every year in Texas more than 20,000 impacted by flood waters associated with youth are arrested and charged as adults. The meeting will take place at the the hurricane but it was decided that the Currently 6,500 people are in Texas state Legislative Conference Center located at Stiles, Gist, and LeBlanc units would prisons for crimes they committed before 1100 Congress Avenue - E2.002 Austin, shelter in place. During the storm, there they could legally vote. TX 78701. were power outages and the city’s water system was damaged resulting in low In Texas, youth are routinely sent to Texas The Lone Star Justice Alliance and its water pressure. TDCJ brought in additional adult prisons either because they are (1) amazing partners have also joined staff and resources including generators 17 years old at the time of the commitment together to provide scholarships for travel and water while the city worked to restore offense and therefore adults under Texas to the Second Look Summit. If you are power and repair their water system. law, (2) certified to stand trial as adults or interested in attending the Summit, but (3) completing their determinate sentences travel costs are a barrier, please apply In the middle of September, TDCJ began after aging out of the juvenile justice for a scholarship. You can visit the LSJA the process of repopulating the evacuated system. website to register & apply for a units but Judge Ellison ruled that 600 scholarship at http://www.lonestarjusticeal- inmates evacuated during Hurricane Research has shown that certain areas liance.org/secondlook2017.html n Harvey from the to the of the brain, particularly those that affect largely-vacant Wallace Pack Unit must be judgment and decision-making, do not immediately protected from dangerous fully develop until the early 20’s. The US Heat, Hurricane and indoor heat at the facility. They are now Supreme Court stated in its 2005 Roper v. part of a protected class that sued the Simmons decision, “the reality that TDCJ Pack facility. juveniles still struggle to define their In August, after a scathing rebuke from identity means it is less supportable to U.S. District Judge Ellison, 1,000 medically On Oct 12, Judge Ellison ordered a conclude that even a heinous crime sensitive inmates from the Pack Unit were 90-day extension of his order to provide committed by a juvenile is evidence of moved to other state jails and prisons that air conditioned housing for heat-sensitive irretrievably depraved character.” do have air conditioning. Texas moved inmates at the Pack Unit. The order would about 500 inmates to the Diboll Correc- have expired in October allowing inmates We are therefore working to give those tional Center and about 425 to the Travis to be moved back to the unit. who have committed crimes in their youth State Jail in Austin. Some prisoners who a Second Look. We are asking Texas needed more medical attention were Weather has certainly presented a legislators to lower the mandatory transferred to a medical unit in Beaumont. challenge to TDCJ this summer. n minimum term before parole eligibility, and All of these units are already require the Parole Board to consider air-conditioned in the housing areas. mitigating factors as part of their assessment during a parole review.Texas Then on August 26th, Hurricane Harvey law should motivate young people to focus battered the Gulf Coast and the storm on rehabilitation and provide a path to dumped an unprecedented amount of rain redemption for those who can prove they on East Texas. With the Brazos River deserve a second chance. rising rapidly, TDCJ was faced with the difficult task of evacuating three facilities On November 17-18, 2017, the Lone Star - Terrell, Ramsey and Stringfellow – that From Board From Executive Chair Director TIFA Contact Patti Jennifer is the official newsletter of the Texas Inmate Families Association © 1996. Kassel Erschabek All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not Heart for The Changing necessarily represent the policies of TIFA. Humanity Landscapes These past few months have been TIFA is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. difficult at best for many of our loved ones in the path of Hurricane Harvey. The storm The Texas political scene was ‘rocked’ in Membership in TIFA is open to anyone. October with the announcement that Joe A Basic membership is $25 per year caused over 6,000 inmates to be Straus, Speaker of the House, will not be and includes one newsletter displaced through other units due to subscription to the member address. A flooding conditions. Many people in the running for re-election. What this tells us Basic Plus membership of $35 per year free world didn’t even know or many is that the political landscape, both on the includes all family members didn’t care that this natural disaster had state and national level, will look residing in one household and the impacted so many inmates, guards and different in 2019 when once again TIFA will inmate newsletter. TDCJ units. be working on criminal justice issues.

