Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946 Page: 25
34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"Most Progressive" Prison System Needs "Diaper Pins"
The Texas Prison System-its 10 sor-
didly depressing farms, its modern, clean
Huntsville Unit known as The Walls,
and its Goree Farm for women convicts
-runs the gamut for the worst and the
best possible conditions for Texans be-
hind the bars.
The good, which has been in progress
since 1927 when the state legislature
provided for creation of a nine-member
prison board, has leaped amazingly into
a state of excellence with the introduc-
tion this year of a rehabilitation pro-
gram directed by an expert named Odie
Minatra.
This program, which is in effect only
at the Huntsville Unit, where first term
prisoners are kept, and in the women's
prison, is the result of investigations
made, at the Texas Prison Board's in-
vitation, by the Osborne Association
(TW 17 Aug.)
In Swaddling Clothes
Here is the answer, in two prison
units only, to the question of "how to
reduce and finally bring under control
the disciplinary problems which now
cause . . . grave concern, notably escapes,
perversion, assaults . . . and the fre-
quency with which severe punishments
seem to result in a vicious cycle of of-
fenses . . ."
"Rehabilitation in the prison system,"
says Minatra,"is merely in its swaddling
24 AUGUST 46clothes. We have no pins for its dia-
pers."
The needed "pins" include lack of ade-
quate shop machinery, of cells for
prisoners, and of sufficient state appro-
priations for high-calibre salaried per'
sonnel. The system's "diapers" are fall-"Pin"-Providing Minatra
ing down also at the hands of what he
terms "oldtime muledrivers" in charge
of some of the farms.
The Minatra-given "pins" are high-
lighted by the smiles on the Huntsville
Unit prisoners whom a visitor, by pay-
ing a 25-cent fee, can see busily occupied
in 11 major trades or professions cov-
ering 75 specialized fields. The 25-cent
fees go into the fund which the rehabili-
tation department has set up to buy
books, musical instruments, sports equip-
ment and other recreational facilities.
'Need Middle Ground'
The visitor who, incidentally, tours
on separate walks from the prisoners,
hears music throughout the grounds and
buildings, sees immaculately-clad men-
in-white (only those who have tried to
escape wear stripes) and gets an idea
of the educational program which is
compulsory for illiterate prisoners and
optional for those wishing to learn typ-
ing or to take correspondence courses.
,He sees, all over the place, innocent-
faced 'teen-age convicts who, Minatra
says, are not criminal types. "Eighty
per cent of them are the products of
broken homes. All they need is friend-
ship and job training. These boys
shouldn't be here. There ought to be
some middle place. ."
He learns, too, that women on the
Goree farm also are smiling again. TheyTEXAS WEEK 25
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Texas Week, Inc. Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946, periodical, August 24, 1946; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586553/m1/25/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Private Collection of the Raymond B. Holbrook Family.