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Rubber, Meet Road: Guard shortages cause closure of wing at TDCJ unit in Dalhart

By Gritsforbreakfast

Rubber, meet road.Texas' prison overcrowding crisis has just entered a new and dangerous phase: The bill has finally come due for years of bipartisan political opportunism and willful denial. We've reached the pivotal "crossroads" predicted by the Texas Sunset Commission, and although the prison system, the Governor and the Legislature were amply warned of the problem, state government still seems caught unawares.In an excellent story today from the Austin Statesman ("Guard shortage forces closure of prison wing in West Texas," Jan. 10), the intrepid Mike Ward reports that a 300-bed wing of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice unit in Dalhart was closed last year because of understaffing, and that:staffing shortages in Texas prisons have reached dangerous levels after years of administrators transferring convicts and tweaking overtime pay and schedules to try to maintain proper security in the face of dwindling staff...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 10, 2008 (boomark / email).