Board of Directors The first response of many Texans and What can we do in the mean time? What we can do is EDUCATE ourselves about Patti Kassel, New Braunfels US citizens was to reach out to help our citizens. The outpouring by state and the upcoming elections AND tell our Chair national relief groups was huge. We were stories. Our communities need to understand that public safety is a must but Sharon Bass, Huffman proud to be Texans helping Texans in the wake of such a tragedy. it cannot be to the detriment of our Secretary communities’ and families’ futures. So we need to tell our stories. Join us as we start After the storm calmed, the news hit how Robert Elzner, Pflugerville our new campaign to gather stories and much support had been given. Not only Treasurer share through media and social media. If by our citizens walking the streets in you are asking what you can do to help..... Texas, but also by our incarcerated Jaymi Furniss-Jones, Cedar Park do this! Thomas Sawyer, Palestine citizens of Texas. Yes, I was in tears when I read the amount of giving by our Another landscape that is changing is our Jennifer Erschabek, Austin loved ones. Here’s the quote from relationship with TDCJ. With the new Executive Director (AP). “Officials say Texas prison leadership in place, Mr. Collier and Mr. inmates donated more than $53,000 from Mendoza, we are slowly starting to see Louise Elzner, Pflugerville their commissary funds to the American a crack that is allowing light to come Membership Red Cross to be used for hurricane relief. More than 6,600 inmates donated money through. Through the hurricane and the between August 31 and September 30.” hiring freeze there was an effort to share TIFA WOW! more information with families than ever P.O. Box 300220 before. Austin, Texas 78703-0004 Office: (512) 371-0900 And this wasn’t the first time, our loved The hiring freeze has resulted in Wind- www.tifa.org ones came to the aid after a natural ham positions not being hired, resulting in [email protected] disaster. In 2005 after Katrina, inmates classes not being available. But with the donated more than $40,000 to the hiring of a new Division Director, Rene And you can find us on Facebook. American Red Cross. This is the love for Hinojosa, we expect new opportunities humanity at its finest. from the Rehabilitation Programs Division. Note: We read all mail that is received but cannot answer every letter. Our Thank you, thank you to all our mission is strengthening families incarcerated loved ones that donated and But we also promise to continue to work through support, education and to all that wished they could. It’s not on the grievance system and the treatment advocacy. always the action, because many don’t of our loved ones while they are in TDCJ. have the means, but it is about the love for our fellow man and thought that goes Our voice is being heard and every day we behind it. This action represented all are gaining new partners, not only in the inmates and showed us that we can have fight for criminal justice change but also for an impact on the world around us no the treatment of our loved ones while they matter our circumstances. n are in the TDCJ. We hear you and we are here for you! You are not alone! n

2 Thus the grievance issue should be clear, someone is asking for our help. It might short, and written after the inmate has help if family members can send in already talked with the officer/official examples of polite requests, polite (informal process first). If someone needs arguments. No sense looking at online a doctor, then he/she should write at the news for these examples: the political very top, “I Need a Doctor!” Inmates might world has descended to a level below find good examples of being up front by animal. Instead, see if you can find a practicing when they read newspapers: newspaper or magazine’s op ed piece in the old days, journalists stated Who, that argues a difficult point. Right now in The Joy of Reading, What, Why, When, Where, and How in the Austin, for example, voters are asked to first paragraphs. Today’s writers? Not so decide on another expensive bond issue. then Writing much! Irritating reading, right? Remind There are strong reasons pro and con. By Terri LeClercq, Ph.D. your Loved One that their readers have no You might send in opposing columns to patience: they require an up-front, simple help your Loved One see how to use facts Families who support their Loved Ones message or they move on to read the next and short paragraphs, facts and clear will continue to encourage education, and grievance in the pile. reference to policy. Especially in the that means reading. Reading any and prison environment, threats must be everything, including those rejected Third, the issue has to be timely. taken seriously. They have no place in grievances. There’s always something to Inmates need to file within 15 days of the a grievance where the writer is trying to learn. problem, or as soon after they learn of it persuade. as possible. For example, when inmates When I review rejected grievances, I can read articles you send in about something I believe in reading. I believe that reading divide them fairly easily into two groups: that happened in their hometown, but effective writing will strengthen someone’s those that the grievance officer has just happened three weeks before, it’s certainly writing skills. You can find effective skimmed and stamped, and those that interesting—but not much else. They can’t writing on the back page of Sports were so poorly written or off-topic that no generally act on that information. Neither Illustrated. You can even find effective grievance officer could have accepted as can prison officials if that grievance is writing in an advertisement for insurance. valid. We can’t do too much about the about something in the past. (Sometimes, Think of this as a treasure hunt: find auto-stamps. Let’s look at the writers who late information is better than none—think examples of clear and persuasive writing inadvertently shoot themselves in the foot, of the tainted water after the floods, for that you can share with Loved Ones. If and think through how reading—any sort instance! Leaning that inmates were told you can offer examples of clear writing to of reading—will help your to “boil water” without any means of those Inside, you are helping them write grievance-writers get on the right track. boiling is important, even though late. It more persuasively. Let me know what sets the stage after informal, Step 1 and you’ve sent, and if it helped! n Step 2, for a court review.) But generally, First, the issue has to be grievable. we need to recognize that essential timing Unfortunately for so many, if the writer just allows essential repairs to prison condition How Can wants to air anger about an officer who problems. sneers, or turns her back as she