The Bartlett Unit in Williamson County will house 1,049 male inmates who will participate in educational programs aimed to help them secure a job after they’ve served their time.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar informed the Commissioners Court on Tuesday that the county’s Adult Detention Center is over capacity.

A new state report says the prison population will outgrow capacity by the end of next year.

About 25% of Texas’ correctional officer positions are unfilled. Inmates say the shortages make it harder for them to get respite during hot summer months.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate who escaped from its Huntsville unit Sunday is now back in law enforcement custody.

Texas death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez was only 20 minutes away from being executed when the U.S. Supreme Court granted his request to stay his lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville.

A federal lawsuit asserts that the Texas agency terminated a state prison clerk who refused to remove a head covering in line with her Ifa faith.

With the threat of another hot summer ahead, advocates asked a federal judge to declare 100-degree-plus conditions in uncooled Texas facilities unconstitutional.

"This lockdown's kind of kind of needed," KSAT Investigates takes you inside a Texas prison during a lockdown

During a KSAT Investigates visit to the Wynne Unit in Huntsville during the statewide lockdown, we had the opportunity to visit with some of the inmates who are leaders in their units and the director of the Rehabilitation Programs Division.

A systemwide contraband search uncovered hundreds of cellphones, drugs, and weapons.

KSAT Investigates was granted exclusive access inside a prison while this lockdown was happening to see firsthand what the problems were. This is our day in Huntsville.

After a summer with record-breaking temperatures, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice released plans for air condition construction projects.

A federal judge has denied a request to stop the execution of a Texas inmate who had alleged in a lawsuit the drugs he's to be injected with next week were exposed to extreme heat and smoke during a recent fire, making them unsafe.

The killing of inmate Billy Chemirmir in the Coffield Unit occurred during a statewide lockdown of prisons, promoted by a rise in inmate homicides. A day before the lockdown, another incident at the same prison resulted in the firings of seven correctional officers and the resignations of another six.

Officials say a man accused of killing nearly two dozen elderly women and who was convicted last year in the slayings of two has been killed by his cellmate in a Texas prison.

Officials say a man accused of killing nearly two dozen elderly women and who was convicted in the slayings of two has been killed by his Texas prison cellmate.

The state has canceled all visits to Texas prison inmates until a comprehensive search of all 100 correctional facilities for contraband has been completed.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Wednesday that the agency implemented a statewide lockdown and search of all of its correctional facilities.

Most Texas prisons lack air conditioning. At least 41 prisoners have died of heart-related or undetermined causes since the unrelenting heat wave began.

The seven-months-pregnant officer reported contraction-like pains at work, but said she wasn’t allowed to leave for hours. The anti-abortion state is fighting her lawsuit, in part by saying her fetus didn’t clearly have rights.

Texas is one of 13 states that does not require air conditioning inside of units.

Management & Training Corporation had been accused of defrauding the state by charging for services it didn’t provide and directing prisoners to falsify paperwork about their treatment.

Texas prison officials say a 22-year-old inmate was captured about 250 miles from the prison he had escaped from hours earlier after climbing over a fence.

For more than a decade, Texas has been trying to slim down its youth prison system, which has been plagued by years of abuse scandals. This Legislature is reversing that course.

Stifling heat has killed inmates and exacerbated employee turnover in Texas prisons. But funding for air conditioning was whittled down in the draft budget released Thursday.

Moving the most violent and troubled youths to adult prison makes it easier to help others in juvenile facilities, some prosecutors and lawmakers say. Youth justice advocates say Texas is giving up on the children who most need help.

Joshua Keith Beasley Jr. had been transferred from a Texas youth facility to an adult prison despite a long history of suicidal behavior. Five guards and two supervisors allegedly failed to check on him.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Jolie about a hunger strike in Texas prisons and a lawsuit seeking to reform the use of solitary confinement on death row.

Men sentenced to death in Texas are held in isolation until their execution dates, with little human contact, medical care or legal help, according to a lawsuit filed to improve treatment of the condemned.

Prisoners have refused food to protest practices that have kept more than 500 people in isolation for more than a decade.

Fratta was convicted in the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife. Lawyers unsuccessfully challenged Texas’ routine of extending the expiration dates of its lethal drugs, a practice begun when many pharmacies began refusing to provide doses for executions.

Investigative reviews by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and independent consultants found the severely short-staffed prison routinely bypassed crucial security checks, leading to a convicted murderer’s escape.

Two reviews of the May escape of a Texas inmate that resulted in the deaths of five people found a multitude of security lapses such as inadequate strip searches and poorly applied restraints helped lead to his getaway.

