I received a letter today, he said it was thurs. 18th, post marked the 20th. He said they still have no electric & no FRESH water. They are running the unit on generators and starting to bring trucks with water. The city water has sea water in it, so it is really, really salty that is what we take showers in & you never feel clean. Three buildings had wind damage. Their has been no mail since last Thurs.(11th) We have been eating cheese sandwiches & other than that we are surviving. I do not know when they will open visitation because of the roof, so call up here & check before you come to visit.

I do not think they know the severeity of this storm, how could they with out TV or mail. That is about all he said concerning the storm. Hope this helps some of you that have not heard anything. Maybe they have electric on by now & they can get to commissary!!!!
I want to thank everyone for listening & supporting me through this my 1st hurricane ever! I may have not physically been there, but emotionally....Wow! I hope none of us ever have to go thru this again!

thanks that helped me out alot my bf is in the gist unit and i was suppose to go visit him this last weekend but figured they evacuated them and i havent heard from him since sept 5

my son is over in the stiles unit, and when he does get his mail, he will have letters to read for a month! every day i wrote one or two letters informing him of the situation around that area, letting him know what was going on in the outside world. i even included the lion in the baptist church and a loose tiger on the island, and the gators and snakes! i don't think he is aware of the little things that make life interesting and can be a topic for conversation while he is in his house. anyway, he will have lots of reading to do when his mail is finally run over there. hopefully it is running now. most of the guards that tend to these inmates in stiles, gist, leblanc, live in the port arthur, beaumont area. and i'm sure their lives have been disrupted, and could be slow returning to their jobs there at the units. untill they have a full staff, i'm sure things like commissary, mail, etc. will be operating at a turtles pace. good luck to all and remain strong for your people. ;) pam

Thanks for letting us know!! I read on the TDCJ website today that all units will be open for visitation except the Galveston Hospital Unit. Hooray!

I got a letter today & my son said the electricity came back on Saturday night. At least they will be able to read the letters we have all sent. I'm sure it will be busy this weekend for visitation. We are going to take my 2 year old granddaughter. It will be the first time my son has been able to hold his daughter since 4-9-08.