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: Grits for Breakfast

Sound staffing policies, lower inmate numbers, not high-tech gadgetry best solution to contraband problems

A combination of underfunding and ineptitude allowed a recent escape from solitary confinement at the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, according to Lindsay Wise writing in the Houston Chronicle ("Prison in need of security updates," March 27). The article opens:A half an hour without direct supervision was all it took for felon David Puckett to escape from solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Beaumont, unseen by guards.The breakout wasn't even caught on surveillance video.Now Puckett is back under lock and key, but his escape earlier this month put a spotlight on security shortcomings in Texas' 97 state-run prisons, particularly the lack of comprehensive video surveillance systems.Just one prison ? Death Row ? has such a system, according to statistics obtained from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 27, 2011 (boomark / email).