Let's get something done about Visiting at Harris County Jail - Texas

amyphamy · #1 10-27-2006, 11:45 PM

Hey Folks.

I, for one, believe in complaining to the right people when you have a complaint. I just looked up on the Texas State Jail Commission's web site the minimum standards required for jail visitations for existing structures in Texas. Here it is:

"Visiting areas shall be provided. Visitation areas shall be designed for the degree of security sought to be achieved. Audible communications shall be provided between the visitor and inmate. Provisions shall be made for disabled visitors and inmates. Seating should be provided for both visitors and inmates. A secure visiting area should be provided for contact visits from law enforcement officers, attorneys, clergy, and probation and parole officers. Provisions shall be made for passage of legal paper between inmates and attorneys."

Here's my complaint:

1. Audible communications are not possible when visiting prisoners at the Harris County Jail located at 701 N San Jacinto.

2. My husband is hard of hearing, and when I have mentioned this to the guards they laugh at me. I don't think this is adequate provisions being made for him to receive visits.

3. He has not gotten a contact visit from an attorney, and neither has anyone else up there that he or I know of.

4. His attorney had to hold papers up to the glass for him to see them.

5. While seating is provided, the way you have to communicate pretty much makes it impossible to be sitting down while visiting. This is not taking care of elderly, weak, or disabled visitors or prisoners.

I don't know what anyone else's experience has been, but I think those visiting windows are a violation of the prisoners and family's rights. We should be able to look them in the eye when we speak to each other. We should not have to put our mouths and ears up to unsanitary windows to communicate. People who are hard of hearing, but not totally deaf, should be able to hear their attorneys most importantly, and their other visitors as well.

While it's nice to have someone to vent our frustrations to on this site, nothing is ever going to be done to correct this problem by us handling it solely that way.

For complaints against Texas County Jails, contact the Texas State Jail Commission, and bring up the issues I have listed above, as well as any other ones you can think of about jails in Texas.

300 West 15th Street • Suite 503 • Austin, Texas 78711
512.463.5505 • administrator@tcjs.state.tx.us

When my nephew was in TDC in Beaumont, I got things rolling around there just by telling the warden I was going to call them. They kicked me out of visiting that day, but my nephew called his girlfriend the next day and those particular issues that they had denied existed the day before had already been fixed. How magical!

I know that this situation is going to take a little more doing, but I am hoping that by many people taking a few minutes to keep calling these folks some change will come for the inmates and their loved ones in Harris County.

It makes me feel a little bit better to know I am trying to do sometthing nice for them.

Amyphamy

amyphamy · #2 10-27-2006, 11:58 PM

Oh yeah, and if you call, make sure to be nice. I know it will be a shell shock to so after the treatment most of us have experienced, but I have found that these people don't take it nearly as well as they dish it.

txsfmhstn · #3 10-28-2006, 12:37 AM

I used to take a wipe to clean off that little vent thing. I did that for 6 months.

amyphamy · #4 10-28-2006, 10:08 AM

Thanks for the advice, but my husband can't hear me no matter how well I clean it. That's why I'm going to call and make a complaint, and I hope you will, too. What they are doing is illegal, and they think it's funny.

amyphamy · #5 11-01-2006, 11:20 AM

Is this a bad idea? Am I just going to make enemies in the PD by complaining?

amyphamy · #6 11-01-2006, 12:55 PM

Well I called the State Jail Commission anyway, and I talked to a man who takes complaints. He told me that unfortunately they are in compliance, and that since it is the largest county in Texas it has the most complaints and the worst visiting. There is nothing that can be done about it, or so he says.

Too bad I'm not rich or I would hire me an attorney to find out if that is really true.

Texasfem · #7 11-04-2006, 02:38 PM

I am proud of you for complaining but I have already learned it will only be a waste of time. Talk too the hand where Harris County is concerned!! a bunch of idiots who work there.

I do not go so that I speak to my son. I go so that I can see him and see that he is doing OK. He calls home to talk and I guess this will have to do. I will be there this evening but plan on parking my A-- there before 5 PM due to the long lines. no need to tell me about Harris county Jail. I know only to well.