Texas prison system’s staffing crisis and outdated technology endanger guards and inmates

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Texas’ sprawling prison and criminal justice system is facing a dangerous staffing crisis that puts inmates and staff at risk — and it could soon run out of room to house the projected number of incarcerated people, according to the state commission that reviews the performance of Texas agencies.

The 189-page report documents severe staffing shortages among both correctional and parole officers that have become extremely costly and diminished public safety. Some prisons are operating with up to 70% of prison guard positions unfilled and the turnover rate among all Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff is 26%. The staffing challenges come as the growing prison population is expected to exceed bed capacity by the end of next year.

The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission staff, which published the report, recommends TDCJ reallocate its staff, close the facilities with persistent staffing challenges and retrofit existing units to add more beds. The staff report suggested the agency prioritize closing prisons that lack air conditioning. About two-thirds of prison beds are in areas without climate control, which creates sweltering conditions that are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.

The report also details the department’s outdated record-keeping practices, which largely rely on paper-based processes and manual data entry. That system has led the prison system to wrongfully release 34 inmates in the past decade. It also doesn’t fully record the type of force used in guards’ physical altercations with inmates and doesn’t completely track the types of employee grievances.

TDCJ is also not fully tracking the use or effectiveness of rehabilitation and reentry programs that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, the report found.

“Without data on whether a program is achieving its intended goal, whether that is reducing recidivism or increasing employment after incarceration, the report rightly notes that Texans cannot be assured that their money is being put to the best use,” said Marc Levin, Chief Policy Counsel on the Council on Criminal Justice.

The Commission reviews the performance of state agencies, identifies problems within them and forwards recommended changes to the Legislature. It is overseen by 10 state lawmakers and two members of the public. The speaker of the Texas House and the lieutenant governor, who presides over the Senate, appoint the commissioners.

Last week’s report from Commission staff focused on Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee and the Windham School District. Together, those entities house about 139,000 inmates and manage roughly 437,000 people on parole and probation.

Commissioners are scheduled to hear public testimony on the staff report on Nov. 14. Commissioners’ final recommendations are expected to be sent to lawmakers on Dec. 12 ahead of the legislative session that begins in January.

During an August interview with The Tribune, TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez said that recruitment is a top priority and that the agency is undergoing a dramatic “culture shift” that centers rehabilitation of inmates over punishment.

Prison staffing crisis

TDCJ’s staffing crisis has put both inmates and staff at risk, the report found.

Forty percent of respondents to a correctional staff survey said they feel unsafe in prison. In 2023, the agency recorded more than 2,000 “adverse events,” surpassing a pre-COVID-19 high. Adverse events include inmate assaults, sexual assaults, homicides and escape attempts. Correctional officers say exposure to these events negatively impacts their physical and mental health and makes their jobs more difficult.

Most staff report working beyond normal hours to compensate for the staffing challenges, and some understaffed facilities have a rotating schedule of mandatory overtime. Although internal policy prohibits staff from working more than 16 hours a day or 10 days in a row, violations of both of these rules are common.

Staff who are ineligible for overtime instead earn compensatory paid time off, which lapses after two years. Staff report difficulty taking that time off and in 2023 reportedly lost time equivalent to 95 years of time off due to the expiration.

Adding to employees’ frustration is a delay in performance evaluations. As of April 2024, TDCJ was overdue on performance evaluations for 14,453 individuals, contributing to delays in pay raises.

In survey responses, employees also pointed to punitive leadership and unfair treatment from supervisors as well as unrealistic expectations. For example, a correctional officer who is responsible for 300 inmates would have just six seconds to perform each inmate check in order to comply with their primary duties.

“Sunset staff repeatedly heard from employees about a culture trickling down from upper levels of agency leadership of ‘doing more with less’ and ‘making it work,’” the report states. “Under this dynamic, the crush of tasks described above creates a lose-lose scenario for officers and other staff who risk punishment for admitting failure to complete all required tasks, feel they must deceive supervisors or falsify recordkeeping, and wind up having to make high-stakes prioritizing decisions.”

To address staffing shortages, the report recommends that TDCJ submit a 10-year plan that identifies facility and capacity needs amid a growing population and ongoing staffing issues. The Sunset staff also recommends phasing out certain facilities, particularly those with high vacancy rates and high deferred maintenance costs. The report also recommends that TDCJ streamline how employees file workplace complaints, since the current process is not confidential and is unclear.

Outdated record keeping

TDCJ uses outdated technology and lacks streamlined processes to manage complicated systems, the Commission staff found. The agency’s IT staff has built different case management databases for departments instead of customizing one system to fit the needs of different groups, for example.

Sunset staff also found numerous examples of incomplete data. For example, while TDCJ collects data on use-of-force incidents, it doesn’t document what type of force was used, nor does it categorize the type of employee complaints and grievances that are filed.

“TDCJ’s inefficient, siloed and outdated data governance leads to errors that can hinder the agency’s ability to ensure safety to inmates, staff, and the public,” the report states.

“TDCJ too quickly defaults to a cultural inertia of doing things the way they have always been done,” the report later says, noting that staff showed a “deep resistance” to moving away from paper-based processes.

Staff often have to enter the same data into multiple databases, and manual entry has resulted in critical errors. Over the past 10 years, 34 inmates were wrongly released because of incorrect data entry.

Sunset staff advised TDCJ to establish an office of modernization that would identify ways to modernize the agency and recommended that they prioritize improving data collection.

Rehabilitation programs lack oversight

The Legislature has allocated millions of taxpayer dollars toward rehabilitation, reentry and education programs, but TDCJ does not keep a list of active programs. The agency provided a range of estimates, from 97 to 2,000 of the number of active programs. Only a small fraction of the total number of programs are evaluated, even though state statute requires TDCJ to evaluate their effectiveness.

Some programs, the report noted, are associated with increased rates of recidivism. At times, these adverse outcomes are because TDCJ over-enrolls the program, not because of issues with the program itself.

The Commission staff also found that the agency takes a long time to place inmates in parole programs, limiting inmates’ opportunities for rehabilitation and costing taxpayers millions of dollars by having to continue to house inmates who otherwise could be released. In 2023, the average wait time for a particular substance use program was 146 days, for example. Those long placement times cost millions of dollars a year.

TDCJ also relies on about 27,500 volunteers to help provide programming for inmates but does not evaluate these programs. Although TDCJ wardens are legally required to identify volunteer organizations and submit a report annually to summarize their activities, most do not do so.

Sunset staff recommends that TDCJ comprehensively inventory rehabilitation and reentry programs and conduct biennial program evaluations. They also suggest that TDCJ track parole program placements to understand placement delays.

In an emailed statement, Hernandez, the agency spokesperson, said TDCJ “appreciates the work of the Sunset Advisory Commission staff, and will continue to collaborate with that staff as they present the results of their review to the Commission.”

“This report is just one step of the process, and we are eager to continue collaborating with the Commission staff, the Commission, and the Legislature during the upcoming session,” she said.