By Marty Schladen
El Paso Times
AUSTIN — Advocates and several members of the Texas House of Representatives are calling for a review of prison-transport procedures after a bus headed for El Paso slid off a freeway killing 10 of the 15 people aboard.
In a press conference at the Capitol, the elected officials and advocates for correctional officers and inmates said steps have to be taken to prevent such calamities in the future.
“Ten people are not here because of some things that could be improved upon,” said Ana Yanez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, which advocates for reform of the criminal-justice system.
On Jan. 14 a prisoner transport bus was traveling from the Middleton Unit in Abilene to the Sanchez Unit in El Paso when it slid from an icy Interstate 20 near Odessa and collided with a train.
Eight inmates and two correctional officers were killed. Four inmates and one officer were taken to Medical Center Hospital in Odessa.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, said she does not want to conduct a witch hunt or lay blame for the accident.
“We’re not here to point fingers,” she said.
Instead, she wants a review of some of the practices of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice when it transports prisoners — something it does with an average of more than 2,000 inmates each weekday.
For example, she said, the prisoners were handcuffed and chained together at the time of the accident, making it difficult to protect themselves in the crash.
Also, they did not have seat belts, so they were flung from their seats.
In addition, the emergency exit in the back of the bus can only be opened with a key held by one of the corrections officers, Thompson said.
She and the other Texas representatives said they want prison officials to look for ways to secure prisoners when they’re in transit, but also protect them and their guards during accidents.
“There are some good people in the prison system and I’m sure there were some on the bus that day,” said Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston.
The prisoners on the bus ranged in age from 22 to 44. Their sentences ranged from one to 25 years on charges that included drug possession and armed robbery.
Lance Lowrey of the Texas Correctional Employees Council, the union that represents prison officers, said the prisoners could have been headed to El Paso for any one of several reasons: in preparation for release, medical treatment or because they were under threat in their previous facilities.
He said the policy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been not to send buses out on the road if drivers believed conditions were too dangerous.
“I don’t know what happened that day,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation into the crash.
Joshua Gravens of the advocacy group Texas CURE said the state has agreed to pay $6,000 toward the funeral expenses of the inmates who were killed. That’s the amount it will pay for the two correctional officers.
He and other advocates said additional support should be given to the families of all those who were killed and left behind dependent children.
Gravens said prisoners and their families were subjected to needlessly harsh treatment after the wreck. The grandmother of one inmate flew from Phoenix to visit him in the hospital, but officials at the facility wouldn’t allow it.
Tiffany Harston, director of public relations at Odessa’s Medical Center Hospital, on Wednesday confirmed that it was the institution’s policy not to allow visits to patients who are inmates to protect “the security of employees and visitors.”
She added that all inmates injured in the Jan. 14 accident had been released from the hospital.