 "Photo: Peter Franklin, Daily Texan Staff")
On March 4, 2007, prison guards found the body of Idaho inmate Scott Noble Payne in the showers of Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas. Noble Payne had committed suicide.
“By the time the guards checked on him, it was too late to resuscitate him,” said an emotional Shirley Noble, Noble Payne’s mother. “Scott thought it was his only way out.”
Noble said her son was always clean, often brushing his teeth several times a day. However, the living conditions of the privately owned Texas prison he described in letters to his mother were anything but sanitary. Noble said her son’s cell was freezing during the winter months and was usually wet from the nearby showers. The walls were covered in mold and could be identified by a distinct, musky smell.
The Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met Thursday at the Capitol building to discuss public outcry against the private prison system in Texas. Family members of deceased inmates, including Noble, as well as several organizations, addressed the committee, led by state Sens. John Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston, and Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, a Democrat from Mission.
The GEO Group Inc., manager of many privatized correctional and detention facilities in Texas, is being sued by Noble Payne’s family because of the prison’s conditions. In 2006, the organization awarded a $47 million settlement to the family of deceased inmate Gregorio de la Rosa, who was beaten to death by fellow inmates who stuffed socks with padlocks in 2001. The company is now facing indictment charges over the murder as well as numerous other lawsuits and accusations of tampering with evidence.
“I’m angry that GEO is still in business making money off of prisoners’ misery,” Noble said. “They must be stopped.”
The company did not return messages left by The Daily Texan.
“Private prisons are there for a profit. They’re going to do their best to cut corners and cut safety,” Hinojosa said. “When I read stories, most abuses are in the private sector, not in the state sector.”
Also addressing the committee was Brad Livingston, head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Livingston said growth, low wages for correctional employees and a high turnover rate of staff were at fault for the poor prison conditions.
Privately owned prisons began in 1987 with 2,000 prisoners but have grown to house more than 20,000, Livingston said. However, there aren’t enough employees to keep track of inmates. Last year, the turnover rate was 24 percent, and 43 percent for employees in their first year. In 2002, there was a record-high 4,000 vacancies for private correctional institutions, but Livingston said the department has since improved those numbers by increasing salaries by 10 percent and providing higher salaries for college graduates and military veterans.
“We’re confident that the salary adjustments have us headed in the right direction,” Livingston said.
Bob Libal, Texas coordinator for Grassroots Leadership, an organization opposed to private prisons, addressed different ways to fix problems with the conditions. Libal said a system of annual reporting should be put in place for all privatized prisons or the institutions should be subject to a public records request so that information about the condition and care of the inmates can be made public.
He said a nationwide investigation should be performed on all the lawsuits made against GEO and other companies that own private correctional facilities. A major problem Libal said needs to be addressed is the incorporation of out-of-state inmates.
Both Noble Payne and Randal McCullough, who committed suicide in August in a GEO-owned Texas prison, were Idaho natives shipped to Texas by the company.
“GEO shouldn’t be allowed to profit off the shipment of inmates from other states,” Libal said.
David McCullough, Randal McCullough’s son, was also present at the committee meeting.
“None of this should ever have been allowed to happen,” McCullough said. “I’m not really going to get a chance to know my father because of this incident.”
