Tall Walls and High Fences

Tall Walls and High Fences
Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 601
Release: 2020-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574418165

Texas has one of the world’s largest prison systems, in operation for more than 170 years and currently employing more than 28,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of people have been involved in the prison business in Texas: inmates, correctional officers, public officials, private industry representatives, and volunteers have all entered the secure facilities and experienced a different world. Previous books on Texas prisons have focused either on records and data of the prisons, personal memoirs by both inmates and correctional officers, or accounts of prison breaks. Tall Walls and High Fences is the first comprehensive history of Texas prisons, written by a former law enforcement officer and an officer of the Texas prisons. Bob Alexander and Richard K. Alford chronicle the significant events and transformation of the Texas prison system from its earliest times to the present day, paying special attention to the human side of the story. Incarceration policy evolved from isolation to hard labor to rodeo and educational opportunities, with reform measures becoming an ever-evolving quest. The complex job of the correctional officer has evolved as well—they must ensure custody and control over the inmate population at all times, in order to provide a proper environment conducive to safety and positive change. Alexander and Alford focus especially on the men and women who work with diligence and dedication at their jobs “inside the walls,” risking their lives and—in too many instances—giving their lives in a peculiar line of duty most would find unpalatable. Within these pages are stories of prison breaks, bloodhounds chasing escapees, and gunfights. Inside the walls are deadly confrontations, human trafficking, rape, clandestine consensual trysts, and tricks turned against correctional officers. Famous people and episodes in Texas prison history receive their due, from Texas Rangers apprehending and placing outlaws in prison to the famed gunfighter John Wesley Hardin’s time in and out of prison. Tall Walls and High Fences covers numerous convict escape attempts and successes, including the 1974 prison siege at Huntsville and the 2007 prisoner gunfight and escape at the Wynne Unit. Throughout this long history Alexander and Alford pay special tribute to the more than 75 correctional officers, lawmen, and civilians who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Tall Walls and High Fences

Tall Walls and High Fences
Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: North Texas Crime and Criminal
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781574418071

"Book is a comprehensive history of the Texas Prison system starting in the 1840s and coming up to the present, including the COVID-19 crisis. Focus is on the guards and administrators but all aspects are discussed"--

Behind the Walls

Behind the Walls
Author: Jorge Antonio Renaud
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2002
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1574411527

Written by a Texas inmate trained as a reporter, this book gives practical advice on how inmates live, eat, play, work, and die in the Texas prison system. It spotlights the day-to-day workings of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice--what's good, what's bad, which programs work and which ones do not, and examines if practice really follows official policy. "While the book is meant to be a primer for those with loved ones in prison, it should be required reading for any attorney involved in criminal law."--Texas Lawyer de Novo Magazine

We Are Not Slaves

We Are Not Slaves
Author: Robert T. Chase
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 543
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1469653583

Hank Lacayo Best Labor Themed Book, International Latino Book Awards Best Book Award, Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice, American Society of Criminology In the early twentieth century, the brutality of southern prisons became a national scandal. Prisoners toiled in grueling, violent conditions while housed in crude dormitories on what were effectively slave plantations. This system persisted until the 1940s when, led by Texas, southern states adopted northern prison design reforms. Texas presented the reforms to the public as modern, efficient, and disciplined. Inside prisons, however, the transition to penitentiary cells only made the endemic violence more secretive, intensifying the labor division that privileged some prisoners with the power to accelerate state-orchestrated brutality and the internal sex trade. Reformers' efforts had only made things worse--now it was up to the prisoners to fight for change. Drawing from three decades of legal documents compiled by prisoners, Robert T. Chase narrates the struggle to change prison from within. Prisoners forged an alliance with the NAACP to contest the constitutionality of Texas prisons. Behind bars, a prisoner coalition of Chicano Movement and Black Power organizations publicized their deplorable conditions as "slaves of the state" and initiated a prison-made civil rights revolution and labor protest movement. These insurgents won epochal legal victories that declared conditions in many southern prisons to be cruel and unusual--but their movement was overwhelmed by the increasing militarization of the prison system and empowerment of white supremacist gangs that, together, declared war on prison organizers. Told from the vantage point of the prisoners themselves, this book weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labor, civil rights, and politics in the United States as it narrates the transition from prison plantations of the past to the mass incarceration of today.

Walking George

Walking George
Author: David M. Horton
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2005
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1574411993

Annotation George John Beto (1916-1991) is best known for his contributions to criminal justice. This book, authored by two of his former students, examines the entire life of Beto and his many achievements in the fields of both education and criminal justice.