walks you Help down a hallway, well.. that’s not on the list on Constitutional privileges or TDC policy Speaking of timely, TDC has 40 days to TIFA? respond to the grievance; thus, all officer requirements (unless she is During the Holidays, you can help TIFA by inmates MUST keep a calendar and a deliberately ignoring a health issue, a connecting your purchases with the copy of the dated grievance. Officials can life-or-death situation, of course). programs below. It does not cost you issue a continuance while they investigate, Grievance writers really, really must anything other than time to sign up and but that has to be in writing, and the recognize this truth: the topic has to be using your card when you make inmate must keep a copy. It might be something the reader can do something purchases. Also, ask your family and useful to send a copy outside, too, about, and the grievance has to remain on friends to connect with these companies. the topic. Unimportant details that “reveal” because we keep hearing about toss-ups other injustices cloud the major point. If with many legal documents destroyed, AmazonSmile – Go to smile.amazon.com your Loved One is reading a car magazine despite TDC rules. I know it’s hard to and sign in. You can then select TIFA as and comes across an article on avoiding make copies, hard to send out with the you charity. foot fungus, how likely will they be to read stamp restrictions. But that is the reality Randall’s/Tom Thumb – Take your the article? That article is not “on topic.” we deal with. Randall’s card to the customer service counter and fill out an application for the Fourth, the grievance cannot have Second, the ONE issue has to be Good Neighbor Program. All you need is vulgar language or cannot threaten. clearly stated up front. The grievance your card number and the charity number Get real. Of course the reader will forms should be available in both the for TIFA is 13339. auto-stamp it. I would too. Inmates must housing units and the library. If not—that’s Kroger – Go to Kroger.com and practice both patience and also common a grievance issue too! The register or go to the store for a card. If curtesy. When they return Outside, they grievance reader is trudging through a you register on line, you can choose you will benefit from practicing curtesy. We all stack of grievances—not just that one, own ID. The number to use for Kroger’s ask for it Out Here, too, especially if sterling, essential, so-special grievance. rewards program for TIFA is 82117. n

3 News from the Chapters Chapter Meetings different track than someone who has a Around the State A Newcomer’s loved one with a long sentence. Since my loved one has a short sentence, I spent During Nov & Dec our chapters will Perspective & the my time at the PACT Conference at these be celebrating the holidays and signing PACT Conference sessions: cards. So check your emails and the TIFA website for days and times, especially By Paula Hudson - Austin • Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles when the meetings fall on a holiday and • TDCJ Parole Division need to be rescheduled. I am a newcomer to every part of this • TDCJ Reentry and Integration Division system: Experiencing the County-level • Health Services Division We will announce our meeting speaker justice system, newly entering the TDCJ • TDCJ Manufacturing Agribusiness and schedule for next year as soon as it is system, finding the angels here on earth Logistics Division. available. n who form TIFA, and lastly, attending my first PACT Conference in Huntsville on That’s five sessions in one short day. I October 21, 2017. If you have not wanted to do more, but I haven’t figured attended a PACT Conference in person, out how to clone myself so I can be in two I beg you to find a way to get to the next places at once. But what I learned has conference in 2019. It’s only one day, and given me information I need moving it is free. The information you get, forward, and peace of mind that I’m doing How Can you Help? however, is priceless. all I can. -Remember Us The immediate thing that comes to me I know some folks whose loved one has a s we start the holiday season we also is the mind-boggling amount of informa- lengthy sentence. They focused on A begin our end of year fundraising. Fund- tion the family or friend of an incarcerated meeting the Warden of their loved one’s raising for non-profits is always a difficult, loved one needs to know and navigate. unit in person. Putting a personal face to continuous and necessary chore. Overwhelming doesn’t adequately cover a name is invaluable and just shaking the what someone unfamiliar with the system Warden’s hand can have more affect than must learn to help our loved ones. It is a you can imagine on a future time when We just finished our SECC campaign and secret to no one that the “justice” system you need help or advice. thank you to all those who participated is horribly broken, but that fact does not and selected TIFA as your charity. negate how desperately our loved ones The point of this is that there is extensive need us to do what we can in a dizzying information available to us, but the burden I know some of you have already started system of agencies, rules, and laws. does fall on us to be the advocates for our your Christmas shopping and as you incarcerated loved one. The good news is, shop, an easy and painless way to help If you add financial burdens to the list that you don’t have to do it alone. If you aren’t TIFA is to select TIFA as your charity on can freeze you into inaction out of fear, active in a TIFA Chapter, that’s should be AmazonSmile. Amazon contributes you end up with a lot of incarcerated your first priority. The road becomes so pennies of every purchase to TIFA and persons left to navigate a system from the much more navigable when you aren’t those pennies can really add up. “inside” without access to a fraction of the travelling alone, and TIFA is the co-pilot tools or information they need to be their you want on this journey. n Next on our radar is GivingTuesday. own advocates. GivingTuesday started as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the So let me say first and foremost, from Announcing our New post-Thanksgiving season of Black Friday someone who is in exactly the same place and Cyber Monday. Please visit our you are: JUST BREATHE. Accept that Chapter in website at TIFA.org to donate. you cannot do it all, but resolve to do what New Braunfels! you can, as you can. That’s all anyone can Last but not least, as you think of those ask. The information provided by TIFA and end of year donations for tax purposes, We are proud to announce our newest from conferences such as PACT can give TIFA is a 501(c)3 and any contributions to TIFA Chapter in New Braunfels, Texas. you both guidance and reassurance that TIFA are tax deductible. you are doing the right things. Located in one of the fastest growing area in Texas, they are meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm. And whether you are in the free-world or The most important thing you can do is Their address is: incarcerated, we ALWAYS appreciate create a list of what needs to be done donations and stamps. specific to your loved one. Then, prioritize Peace Lutheran Church-Cafe that list into what you can do now, and 1147 South Walnut Thank you to everyone who has what must wait. For example, I am New Braunfels, TX 78132 supported us during the year and we are exceptionally lucky. My loved one has a (210) 606-8584 looking forward to a very active and short sentence, so I’m on a completely n successful New Year. n

