Laws Lag Behind Booming Private Prison Industry

HOUSTON —  Two sex offenders climbed over the prison fence near Houston and made it nearly 200 miles, practically to Dallas, before they were caught. But there was nothing Texas could do to punish them for the escape.

In fact, state authorities didn’t even know the men were behind bars in Texas.

The reason: The men had broken out of a privately run prison, where they had been sent by the state of Oregon.

Private prisons are a booming business in Texas, and the laws haven’t exactly caught up with the phenomenon.

“We have no knowledge of what type of inmates are being brought into the state or anything to do with the inmates that are being brought into the state,” said Allan Polunsky, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. “Texas is literally in the dark.”

Eighteen other states and Washington, D.C., have private prisons, but Texas is king, in part because of its wide-open spaces and the absence of any legal barriers. (Illinois, for example, bans private jails.)

Texas has 38 of the 124 private jails open or expected to open soon around the country, and 23,008 of the nation’s 74,003 private prison beds. Florida is a distant second with 5,900. The industry is growing at an annual rate of 35%, said Charles Thomas, a criminology professor at the University of Florida.

States that send inmates to Texas say they prefer to house their own but don’t have the room. They pay private companies to care for the inmates.

In Texas, the practice has come under criticism because of a series of incidents.

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In February, Missouri inmates upset over TV privileges and the race of their jailers set fire to their private detention center near San Antonio. In August, 14 prisoners and three guards were hurt in an uprising at a private jail in Eden, Texas.

Earlier this month, 100 Utah inmates were returned to that state from a private jail in Pearsall, Texas, after months of problems, including a riot and eight escapes. Two men, including a convicted murderer, are still loose.

Texas authorities want to know who pays for tracking down escapees and quelling riots, something state and local authorities have done over and over. There is also a fear of the unknown--the state isn’t always told by the private jailers what sort of inmates have arrived. And there is concern about Texas authorities’ apparent inability to prosecute inmates for escape.

The Corrections Corp. of America, operator of the prison near Houston, was required to tell only federal authorities--not the state--about the 240 sex offenders it was holding there under a contract with Oregon.

And after Richard Wilson and Walter Hazelwood broke out in August, Texas authorities said they couldn’t prosecute the men for the 11-day escape because the guards at the prison aren’t considered peace officers or public servants.

“They have not committed the offense of escape under Texas law,” Harris County prosecutor John Holmes said. “And the only reason at all that they’re subject to being arrested and were arrested was because during their leaving the facility, they assaulted a guard and took his motor vehicle. That we can charge them with and have.”

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Oregon corrections spokeswoman Perrin Damon said the men can’t be prosecuted for escape there either because the breakout took place in Texas.

Oregon has taken all of its prisoners back amid the outcry over their presence.

Corrections Corp. spokeswoman Susan Hart said the company supports legislation to fix any problems. Corrections Corp. manages 28,000 inmates nationwide, more than any other company.

“We’re accustomed to scrutiny and that’s OK,” she said. “Let’s all be working together to come up with the best solution.”

State Sen. John Whitmire of Houston wants state law to regulate private prisons. The legislation would include provisions for billing private prisons for law enforcement help received during escapes or uprisings. The state has already sent bills in at least two cases.

“If you’re keeping someone for profit . . . why should the public be charged with apprehending them?” Whitmire asked.

Bobby Ross, president of the Austin-based Bobby Ross Group, which manages several jails housing mostly out-of-state prisoners, said his company will pay the state $1,200 for a dog team used in hunting down two Colorado escapees.

“We appreciate that help that the state gave us, gave the county,” said Ross, a former sheriff.

Neil McCabe, a South Texas College of Law professor, said it could be argued that a private prison is acting as a government entity and that escapes are therefore a crime. And, in fact, some Texas prosecutors plan to press escape charges in such cases.

Karnes County prosecutor Lynne Ellison oversaw the indictment of the two escaped inmates from Colorado and said he will charge such escapees until an appeals court says he can’t.