Texas has executed an inmate for killing his mother and burying her body in her backyard nearly 20 years ago.

A divided Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Black Texas death row inmate who argued he didn’t get a fair trial because jurors who convicted him objected to interracial marriage.

A Texas death row inmate whose case clarified the role of spiritual advisers in death chambers nationwide has been executed, despite the efforts of a district attorney to stop his lethal injection.

A new report says many Texas prison inmates fear dying or falling gravely ill from the hot weather and believe actions taken by officials to mitigate the dangerous conditions continue to fall short.

Records show the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating potential civil rights violations in Texas’ multibillion-dollar border security mission.

The review came after Gonzalo Lopez escaped on May 12 and eventually killed five people.

The review comes after Gonzalo Lopez escaped from a prison bus last month. Authorities say he killed a family of five before they found and killed him.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has temporarily suspended the transport of inmates as they review their transportation procedures.ben

Abbott said the money would be taken from the budgets of other Texas agencies, including nearly $210 million from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission over two years and about $160 million from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A San Antonio man assaulted by a co-worker at the Dominguez State Jail in 2020 said the Bexar County District Attorney’s decision to dismiss the charge against his attacker went against his wishes as a victim.

A Texas death row inmate who won a reprieve when his request for his pastor to pray out loud and touch him as he received his lethal injection sparked legal debate has a new execution date.

Texas prison officials say they don’t plan to formally update their rules after last week’s Supreme Court ruling that indicated states must accommodate the requests of death row inmates who want to have their spiritual advisers pray aloud and touch them during their executions But the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Tuesday that such requests by inmates will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and unless they present a substantial security risk or are “outrageous,” they would work...

A San Antonio-area woman charged with drunk driving six times in four counties has so far avoided a lengthy prison sentence, despite picking up additional charges last fall while on probation for felony DWI.

The latest Texas execution protocols forbid spiritual advisers from praying aloud or touching prisoners as the prisoners are killed. Some members of the high court said they feared overturning the rules would lead to a flood of requests for other religious accommodations during executions.

An inmate who was on death row for fatally shooting an Austin police officer in 2012 was found dead in his jail cell Saturday morning, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The unresolved legal debate over whether spiritual advisers can touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death has delayed the final two executions scheduled this year in Texas.

A Texas death row inmate has won a reprieve from execution for killing a convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery that garnered $1.25.

A Texas death-row inmate has sued state prison officials to allow his pastor to lay hands on him as he dies from a lethal injection.

While many Texas prisons are understaffed, some dangerously so, the emptied-out Briscoe Unit in Dilley is in "maintenance mode" as officials scramble to implement the governor's plan to increase the state's role in border enforcement.

The prison — Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley — will have capacity for about 1,000 people.

The Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley will be used as a central holding facility for immigrants who cross the border without permission and are charged with state crimes.

It was the first execution since last summer, but a huge error prevents the media from witnessing it.

Legal and death penalty experts worry an execution without media watching how Texas officials administered a lethal injection against a condemned inmate is another example of a lack of transparency and competency in how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is continuing their investigation in Wednesday’s execution, but so far are blaming miscommunication.

A Texas man convicted of fatally beating his 83-year-old great aunt more than two decades ago was executed Wednesday evening without media witnesses present because prison agency officials neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment.

The bill initially approved by the House aims to cool all of Texas’ prisons before 2029. But even if it is signed into law, the lockups will only be air conditioned if lawmakers provide specific funds for installation.

Last year, the Texas prison system unwittingly started a controlled experiment. The main source of the drugs, according to more than a dozen people who lived or worked in Texas prisons over the past year: low-paid employees in understaffed facilities. … It’s so easy to get it in.”She asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the prison agency. Texas prison officers start at a salary of about $36,000; the maximum is less than $45,000. AdA perennial problemFrom shanks to phones to drugs, contraband of all types has been a perennial source of consternation for Texas prison officials.

SAN ANTONIO – For the first time in a year, inmates at Texas prisons are being allowed to have in-person visits after a ban was imposed when the pandemic began last spring. Busby’s husband has been at the Dominguez State Jail since November 2019 for a parole violation. AdVisits at the state jail are done through glass windows. Busby said as she awaits her scheduled visit, she applauds the removal of the ban. “TDCJ has done a remarkable job turning around this visitation opportunity,” she said.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Inmates in all Texas prisons and state jails will be allowed to resume in-person visits on Monday, March 15, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. All in-person visits were halted when the coronavirus pandemic swept the state last spring. All visits must be scheduled in advance, and inmates will be allowed only two visits per month. When asked whether inmates in the Bexar County Jail would be allowed in-person visits, Sheriff Javier Salazar said, “We haven’t really done in-person visits in several years.”Instead, he said, inmates will be allowed to continue remote video visits through a system upgraded during the pandemic. AdHe said the sheriff’s office has also provided just over 660,000 free phone calls from inmates during the pandemic.

(Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune)Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Before entering a state prison or jail, visitors will need to test negative on a rapid results coronavirus test, similar to at the protocol at the Texas Capitol. About 300 TDCJ inmates have died after contracting the virus, according to the Texas Justice Initiative. Recently, the agency has reported a decrease in the number of inmates and staff testing positive for the coronavirus. Those already on visitation lists may begin scheduling visits starting Wednesday by directly calling the prison or jail.

This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Jorge Villanueva, a Texas death row inmate who had been convicted of raping, beating and strangling a 77-year-old woman at her Houston home nearly 27 years ago. Villanueva, who had been dealing with health issues, has died after having been diagnosed with COVID-19, his attorney said Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. HOUSTON – A Texas death row inmate who raped and strangled a 77-year-old woman at her Houston home nearly 27 years ago has died after being diagnosed with COVID-19, his attorney said Tuesday. Villanueva died Saturday afternoon at Hospital Galveston, a medical facility run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said agency spokesman Jeremy Desel. AdIn Texas, 187 inmates have been confirmed or presumed to have died from COVID-19, according the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Of the 8,900 doses the state has reportedly allocated to 66 TDCJ lockups so far, the prisons’ health care partners had administered 5,562 doses by Monday, an agency spokesperson said. Officials first injected health care workers in the prisons, following guidance from the state health department. Jeff Ormsby, the executive director of Texas prisons’ American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees branch, said correctional employees in hospital settings are starting to be vaccinated. Phase 1A includes front-line health care workers and nursing home residents. “Doing the officers first could help in showing [inmates], ‘Hey, we need to do this,’” said Terra Tucker, the Texas state director at Alliance for Safety and Justice.

Texas’ prisons and jails have been coronavirus hot spots throughout the pandemic. At least about 200 Texas inmates have died with COVID-19. But it’s unclear when the still-limited doses of virus vaccines will be made available to the more than 186,000 people detained in Texas prisons and jails. In Texas, health care workers and people in long-term care facilities like nursing homes are at the front of the line to receive the vaccine. She faults the eroded relationships between prison medical staff and inmates and the rumor mill that can spread misinformation as quickly as the virus.

Incarcerated men at the Telford Unit, a prison in New Boston Texas near the Oklahoma border, have suffered 9% of the reported prison COVID-19 deaths in Texas prisons. There are now 629 active cases of the virus there, nearly half of the prison’s population, TDCJ data shows. People older than 55 years old make up over 80% of COVID-19 prison deaths in the state, the report said. Just seven of the more than 100 TDCJ facilities make up 58% of all the prison deaths from COVID-19. In one geriatric prison located two hours northeast of Houston in Angelina County, 19 people or almost 6% of the entire prison population has died.

At least 231 inmates and staff members have died of COVID-19 in Texas prisons and jails, according to the report by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Other states that started off with a higher number of COVID-19 prison deaths have been dramatically more successful in reducing deaths than Texas, the study found. Seven out of the 106 prisons in the Texas system account for over half of the COVID-19 deaths in prison in Texas. Almost 6% of the inmate population at the Duncan Unit geriatric prison near Lufkin in East Texas has died of COVID-19, and more than 80% of the COVID-19 Texas prison fatalities were over age 55, the report states. Twenty-one prison inmates died behind bars with less than two years left to serve on their sentences.

Birds fly overhead at the Hilltop prison unit in Gatesville, Texas. A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower court’s order that would require Texas to provide more protective measures against the coronavirus at a geriatric prison, like giving hand sanitizer to inmates who use wheelchairs. Two dozen Texas prison employees have also died with the virus. TDCJ appealed the ruling, having argued that it had many protective measures in place already, and hand sanitizer could be used to drink or start fires. Inmates’ attorneys said the concerns were “disingenuous,” as fires are not a problem at the prison and inmates have plenty of other flammable material, like paper.

“The Court acknowledges that [TDCJ officials] have taken a number of steps to address the spread of COVID-19 … at the Pack Unit,” Ellison wrote in his ruling. Texas has had more inmate deaths related to the coronavirus than any other prison system in the nation. Its death toll of at least 162 inmates outranks every other state as well as the federal prison system. More than 20 Texas prison employees have also died with the virus. The trial included testimony from several inmates, TDCJ officials and experts on health and prison conditions.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals changed the death sentence that Guevara had faced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals changed the death sentence that Gilmar Guevara had faced to life in prison. The ruling follows the appeals court's decision last week to resentence another Texas death row inmate, Juan Lizcano, to life in prison because he was also found to be intellectually disabled. The Texas appeals court's decisions in the two cases follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2017 that eventually changed the way Texas determines whether a defendant is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution. The Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled people, but it has given states some discretion to decide how to determine such disabilities.