4 will further the aims of TIFA. inmates or families relating to the “Second How Can you Help? Look” bill, good time/work time credit for TIFA is always at work helping prison all, or the need for independent oversight - Tell Your Friends & families and making things better for our of TDCJ. Family About TIFA loved ones inside. We believe that even people who have committed awful crimes Write your story…500 words or less… About 200,000 adult men and women are are capable of change. We are uniquely shorter than this article. Do your best, but incarcerated at any one time in county jails placed to see the need for safe know that we will edit for length, spelling, and state correctional facilities in Texas. communities as well as seeing that our clarity, etc. The state has the unenviable distinction of prison system needs many reforms, not having more individuals behind bars than only for the comfort of families and loved Add full name and contact information any other state in the country. Imagine our ones, but to make the best use of the and whether we may use your full name voice if we stood together. TIFA.org n taxpayers’ resources while actually or if you prefer first name and initial. For achieving “corrections” of offenders. stories or art by inmates, give the TDCJ number. Include a sentence stating that How Can you Help? As we prepare for a new push in the 2019 you give TIFA unlimited permission to use Texas legislature we want to put real faces your story and artwork with no -Tell Us Your Story to our statistics, so that our lawmakers, compensation. “By submitting my story I By Becky Haigler - Dallas and our neighbors who vote for them, can agree that you can share my story, my first get a feel for our lives and the lives of our You ask what you can do to help? Telling name, my city and zipcode with lawmakers loved ones…who are human beings your story will help. Your story can help and the media. If they want more worthy of being treated with dignity and move reform bills forward or help change information about me or my story, I ask being allowed to demonstrate readiness conditions inside TDCJ. that you contact me to get additional for a second chance. permission.” All of us have had experience with Texas’ It will take lawmakers from both parties, massive prison and justice system – and Artwork must be mailed to TIFA Story and help from you, to change Texas laws those experiences often illustrate the Project, P.O. Box 300220, Austin TX and policies that lockup our loved ones problems that TIFA hopes to change. 78703-0004. Send a good quality randomly and excessively while doing so photocopy as artwork will not be returned. little to make us safe. Help us! Stories may also be mailed, or emailed But we need your voice, your voice can to [email protected], with the story pasted into make a difference. And Texans, Will you share your story? Or ask your the body of the email. No attachments to communities, churches, and lawmakers loved one to share a emails will be opened. n need to hear your voices from all across story? Our editors this state. will be selecting stories and original We want stories showing Texas imprisons artwork, no more too many people, for too long, sometimes than 8 ½ X 11”, for reasons that aren’t very good; stories to be on the TIFA that show the current state of the system website for public is not making our state safer, just viewing. warehousing more people at greater cost. Summaries of We want stories that show prisoners who stories may appear have turned their lives around and should in the TIFA newslet- be given greater consideration in parole ter to encourage applications. people to go and read more. One of the things we love about TIFA is Eventually there talking with people who are walking the may be a booklet same walk. Even if co-workers, church, or to share, especially community groups know you have a loved when we visit one in prison and want to be legislators to supportive, they don’t really understand promote bills we unless they’ve been there too. But stories want to see passed. are a powerful way to experience things second hand. Think of a book or movie How can you submit you loved as a child that has stayed a story and perhaps with you forever. Stories that last can be an original drawing, happy or sad, suspenseful or serene, but or a photo of other something about good storytelling keeps inmate artwork? an idea alive in your mind. We are inviting Keep in mind the you to be part of a storytelling project that goal…stories of

5 Associate in Applied Science in criminal justice form Tyler Junior College and a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from The University of Texas at Tyler. ACCI has added new life skill have a friend or relative order it for you. correspondence courses to their list of You can also send a check for $45 from a Below are the approval rates from the available courses. jail/prison account sent to ACCI. Be sure Boards during 2016. Many factors affect to include a complete mailing address the approval rates such as the prison units ACCI’s inmate life skills workbooks are (including name and TDCJ number). reviewed and the risk assessment scores. easy to read and are written in story To find more information you can visit the format. The workbooks are written about Please send mail to ACCI - CF, PO Box Board of Pardons and Paroles website real people with real problems, and how 1910, Orem, UT 84059-1910. n under http://www.tdcj.texas.gov/bpp/publi- they overcame their obstacles. The cations/publications.html to access the full workbooks give time-tested skills which report on the Board’s voting statistics. have been proven to help people become TIFA’s New happier and more productive. And as (BM= Board Member, C= Commissioner) someone completes each course, ACCI Facebook Page will send a certificate that can be Amarillo included in a parole packet. - TIFA-Reentry - James LaFavers, BM 43.48% Every year 40,000 people cycle in and out Charles Shipman, C * 22.04% Here are some key benefits for inmates: of the TDCJ. And with that there is an Marsha Moberley, C 32.79% extraordinary need for