“Anyone” Can Be a Prison Guard, in Texas

By Jay Goodman

Here we are at the end of 2019, and the Texas prison system is no closer to changing its flawed system, than the Iranians are in becoming a Christian country. If anyone with common sense looked at each prison, they would laugh at the ignorance of the people controlling it.

The Puppetmasters had a vision of building over one hundred prisons and keeping them full of men and women to work in their industries and endless miles of cotton, sugar cane, and other forms of agriculture. And any and every way, they can make money off of us, they have. No matter how terrible the conditions are at all of the prisons across this state, especially at the older prisons, they never consider closing them. Hell, they never consider fixing them unless something happens that forces them to.

There are prisons in Texas infested with rats, mice, roaches, birds, bats, and many other types of animals. When I was at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville from 2006 to 2008, roaches were so out of control that they would crawl on me every night. The roaches are in every inch of that prison, they were even in our food. The Estelle Unit was the same. There are so, many prisons the state needs to close down, or needs to condemn. But the only thing that matters to Texas is keeping them full to capacity, and keeping the free labor slaves working.

A lot of the old prison’s cells are not big enough for two people. But does that keep them from sticking two men in them? Of course not. Prison cells by law, have to be a certain size, to put two people in them. But as I have said, and will I keep saying, Texas prisons don’t give a sh--, about any law, state or federal. The prisons in Texas have an unwritten policy, deny, deny, deny. Or another Puppetmaster classic is, refuse to answer the question, like they did in the heat lawsuit, when the federal judge asked the Texas officials, how many people had died due to heat-related causes.

Like everything else inside these Texas prisons, that are going on, do the Puppetmasters know there are dozens of prisons that should be shut down? Yes! But allow me to show everyone why they won’t.

Let me use the Wynne Unit as an example. The Wynne Unit is a very old unit. It was built about a hundred years ago. It has an auto repair shop for the state vehicles, they also have prisoners with CDL licenses driving different articles all over the state. They also have a tag shop, that make the license plates and street signs. Not only for Texas, but they also have multimillion dollar

contracts for other states as well. The prisoners are making the Puppetmasters millions of dollars. So, the last thing on their minds is condemning that prison. So what; the cells are so small, I could stand sideways and touch both walls, so what; there are roaches crawling on the inmates as they sleep, or crawling on the food they eat, so what; there are mice and rats as big as cats everywhere, so what; the cells are not big enough by federal law standards to house two prisoners in, so what; the day room is not big enough for the inmates in each cell block to come in, and sit down. The only thing that’s important, is all of the money this prison is making us.

They know that the place is not fit; everything I just named is only a fraction of the things wrong there. But in their minds, they live in a time that’s long forgotten by the rest of the country. In their minds, all Texas prisoners are slaves. To people running these Texas prisons, the only thing they think about is, keeping this industry up and running. Living conditions at all of the older prisons are unfit, unsafe, and should have been closed decades ago.

Even a lot of the prisons that were built in the big prison boom of the early 1990’s are falling apart. While the living conditions are a little better than the old ones, the state is not worried about fixing them up as time goes by.

Allow me to show everyone the real problem that’s plaguing the Texas prisons. They do not have enough people to run this prison system. There are not enough guards to keep the prisons functioning properly. At prisons across this state, inmates are getting mistreated terribly, because of this. Here is what happens at a few of the maximum-security units. At the Connally Unit, in Kennedy, Texas, they are locked down for days at a time without any recreation, and fed sandwiches, which as I have explained many times before, consist of a bologna sandwich and peanut butter sandwich.

Now why this may not seem so bad, remember, prisons in general are stressful places, so put thousands of men in a cell for weeks or months at a time, they have no way to release their frustration, and then starve them on top of it, these men start going crazy. Another maximum-security unit in Beeville, Texas, called McConnell, is another place where the prisoners are locked down for weeks at a time and fed these types of meals, three times a day, seven days a week. All due to the simple fact of not having enough guards to run the unit properly. So the inmate has to suffer, while the staff, and guards get to eat all their hot meals, and full course meals, I might add, not two sandwiches. At the Stevenson Unit in Cuero, Texas, it’s considered a low security prison, most of the prisoners here have proven themselves as far as, behaving. A lot of prisoners here have already served a good bit of their time and are close to going home.