Country Cop

Country Cop
Author: Barry Goodson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2020-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1574418009

The deputy sheriff or sheriff of a county often is perceived as the lone officer protecting the citizens of a small town. Country Cop is the riveting story of one such deputy sheriff, Barry Goodson, and his experiences with the Parker County Sheriff’s office in the 1990s and early 2000s in North Texas. Goodson was required to answer any call for service within an area roughly the size of Rhode Island (just under 1000 square miles), where a backup officer could be many miles away, and so he often patrolled and handled calls alone in a county renowned for being a haven for drug manufacturers and dealers. Goodson puts the reader in his patrol car to vicariously share what it is like to be in county law enforcement. He reveals his officer’s skills, which include the ability to identify an offender immediately, to assess that offender’s immediate intent (apparent or not), and to decide on proper action before the offender can unleash his or her attack on that deputy or against the originally intended victim. More often than not, he employed “verbal judo” to de-escalate a situation instead of drawing his gun. Calls from dispatch ranged from a simple need to clear livestock from the highways to shots fired or a 150 mph high-speed auto chase of drug dealers. More often, drug dealer attacks erupted during a perceived normal traffic stop with the offender suddenly producing a weapon, forcing Goodson to use force to subdue the individual. During one domestic violence call Goodson and another officer forced entry to stop a violent father from extreme violence against his wife and two teenage sons, but then Goodson had to intercept the wife as she lunged forward with a pair of long scissors in an attempt to stab the other officer in the back. Country Cop gives the inside story of county law enforcement and will prove a valuable resource for those in criminal justice, those who aspire to a career in law enforcement, and to all who enjoy a good police story.

Eleven Days in Hell

Eleven Days in Hell
Author: William T. Harper
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574411802

Annotation "The 1974 Fred Gomez Carrasco prison siege at Huntsville, TX.".

Convict Cowboys

Convict Cowboys
Author: Mitchel P. Roth
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2016-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574416529

Convict Cowboys is the first book on the nation’s first prison rodeo, which ran from 1931 to 1986. At its apogee the Texas Prison Rodeo drew 30,000 spectators on October Sundays. Mitchel P. Roth portrays the Texas Prison Rodeo against a backdrop of Texas history, covering the history of rodeo, the prison system, and convict leasing, as well as important figures in Texas penology including Marshall Lee Simmons, O.B. Ellis, and George J. Beto, and the changing prison demimonde. Over the years the rodeo arena not only boasted death-defying entertainment that would make professional cowboys think twice, but featured a virtual who’s who of American popular culture. Readers will be treated to stories about numerous American and Texas folk heroes, including Western film stars ranging from Tom Mix to John Wayne, and music legends such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Through extensive archival research Roth introduces readers to the convict cowboys in both the rodeo arena and behind prison walls, giving voice to a legion of previously forgotten inmate cowboys who risked life and limb for a few dollars and the applause of free-world crowds.

Worse Than Death

Worse Than Death
Author: Gary M. Lavergne
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574411675

Explains how the case of a Moroccan national who gunned down seven people in a Texas nightclub in 1984 led to the development of Texas's multiple murder statute.

When Texas Prison Scams Religion

When Texas Prison Scams Religion
Author: Michael G. Maness
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 683
Release: 2023-05-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1728377552

When Texas Prison Scams Religion exposes corruption in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, especially in the abuse of religion. In many ways, this book is a literature review of 1,800-plus works that defends freedom of conscience in prison while exposing the unconstitutionality of the seminary program that “buys faith with favor” from prisoners. The state veritably ordains the prisoner a “Field Minister” that represents the offices of the Governor, TDCJ Director, and wardens throughout the prison. Therein, TDCJ lies about neutrality in a program all about Christian missions and lies again in falsely certifying elementary Bible students as counselors. Why is the director sponsoring psychopaths counseling psychopaths? In fact, TDCJ pays $314 million a year to UTMB for psychiatric care and receives not a single report of the care given, and worse, for UTMB generates no reports itself. The underbelly TDCJ’s executive culture of cover up is exposed. TDCJ has hired the lowest qualified of the applicant pool many times in the last 25 years and regularly destroys statistics on violence. TDCJ Dir. Collier led the prison to model Louisiana Warden Burl Cain, the most scandal-ridden in penal history according to a host of published news stories for 20 years. Therein, Collier led TDCJ to favor the smallest segment of religious society within Evangelical Dominionism. Texas has no business endorsing the truth of any religion over another. We close with a proposal that utilizes the 400,000,000 hours of officer contact over ten years as a definitive influence in contrast to a commissioner that spends less than 10 minutes on each decision. Maness has been lobbying Austin for 15 years to definitively access staff for his “100,000 Mothers’ 1% Certainty Parole Texas Constitutional Amendment,” which would revolutionize prison culture and save Texans millions of the dollars.