reentry services Raymond Gonzalez, C ** 33.33% • The price has been reduced from especially when we think about the $85.00 to $45.00 for inmates only, barriers that they are faced with including Angleton • They can work at their own pace and housing and employment. You add Cynthia Tauss, BM 40.75% with a “coach” (another inmate) of their transportation and immediate need for Lynn Ruzicka, C 33.43% choosing, basic living neccisities such as food and Ira Evans, C 27.78% • Our workbooks are proven to clothing the challenges can be successfully challenge criminal thinking, overwhelming. Austin • We focus on helping offenders Ed Robertson, BM 55.73% conquer self-defeating thoughts and TIFA now has a Reentry page where we Troy Fox, C 46.52% behaviors, can collect resources, not only for parole Elvis Hightower, C 44.91% • Can be completed on their own time packets, but also for individuals who have and don’t interfere with jail or prison life, to navigate reentry. We hope that after it Gatesville • Our courses can often satisfy court or gains more and more members and David Gutierrez, Chair 86.82% legal requirements. resources it will be as valuable to you as Roel Tejada, C 37.29% our other TIFA Facebook pages. Lee Ann Eck-Massingill, C 37.35% What will your family member receive for $45.00? https://www.facebook.com/ • Workbook of choice groups/401683470234866/ n Huntsville • Instructions Federico Rangel, BM 42.03% • Prepaid self addressed envelope Tony Garcia, C 27.73% (postage paid by ACCI) Wanda Saliagas, C 23.90% • Completion certificate Palestine Courses now available include: Michelle Skyrme, BM *** 36.07% W111 - Anger Management Brian Long BM **** -- W112 - Offender Corrections Paul Kiel, C 32.50% W114 - Substance Abuse James Hensarling, C 39.06% W115 - Delincuentes correcciones W116 - Contentious Relationships San Antonio W117 - Parenting Abbott Appoints a New Fred Solis, BM 43.07% W118 - Cognitive Awareness Charles Speier, C 34.58% W119 - Offender Responsibility Parole Board Member Anthony Ramirez, C 31.72% W121 - Theft/Shoplifting On September 27th, Governor Abbott ap- W124 - Employment pointed Brian Long to the Board of *Charles Shipman served as a Parole W128 - DUI Pardons and Paroles for a term that will Commissioner from 9-1-15 to 5-31-16. W129 - Domestic Violence expire February 1, 2023. He will serve as ** Raymond Gonzalez served a a Parole a Board Member in the Palestine Board Commissioner from 7-1-16 to 8-31-16. You can visit the ACCI web site www. office. Brian Long of Kilgore was previous- *** Michelle Skyrme’s term ended in July. inmatelifeskills.com and order the course ly a hearing officer for the Texas Board of **** Brian Long is the newest Board of your choice or if you are incarcerated Pardons & Paroles. Long received an Member and currently in training. n

6 41. Does the S2 help me on my parole? wrongful conviction whereby in the materials I have read or been proved Absolutely. with in the past shows such board members are supposed to solicit the 42. Why do we keep getting the same Governor of the state for either excuses when we get a set-off? My last clemency or a gubernatorial pardon major case was in 2003, and I was still to help prove the actual innocence given a 2 year set-off claim? Recently, I submitted a package to parole for it to consider containing a The same denial reason can be used each list of actual evidence proving my year. actual innocence but all they have done was to include such in my 43. How can you find out if you have permanent case file for next review in Estelle Unit been protested or if you’re currently 2019… they didn’t even consider it. Parole Forum Q&A being protested? Why? Protests are confidential and the The parole board members or Part 4 information is sealed and you will not be commissioners cannot investigate or retry By Sharon Bass able to find out. a case. Except for one (1) commissioner, no board member or other commissioners This is Part Four, and the final set of 44. I heard a lot of FI-6 has been have a law degree. Even if they did, that questions from a Question and Answer changed to FI-1. Why? Is it true there is not the function of the parole board. Session we had at the Estelle Unit at the no money for the programs? end of last year. Over 200 inmates When you submit an application for attended and after a two hour presenta- There is a time limit for sending someone Clemency, which is very tedious and tion there was no time to answer all the to a program. If that time has passed detailed, you must have a positive vote questions. We promised to answer the and the person has not been sent to the from 4 of the 7 Board Members for the questions and send them back to program, the parole decision is changed to application to be submitted to the Estelle but also thought that everyone an FI-1. Governor. The Governor has the final say would have the same questions. if Clemency is granted. 45. If it’s a privilege, then what good is 38. When we see re-entry, why do they work-time and goodtime? say that we are going home, but then 48. I am under the one-fourth law. Why later parole comes and sets us off Parole is a privilege, good time and work is TDCJ making me do more of my again, and some of us don’t have any time credits are earned and used for sentence? cases. That’s false hope for us. calculation of parole review eligibility only. You are probably serving more than one Everyone who is within a specified time 46. I am doing stacked sentences (3x). sentence in TDCJ. You must serve the from parole eligibility will see re-entry. In 2005, I was interviewed on the last time required by law on each conviction The re-entry staff do not know, nor have sentence. I told everyone I thought this before you will be reviewed for a parole any say in your parole approval or denial. was a mistake. I was told there were no release. In a situation of multiple Seeing re-entry does not mean that you mistakes in my records. However, when convictions each conviction will be are going home. It means you are eligible I was granted parole on this sentence, reviewed for eligibility. You may have for parole and they are processing your I was paroled in the second sentence. cases that fall under the one-fourth (1/4) identification papers and performing other When I questioned about this I was told law as well as the one-third (1/3) law. You necessary documentation for when you that it was a mistake and now I did not must be approved for release on all of do eventually make parole. make parole on the last sentence, but your convictions in order to be released. the first one. I never was interviewed on 39. How much time does a parole this sentence. Why am I being punished violator with no new conviction have to when I tried in 2005 to correct any 36. I have over 100% of my sentence serve before they are re-paroled out? mistake? served, why am I still here?

