The Texas Civil Rights Project, along with other entities, recently released its 2023 report on solitary confinement in Texas. The picture is far from a pretty one. Along with the largest prison system in the country, Texas also has the largest number of individuals locked up in prisons within a prison. It’s not popular to call it solitary confinement so the new term is Restrictive Housing or Administrative Segregation. Whatever it’s called, this report provides a comprehensive look inside the darkest place in the most opaque public agency……the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Unless you know someone locked up inside those tiny cells, there is little reason to be concerned…..unless you happen to believe in the words inscribed on the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington….EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.
Such a concept is another one of the idealistic propositions outlined in the U.S. Constitution. Like so many other lofty ideals it is very fine on paper. When looking at everyday reality, there is an enormous gap between those finely crafted visions and what happens on the ground.
The way prisoners are treated in our correctional institutions is rarely corrective. In solitary confinement, the situation is even more bleak. It is time for Texas taxpayers to learn how their tax dollars are being spent.
https://www.txcivilrights.org/_files/ugd/a4ea0d_7738c8c3097148ef814e8c157936335e.pdf