Hungry, cold and victims of inhumanity behind Texas prison walls
By Gloria Rubac posted on February 22, 2021
Houston
On an average day in Texas, prisons are hellholes run by racist officials and a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison board that won’t request the legislature allocate money for proper maintenance. Every weather emergency in the state, from hurricanes to flooding to subfreezing weather, has proven time and again that prisons are not fit for human beings.
Snow-covered fields, Ramsey Unit prison unit, December 2004
As documented by incarcerated workers’ contraband cell phone messages and photos to reporters, and by their approved phone calls home the fact is that as Texas froze during the week of Feb. 21, so did prisoners.
Houston “I just can’t take it anymore,” Michael Beck told other prisoners at the W. F. Ramsey Unit state prison, in Rosharon, Texas, 33 miles south of Houston. Then during the first week of January, he wrapped a fan cord around his neck and tied the other end of it…