That is up to the parole board. You must Contact the State Counsel for Offenders You are probably serving a sentence that make parole even if it is a technical for direction. Without looking at your is not eligible for mandatory supervision violation. sentence and judgment that question release. If so, you will not be released cannot be answered. until approved for a parole release or until 40. How many times can they use the you reach your maximum expiration date same reason to set you off or deny 47. Why won’t or can’t the parole board and discharge the conviction. n you? take a more active part to investigate or get involved in an individual’s case The Parole Board can deny your parole whereby such individual is asserting many times and have you do a serve-all. or making a claim of actual innocence based on a possibility of an actual

7 settings, on com- 3. Telemedicine in Correctional Facilities: munity supervision, Review current availability and best practices on parole, and in in the state regarding the use of telemedicine community-based for inmates in city or county jail, state jail, or the programs. Make Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Examine recommendations and make recommendations on whether access for best strategies to care and outcomes can be improved through to address the the expanded use of telemedicine for medical needs of women in and mental health services, and whether the Texas criminal expansion would create efficiencies. Examine justice system. barriers to implementation and expansion of Lt. Gov. Patrick & telemedicine in correctional facilities. 5. Review the Texas state jail system. Examine Speaker Straus its original intent, sentencing guidelines, 4. Human Trafficking Awareness and effectiveness, and recidivism rates. Make Prevention: Study opportunities to increase Release Interim recommendations for changes in the state jail awareness of human trafficking through public system. (Joint charge with the House awareness campaigns, among local officials, Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence) and within public school districts including the Charges identification of potential human trafficking and etween legislative sessions, the Texas 6. Study policies and protocols within the Texas stash houses as well as how and where to B report. Examine the Human Trafficking Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Department of Criminal Justice to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Examine when Prevention Business Partnership Program at House of Representatives appoint Interim the Office of the Secretary of State and provide Committees to study important issues that protocols are implemented and their efficacy in protecting the health and safety of inmates and recommendations for increasing participation help guide the Texas Legislature’s state employees. of Texas businesses in the fight against human decisions in the future. These interim trafficking. committees hold hearings and take public testimony. Their findings will affect 7. Review assessments used by the Board of Pardons and Paroles and parole panels to 5. Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of actions taken during the next regular determine an inmate’s risk of recidivism for legislation addressed by the Senate Criminal session that begins Jan. 2019. purposes of granting parole and the use of GPS Justice Committee during the 85th Legislature technology to monitor offenders. and make recommendations for any legislation Below are the interim charges given to needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation of the following: the House Corrections Committee and the 8. Monitor Texas prison system heat-related Senate Criminal Justice Committee. litigation currently making its way through the courts. Monitor Prison Rape Elimination Act • Senate Bill 12, Relating to the creation of a House Committee on Corrections (PREA) compliance within Texas state and grant program to assist law enforcement county criminal justice facilities. agencies with the purchase of bulletproof vests 1. Evaluate the Texas Department of Criminal and body armor; Justice response to Hurricane Harvey. • Senate Bill 30, Relating to the inclusion of 9. Monitor the agencies and programs under instruction regarding interaction with peace Recommend any changes that could improve the Committee’s jurisdiction and oversee the the operational stability of state criminal justice officers in the required curriculum for certain implementation of relevant legislation passed by public school students and in driver education institutions following a natural disaster and the 85th Legislature. changes that would allow for a more effective courses and to civilian interaction training for response. peace officers; and Senate Criminal Justice Committee • Senate Bill 1326, Relating to procedures regarding criminal defendants who are or may 2. Examine the use of social workers and peer 1. Identify Successful Re-Entry Programs: be persons with a mental illness or an support specialists in the Texas criminal justice Study current reentry programs and procedures intellectual disability and to certain duties of system to assist individuals on probation, on across Texas’ adult criminal justice system and the Office of Court Administration of the Texas parole, or who have been discharged, in order identify which are most effective. Review best Judicial System related to persons with mental to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes. practices and make recommendations to ensure illness. n Identify best practices and make that incarcerated individuals who are released recommendations for legislative action. from a county or city jail, state jail, or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have adequate 3. Examine the current Texas criminal justice supervision and access to employment, system policies and practices regarding 17- to housing, treatment, and other support programs Legislative 25-year-olds, specific to probation, parole, state to allow for successful reentry and integration jail confinement, and discharge from the Texas into the community and to prevent recidivism. Department of Criminal Justice or county jail. Updates Review any gaps in services that may be By Lauren Johnson. 2. State Jail Review to Improve Outcomes: causing this population to recidivate. Make Perform a comprehensive analysis and study of recommendations to improve the state’s the Texas state jail system. Examine the response to the needs of this population in access to and use of rehabilitation, vocation, order to lower revocation, re-arrest, and and education programs. Determine whether re-incarceration rates. We did it! If you are reading this then current programs are effective and if there are you have survived the heat of the Texas efficiencies that can be found to reduce summer, and Hurricane Harvey and the 4. Examine treatment options, services, and recidivism and improve outcomes. programs available to women in institutional other disasters that followed and that is

