Day Two: The Journey for Justice Takes Huntsville
September 23, 2000
According to a prison guard at the Goree Prison Unit, Huntsville, Texas
is a prison town of 30,000 that houses 10,000 prisoners. It is a town
that lists as one of its few attractions "The Texas Prison Museum" which
includes an authentic jail cell where visitors can imprison themselves.
The museum recently added the Texas landmark affectionally known as "Old
Sparky" Ð the electric chair.
The Journey for Justice stood its ground in Huntsville at three prisons.
It was obvious at each that fear predominates and that a caravan of
reformers has gotten their attention. We were joined today by three more
cars as our caravan begins to grow. All are welcome. The bigger we are
the less we will be ignored.
The first stop was the Goree Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. The prison was built in the 1930s, originally for women
inmates. Today the prison grounds are miles square. TheyÕve built new
sections of the prison around the original building. Goree now holds
1,500 male and female inmates.
At the prison the Journeyers demonstrated near the entrance gate. We
tried to talk with them, but the two African American guards originally
on the scene would not respond to simple questions. It showed how afraid
prison guards are. This same fear was seen when Kay Lee tried to give
flowers to the guards Ð there reaction was to move away. Prison guards
know they are at the bottom of the food chain of law enforcement
officers but at the same time they are desperate to keep their jobs.
Saying nothing till the people higher in the chain of command arrived is
the safest course for people so afraid.
Additional guards arrived and we were able to engage them in dialogue.
Ann McCormick joined me in a conversation with one guard and told of her
son being arrested in California for growing medical marijuana. Another
guard came up to tell me the rules: stay out of the driveway and the
road. I he told him that was our plan so we had a mutual agreement on
how the demonstration would be conducted.
We next circled the Wallace Unit, an old prison located in downtown
Huntsville. They had obviously been warned by the Goree Unit to expect
us as they had police lines blocking roads near the prison in an effort
to prevent us for circling. We repeatedly circled the prison speaking
through loudspeakers and blaring our car horns.
As we left Wallace we were joined by a police escort at the back of the
Journey. Our escort stayed with us until we reached our next prison
unit - the Holliday Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Holliday Unit is a mammoth barbed wire surrounded campus of metal
warehouse-like structures - with guard towers at the ends. Rows and rows
of warehouses for humans, so many it is not possible to see the last
warehouse when you stand at the first.
There were two signs outside of Holliday:
Be a Correctional Officer
Call Toll Free
1-877-WORK4TX
We did not see any other signs in town - Be a Teacher, an Engineer, a
Doctor . . . kids living in Huntsville see their future in the "Be a
Correctional Officer" sign which appears at all the prisons in the area.
The other sign was more curious:
Tx Dept. of Criminal Justice
Holliday Unit
Windham School District
Habitat for Humanity
Of Walker County
Building Houses & Lives Together!
What's that about? I asked a fellow Journeyer Mary Mackenzie, and she
said she used to work for Habit for Humanity when her husband was
incarcerated in Booneville, MO. When the prison warden told them of her
husbandÕs incarceration he threatened to pull the Habit for Humanity
"volunteers" i.e., prisoners from H4H. Is H4H using prison labor and not
volunteers? If so, they may make themselves a target the growing
movement to end drug war injustice.
Tomorrow we take Bryan, the women's prison. We received a call after
11:00PM last night that CBS wants to know when we are arriving. They
called awfully late and while we appreciate their interest we wonder
whether their interest was sparked by plans that the authorities may
have for us. Is a conflict coming? WeÕve hard that Bryan has been
worried about our arrival as well.
Kevin
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