Antone's Nightclub
How Far Have We Come?
RECEIVED Sun., June 16, 2024
Dear Editor,
Maggie Q. Thompson’s strong story (“Plantations to Prison Farms,” News, June 14) makes it clear how Texas’ prisons incarcerate people in conditions much like slavery times. As a 19-year-old in the Sixties, I visited a young relative in TDCJ’s Ellis Unit more than once –profoundly shocking and educational experiences. More recently, I visited a middle-aged woman in Hobby Unit. Despite a serious medical condition, she worked on the hoe squad and came back covered in bites and sweat to a cell with temperatures in the 90s at night. While advocating for people in county jails located in what I called the “plantation counties,” I noticed that punitive attitudes and virulent racism seemed to be acceptable. However, wherever you get up close to the carceral world in Texas, you will see that it systematically dehumanizes the thousands of humans inside. A significant percentage of them wrongfully convicted and, in Texas, forced to work for no pay. Legal slavery.
Maggie Q. Thompson’s strong story (“Plantations to Prison Farms,” News, June 14) makes it clear how Texas’ prisons incarcerate people in conditions much like slavery times. As a 19-year-old in the Sixties, I visited a young relative in TDCJ’s Ellis Unit more than once –profoundly shocking and educational experiences. More recently, I visited a middle-aged woman in Hobby Unit. Despite a serious medical condition, she worked on the hoe squad and came back covered in bites and sweat to a cell with temperatures in the 90s at night. While advocating for people in county jails located in what I called the “plantation counties,” I noticed that punitive attitudes and virulent racism seemed to be acceptable. However, wherever you get up close to the carceral world in Texas, you will see that it systematically dehumanizes the thousands of humans inside. A significant percentage of them wrongfully convicted and, in Texas, forced to work for no pay. Legal slavery.
Diana Claitor