8 something to be thankful for! I hope that You may have seen a recent 60 Minutes Pre-existing mental conditions are a your families also have weathered the interview with her friend and colleague complication, and other offenders are storms. Shon Hopwood, who served time in feeling unbalanced by short term crises federal prison, was granted entrance and that could be addressed if the offender Since I last wrote things have been passed the bar and now is a law school felt someone was listening. Most feel moving full speed ahead as organizations professor at Georgetown University Law guilty about the lives they have destroyed strategize and plan for the next legislative Center. I tell you these stories because I by their bad choices. Others stress over session which will begin in just a little over think you can see that these stories are things which they have no control. Often, a year. I personally have gotten letters game changers. anxiety of their family’s well-being is the from friends that I write on the inside that trigger that places an inmate in a have told me they received or borrowed These are examples of the things people depressed state. For instance, crises like the newsletter to read and saw my have been able to do after being in the super storms Harvey, Irma, and Maria picture there next to the article I submitted. places we have been. I want you to know incited inmates to worry about their If memory serves me, I think I have been that your story isn’t over, and may only families. Just a few words can calm their asking you to practice telling your stories. just be getting started! When you finish darkest fears. I have been making that request of my writing out the story you have lived up to friends as well, just ask them, they will tell now, I want you to create a vision story for Hope is essential to what it means to be you! There are several reasons for this. the future. If there were no obstacles, what human. Despite what an offender has Even if you decide you don’t want to share would you want to do in the future? Create done, they are still human. A loss of hope your story with anyone I want you to write that story in multi-dimensions, how does it devastates, demoralizes, and handicaps. it out. I actually want you to write it with feel, smell, look like, what are you doing, Family support is essential to an inmate’s the intention of no one ever seeing it and who is with you, where are you at? hope for the future. It instills a sense of then when it is complete let it sit for a little purpose and builds humanizing while, go back and read it, then determine Your story is important because you are connection to free society. Sometimes an if you want to share it or not. When you important. Since I started working at the isolated inmate’s thoughts and feelings write it I want you to think about and write ACLU of Texas I have started creating can overpower their need to survive, or about the moments that stand out to you my work plan and it will include trips to cause them to envision things that aren’t as having impacted you in a meaningful El Paso, East Texas, Corpus Christi, and real. Usually there will be an outcry for way for better or worse and when you do parts of Houston. If you have a loved one attention when an inmate resorts to connect to the emotions that you felt then, in those areas who is interested in doing self-harm. If they are extremely and also now when you think about that what they can to help criminal justice depressed, a convict might turn to person in that time. reform please have them reach out to me contraband and illegal substances to at [email protected] ! n cope, or to gain a temporary false escape Aside from the personal benefits of from reality. In the worst case, an inmate storytelling, it is one of the most effective attempts suicide. ways to change policy, and to connect us. We tend to not remember data and There is an alarming rise in the number of research statistics but we remember attempted suicides in Texas state prisons. stories. We see ourselves and our loved Recently, TDCJ officials eliminated solitary ones when we hear a story. confinement, a measure used to punish offenders for more serious disciplinary As an example, there is a woman who infractions. Here on the largest Texas lives in Washington State, she is formerly A Few Words prison unit, Coffield, and across the state, incarcerated and just graduated law by Tracy P Williams offender ministers (Field Ministers) talk school. To add to her accomplishments (Coffield Field Minister) with other offenders in hope of stopping she was accepted as a Skadden Fellow the next suicide. While these measures which is a very coveted fellowship for are helpful, they pale in comparison to a lawyers who work in public interest law. When a pebble is thrown into a pond, few words from home. This lady applied to the bar and was there is a ripple effect that takes place in denied entrance based on her criminal the water. The ramification of the pebble breaking the surface of the water forever There is power in our words to heal, history. Different states have different rules empower, motivate, and give hope. It is up about this but in Washington they could changes the pond and cannot be undone. Similarly, an inmate’s life is usually the to state prison officials, offenders, have allowed her to take the bar. The communities, and families to restore the ACLU of Washington along with a number result of selfish, chaotic choices affecting not only him, but his family and others as incarcerated to society again as whole of organizations nationally signed on to human beings. Family members, however, an Amicus brief that is going to be heard well. “Doing time,” no matter how long, is not exclusively for offenders. The families have the biggest impact on the well-being in the Supreme Court, the first case of its of their loved ones by a few words through kind since 1985. I will be attending this are doing time with their incarcerated loved ones, too. Hearing a few words from Jpay, letters, or visits. Just like the pebble hearing to support our sister as she fights thrown into a pond that disturbs its calm, a not only for herself, but for the ability for all home, however, can make all the difference in an offender’s emotional state. few words sent to an offender by his of us to be able to be judged on our merits family calms the internal storms raging and in our totality and not just our within. n conviction history. Offenders are often emotionally fragile.