Texas has seen more state prisoners die with the new coronavirus than any other state prison system in America. During that time, Texas has seen more state prisoners die with the virus than any other state prison system in America. Some of these people were eligible [for release] months and months and months ago, and theyre still there, said Jorge Renaud, southwest regional director of policy and advocacy for LatinoJustice, one of the advocacy groups. At least 94 have died with it, the highest death toll in the country among state prison systems. To try to hasten his homecoming, Boyd informed the parole board that her 41-year-old son had already completed the program months earlier.

Since March, more than 12,000 Texas prisoners and 2,100 TDCJ employees at dozens of prisons have had confirmed infections of the new coronavirus. Jolie McCullough/The Texas TribuneTwo Texas prisons each have more than 670 inmates with active coronavirus infections, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the highest counts seen at any state lockup since the pandemic began. At the massive Coffield Unit in East Texas, 753 inmates recently tested positive 19% of prisoners there, according to TDCJ data. Aside from Stiles, three other state-run prisons and jails had at least 25% of their inmates with active coronavirus infections Monday. TDCJ began testing all inmates at dozens of units in mid-May, with more than 100,000 coronavirus tests on inmates completed by June 10, according to agency reports.

SAN ANTONIO – In a matter of one month, the number of COVID-19 cases at the Dominguez State Jail outside San Antonio went from zero to 494, according to figures released this week by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “The numbers at the Dominguez State Jail represent more information from mass testing of non-symptomatic offenders,” TDCJ said in a statement Wednesday. TDCJ began mass testing after seeing an increase in symptomatic offenders. Positive offenders are monitored closely by medical staff. Here’s what to do if someone in your household is COVID-19 positiveThe agency is also deploying additional disinfecting equipment throughout the state.

James Allen Smith, 73, died after contracting the coronavirus in a Texas prison. Instead of coming home to his family after completing a short program, Smith died in prison custody on June 11. But early prison release decisions in Texas fall to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members are appointed by the governor. Deadly prison sentencesAfter entering the state prison system, Smith landed at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville for his rehab program shortly before the coronavirus shut down prison visitation and intake from jails. Of the inmates with COVID-19 who died, Smith was supposed to spend the shortest amount of time in prison.

TJJD/Bob DaemmrichAfter 17 young people tested positive for the coronavirus inside Texas state-run juvenile lockups, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department said Wednesday it will test all detainees and staff. Only two employees tested positive in April and May, according to agency news releases. But last month, 28 more employees and the 17 detainees also tested positive for the virus at four of the states juvenile lockups. The youth were all being treated at the lockups, TJJD said in a Tuesday news release. Sean Wilson, 43, worked at the Giddings State School and died on June 28 after testing positive for the virus the week before.

Shelby Knowles for The Texas TribuneStarting July 1, the Texas prison system will again accept inmates from county jails on a limited basis after halting intake three months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of Monday, TDCJ has completed more than 100,000 coronavirus tests on state prisoners, according to prison data. The state prison system stopped intake of people in county jails who had been sentenced to prison in April, after at least 10 county jails reported the virus in their lockups and Texas prisons had nearly 200 cases. By halting intake from counties, the state prison population dropped from about 140,000 inmates in March to about 131,000 in May, according to state reports. In May, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office asked the state for $468,000 to reimburse jail costs for holding TDCJ-ready inmates, according to KSAT.

Prison staff and inmates move through the Darrington Unit's main hallway on Wednesday, July 12, 2017. The appeals judges noted that many of the district judges orders had already been met by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. At least five have died from the virus, a states attorney said during a hearing in front of the appeals court judges last week. Inmates countered, and the district judge agreed, that court intervention was needed to protect them from the prison's apparent "deliberate indifference" to inmates' risk. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the appeals court ruling Friday, saying in a statement that the district court's order reflected "outdated guidance" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On April 13, the TDCJ decided to suspend intake of offenders who were set to be transferred to state prisons and treatment facilities. The move sparked Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff to send the department a letter, stating his concern about the policy. The Bexar County Jail, which is dealing with its own COVID-19 spread, is housing 189 inmates who were supposed to be transferred to state prisons and treatment facilities. The move leaves the jail with more inmates in a time when the sheriff’s office is trying to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.