TDCJ: ACTUALLY END SOLITARY CONFINEMENT NOW!
AUSTIN, TX: The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) recently made headlines by claiming they are ending the punishment of solitary confinement in Texas Prisons. This "fact" hinges on a false dichotomy between solitary confinement and administrative segregation. The conditions in solitary confinement and administrative segregation are the same: inmates spend 22-24 hours a day in a cell 6’ x 9’. Solitary confinement as a punishment places the inmate in these conditions for up to 30 days. That is the practice TDCJ claims to have abolished, freeing 75 inmates. However, this does nothing about the roughly 4000 inmates that live in administrative segregation – or permanent solitary confinement – in some cases for decades.
There is no practical difference in conditions between solitary confinement and administrative segregation – except that solitary confinement ends in 30 days, and administrative segregation ends when an inmate dies, finishes their sentence, or participates in the Gang Renouncement and Disassociation (GRAD) program. The fiction TDCJ pushes is that the 4000 inmates in administrative segregation are hardened criminals too dangerous to be in general population – never mind that at the end of their sentences, these men and women are released into society without any transition. These inmates often are labeled as being gang members. The problem is that these men and women are too often given this gang affiliation not for actually being gang members, but because they are engaged in jailhouse lawyering or otherwise advocating for better prison conditions or prisoners’ rights. Once a person has been given a gang designation, the only way for them to get out of adseg is to participate in GRAD, which requires them to admit to being in a gang and giving names of others in the same gang, who would then go into solitary instead.
Obviously, if a person has been given such a designation in retaliation for blowing the whistle on prison conditions, then there is no gang to renounce and thus no way to get out of adseg. For example, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson was labeled as a gang member for his political participation in the New Black Panther Party Prison Chapter, a political organization that advocates for the rights of inmates, to end police violence and racism, and for a better world. Rashid is most famous for blowing the whistle on wrongful deaths in the Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas. When Rashid’s whistle blowing became too hot for Texas to handle, they interstate compacted him to Florida (where he remains in administrative segregation).
Rashid is not the only one. Many other Texas inmates are in administrative segregation on allegations of violence or gang affiliation when they are really in administrative segregation for jailhouse lawyering or peaceful resistance. Keith “Malik” Washington was placed in administrative segregation in September 2017 because he advocated a peaceful work stoppage to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. Even though there was no strike, he was charged with inciting a riot and placed in administrative segregation. Alvaro “Xinachtli” Luna Hernandez has been designated a member of two rival gangs – a feat which defies logic – and has been in administrative segregation for over fourteen years for his jailhouse lawyering and advocating for prisoners’ rights. The only way for these inmates to be released from administrative segregation is to give names of other inmates in their alleged gang, who would then go into administrative segregation instead. This is simply not possible for inmates who are not actually gang members.
If TDCJ were interested in something other than positive press, it would take steps to separate the wheat from the chaff and figure out which inmates are actually dangerous and which are in administrative segregation for what amounts to political crimes. For those who are truly dangerous, they would receive rehabilitation: working with animals, therapy, drug rehabilitation, and whatever else is necessary to teach them empathy. We know solitary confinement – whether we call it administrative segregation or secured housing units or by any other name – makes people crazy. It is time to end this barbaric practice once and for all – not just as a feel-good, public relations headline, but for real.
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