9 TIFA PO Box 300220 Austin, TX 78703-0004

CONTACT Vol. 22 No. 4 Oct 2017

TIFA Chapters

Amarillo Dallas McAllen San Angelo Currently Reorganizing 3rd Wednesday, 6:30 pm 3rd Tuesday, 6:00 2nd Thursday at 6:00 pm Check our website Lover’s Lane Methodist Church Calvary Baptist Church Immanuel Baptist Church www.tifa.org 9200 Inwood Rd Oxford Rm #103/105 Slayton Building 2nd Floor 90 E 14th St for meeting information Dallas, TX 75220 1600 Harvey Drive San Angelo, TX 76903 214-792-0649 McAllen, Texas 78501 (325) 704-7445 Austin- Central (956) 280-0951 2nd Tuesday, 7:00 pm (Starting in Dec) Ft. Worth San Antonio AGE Center 1st Monday, 6:30 pm Nacogdoches/Lufkin 2nd Tuesday, 6:30 pm 3710 Cedar Street St. Christopher Episcopal Church 3rd Saturday 10:00 am St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Austin, Tx 78703 3550 S.W. Loop 820 First Baptist Church Church Parish Hall (512) 371-0900 Fort Worth, TX 76133 411 North Street 4222 Southwest Loop 410 Beaumont (817) 798-9010 Nacogdoches, TX 65961 San Antonio, TX 1st Tuesday, 6:30 pm (936) 564-4546 (210) 387-1558 Houston St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic 2nd Tuesday, 7:00 pm Church Family Life Center New Braunfels San Antonio - North CrossWalk Center 6825 Gladys 1st Thursday, 7:00 pm 3rd Thursday, 6:30 pm 2103 N Main Beaumont, TX 77726 Peace Lutheran Church-Cafe St Marks Evg Catholic Church (N Main at Marie, entrance on the (409) 617-8395 1147 South Walnut 1602 Thousand Oaks Dr. Keene Street side) New Braunfels, TX 78132 San Antonio, TX Conroe Houston, TX 77009 (210) 606-8584 (915) 204-5870 Last Monday, 7:00 pm (281) 435-4143

Eagle’s Nest Ministries Paris Tyler 1450 Blake Road Humble 2nd Saturday at 2:00 pm 2nd Thursday, 6:30 pm Conroe, TX 77304 2nd Thursday, 7:00 pm Christ Community Church (in building Freedom Fellowship (281) 435-9908 First United Methodist Church with Nautilus fitness) 2915 SSE Loop 323 800 E Main St 116 S Collegiate Dr Tyler, Texas 75701 Corpus Christi Humble, Texas 77355 Paris, TX 75460 (903) 504-9771 2nd Tuesday, 7:00 pm (936) 442-0859 (903) 495-0018 New Life Behavior Ministries Waco 3833 S. Staples, Suite S-103 Killeen - Harker Heights Pearland - South Houston 3rd Thursday, 6:30 pm Corpus Christi, TX 78411 2nd Thursday, 6:00 pm 3rd Tuesday, 6:30 pm (exc Nov & Dec) Waco Hispanic Chamber (361) 813-7106 VFW (Ladies Auxiliary) Manvel Bible Chapel of Commerce 201 VFW Dr 4230 FM 1128 915 La Salle Ave Harker Heights, TX 76548 Pearland, TX 77584 Waco, TX 76706 (254) 289-9429 (831) 592-3438 (254)744-1789 Check our website and calendar for new TIFA Chapters starting near you. www.tifa.org If you are interested in starting a TIFA chapter in your area, please contact the TIFA office. (512) 371-0900 or send an email to [email protected]