In July, they had to shut a whole building down, because there wasn’t enough guards to cover the unit. This shortage of staff has affected every prison in Texas at some point. Prisoners have gone weeks or months without hot trays, they have been without showers for days at a time. There is something else that is going on because of this. The rank and the guards get so used to doing this that even when there is enough staff to run rec, or other forms of activities, they just leave us locked up. Why? Because that way they don’t have to do anything. TDCJ right now is offering a five-thousand-dollar bonus signing fee, but cannot get the people that’s needed to work all of these prisons. Also because of this, the people that are getting hired are people no other state in our country would even think of hiring as a prison guard.

Please know, I’m not trying to sound discriminatory, but I believe there are certain types of people that have no business, working at a prison. One is the elderly. Let me give a few examples of why. For one, there’s a woman named, Harrison, who works here at the Stevenson Unit, she is somewhere between 65 and 70 years old. While I must admit, she is a very sweet lady, who has always been a breath of fresh air to be around, but, as a prison guard, she has no business being here. A few months ago, she was working in one building, when a man with a solid three-pound metal motor tied in a bag, began beating a man in the head with it. This lady just stood there without pulling out her mace spray canister and spraying him. She never did anything she was supposed to do, except call for help on her radio. She is trained, so if there are two people fighting, and refuse to stop, then mace them. Later, another prisoner asked her, why she did not gas the inmate? She became ‘angry, and said,” I am not going to gas a man beating someone, he may attack me”. Well, my question is this. If you are afraid of getting hurt, what in the hell are you doing working here? She knew that more than likely, a day would come like this, and if you are not going to do your job, why did you come here to work? This inmate getting beat up could of easily been a guard being attacked. I know, if I worked here and saw what this lady did under pressure, I would be worried for my safety. But, it’s not just this one lady, it’s practically the entire Texas prison system. Because of over one hundred prisons, and not enough qualified people to work them. They have had to hire people like this woman, who as I said is between 65 to 70 years old. They have had to also hire young men and women fresh out of high school. They have had to hire obese people, and they have had to hire people a few french fries short of a happy meal.

As I have already written in a chapter, the Texas prisons are flooded with Nigerians, and other African nationals. There are prisons that are almost all African nationals. I am not saying that the Texas prison system should not hire them, I am pointing out that they are willing to hire anyone, to keep their industry up and running. But this is what happens. Prisons like the Darrington Unit, almost the whole prison staff are African nationals. Because of this there is a big communication problem. Most of them cannot speak English very well, and because of that, the prisoners and the staff get frustrated with each other.

The elderly cannot do their jobs properly, they get upset too easily, they are unable to deal with a violent situation. There is of course exceptions to that rule, but as a whole they are not able to deal with a problem of violence. And it will cost a prisoner’s life, or another guards life, or even their own. The obese guards are also a serious problem. Most are extremely lazy, and will not do their jobs, most of them while working in a cell block, will sit in the picket with other officers. It’s almost impossible to get in or out of our cells, or get anything done, because they won’t do anything. Not even the bare minimum. Which also frustrates the other guards, because now they have to do more work. And last, the kids their hiring. Let’s face it, a lot of them haven’t even decided what they want out of life. They come here and are easily manipulated by prisoners, and next thing you know their bringing drugs into the prison.

Even though the Puppetmasters know everything I’m writing is true. They, will do as I said earlier, deny, deny, deny. If the State of Texas would close the old prisons that should have, been closed and condemned decades ago. Like the, Wynne, Byrd, Coffield, Darrington, Eastham, Ellis, the Walls Unit, and all the others, that are like these. The prison system could have plenty of staff, plus, they would be able to start focusing on rehabilitation. But of course, the last thing the Puppetmasters ever want to do is close down one of their industries. The thought of closing all of those prisons, and not being able to steal from them is something they will not even contemplate. Even though they know the whole prison system would be run a thousand times better. But they are not worried about any of this, the only thing that matters is, “Money”.

The Attorneys
  • Francisco Hernandez
  • Daniel Hernandez
  • Phillip Hall
  • Rocio Martinez