Category: Uncategorized

Link to TCCA documents of Dec. 17, 2008

By Nick Braune

If you spend ten days in jail in Harlingen, Texas, you will not get a chance to shower, according to a KRGV Channel Five news report last Thursday.

The report said, “Municipal judges are putting people behind bars in a jail that’s not prepared to protect or care for them…Families tell us the cold and crowded jail doesn’t have pillows, soap or showers.”

KRGV’s report points up a number of interesting problems. Although the jail is really not prepared to hold someone over a day or two (no kitchen to prepare food, no medical facility, no shower), people are still being ordered to spend a week there for not paying traffic fines and for other offenses. KRGV questioned the head jailer, who pointed the finger at the local judges. But the judges refused to speak on camera.

City Manager Gabe Gonzalez seemed defensive speaking to the reporters: “We can’t tell judges how to sentence prisoners. We can’t interfere in that process. There isn’t anything saying that we can’t hold them there for 10 days or more. Let me make it clear, we’re not violating any policy by keeping them there for that many days.” However, that apparent lack of policy is one of the problems.

KRGV concluded that “no set safety standards or rules exist to protect inmates in municipal jails.” Channel Five interviewed Adan Munoz, the head of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, but he is charged only with watching County Jails. Munoz says there is “no state oversight at all” over municipal jails.

Munoz told KRGV that it is just a matter of time before there is going to be a lawsuit, that someone who is kept there for five or ten days without the basic necessities like mattresses is going to become ill or get an infection. He raises the question of how someone who is diabetic is treated; the article says that the jailers go out and pick up sandwiches off the shelf and cookies for the inmates. There seems to be no concern about nutrition. One person reported their meal was a cream filled cookie and coffee; others report having a sandwich for breakfast. KRGV also interviewed one woman whose sister is diabetic and being held for eight days.

I did a quick interview with Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney from the South Texas Civil Rights Project.

Braune: I noticed that you were quoted on air that STCRP is watching the situation. It was a really good TV news piece.

Spencer-Scheurich: Yes it was, and I hope there is a follow-up, but one angle didn’t come up that I would like to mention. There may be thousands of outstanding warrants in Harlingen and poor people are being thrown into jail for nonpayment. Some protection has to be granted to the indigent — the criteria for which is that the person is receiving public benefits (food stamps, Medicare) or their expenses exceed their income — these people are being put in jail essentially for failure (inability) to pay. Going over the speed limit or failing to fasten the seatbelt is hardly a jail-able offence. But they are in jail for not paying fines or missing payments on them. They shouldn’t be in jail. Judges should not put the indigent in there. The founders of this country intended to protect us from debtors prison.

Braune: Do you think it may be worse in Harlingen than other places?

Spencer-Scheurich: Yes. So far, it does seem worse, egregious. Why are they using jail stays so much, and why such long stays? I’m not sure at this point. They do have a new jail, maybe they just want to make sure it’s used.

Braune: I agree with Adan Munoz of the Texas Commission, it probably won’t be much longer before there is a lawsuit on this.

Spencer-Scheurich: Well, we are hoping people come forward to tell their stories now.

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Mayoral candidate Joe Rubio, who spent years on Harlingen’s police department and has some fame for asking difficult questions of city leaders, posted a follow-up on a local website. He asks if there is consideration given to pregnant women held for three days in the cold cells and only receiving a cookie and two sandwiches. And what if a young man vomits all over his shirt and the jailer throws away his shirt? Isn’t he left shirtless with his complaints unheeded? Rubio says people wait outside in rain or heat for over an hour to bring a relative a bag of chips — this is allowed — but one person’s gift was rejected last week because the bag was too large: “You are limited to a small bag of chips and one drink.”

The weekly meeting of the Texas Workforce Commission turned into an emergency room for unemployment benefits on Tuesday morning.

The best overview of the “sit-yi-ashun” comes out of the Waco Tribune in today’s editorial titled, “Get with It.”

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram offers good coverage in a news story by Dave Montgomery and a column by Mitchell Schnurman.

Here at TCRR we have been watching the Governor’s dogmatic attachment to supply-side economics since he presented the Laffer Report last Fall. The Laffer model has worked well as a campaign platform in ordinary times. But these are no ordinary times.

According to figures released last week by the National Employment Law Project, large numbers of jobless Texans will begin exhausting their 33 weeks of federal unemployment benefits. About 47,000 will hit the end of that lifeline in September, with the number growing to nearly 80,000 by the year-end holidays.

Texas is one of four states (all from the former Confederacy) that rejected a 20-week extension of those federal benefits, and so far most Texans agree that the state did the right thing. –gm

By Elliot Cole
Community Relations
Texas Civil Rights Project

Each year, roughly three million students graduate from US high schools. Some students enter the workforce directly, while others opt for the armed services. Many, however, choose to go college, developing their potential through academics.

However, 65,000 graduates will never have that option, including tens of thousands in Texas. They are prom queens, honor students, and athletes. They are tutors, class representatives, and valedictorians. Nonetheless, no matter their ability, they will be denied the ability to become doctors, teachers, or to pursue a law degree.

Though they have lived in the US for almost all of their lives, these students have inherited the label of undocumented immigrant, and for that will not be able to pursue upper education. Simply because they were born in another country they are treated as second-class citizens, disallowed from pursuing their respective dreams. This is counter-productive, foolish, and unwarrantable.

On March 26, 2009, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act was introduced in Congress to give those dreams back. The proposed law provides a six-year conditional residency during which undocumented graduates can pursue a two-year degree, attend two years of a four-year degree, or serve two years in the military. An immigrant who completes any of those three conditions and is otherwise in good legal standing at the time will earn a well-deserved permanent residency. Immigrants would not be eligible for federal college grants, but would be able to apply for student loans and work study.

With the support of President Obama and senators and Congress members on all sides of the political landscape, the DREAM Act is as an opportunity. It’s a chance to be fair and to readjust our attitude toward students who have done nothing but strive toward becoming contributing members of society.

The students affected by the DREAM Act have not committed a crime against our country, as some will argue. They are simply the children of illegal immigrants. They know no home other than the United States. It is time we embrace them rather than act as if they did not exist. This is their community, and they will be able to contribute to our society with a college education.

In the current economic struggle, passing the DREAM Act makes even more sense. By introducing an educated group to the workforce, more taxes will be paid, more jobs created, more goods purchased, and more businesses founded. Every year we turn away thousands of students graduating from our high schools who could contribute to this economy. It’s contradictory and senseless.

Some may argue that the influx of these new students to the state colleges would somehow make state universities suffer. In truth, the state school system will benefit from the new student pool, and the bill already has support from university presidents nationwide.

The DREAM Act is an investment in our country’s collective future. With passage of the bill, dedicated graduates will not be barred from an education; they will be able to help their communities — and society as a whole — grow and flourish.

The DREAM Act has backing from all sectors of society, from religious leaders to universities. It has bipartisan backing from coast-to-coast. With the advantages it will provide our state, it should have the support of Texans as well.

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The Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit foundation, promotes civil rights and economic and racial justice throughout Texas, attempting to bring about systemic change through education and litigation.