Texas Department of Criminal Justice:

An Inventory of Department of Criminal Justice Building Construction Project files at the Texas State Archives, 1982-1995, bulk 1983-1992

Agency History

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice provides for the confinement, supervision, rehabilitation, and reintegration of the state’s convicted felons. The agency is governed by the Texas Board of Criminal Justice whose members are responsible for hiring the executive director of the department and setting rules and policies which guide the agency. The members also serve as the Board of Trustees for the Windham School District within the Department of Criminal Justice. They are responsible for providing general oversight and the hiring of the school system’s superintendent.

"An Act to Establish a State Penitentiary" was passed in 1848 by the Second Legislature. The act established a governing body of the penitentiary as a three-member Board of Directors, appointed by the Governor, with the approval of the Senate. The Board was responsible for creating and distributing a set of rules and bylaws for the administration of the penitentiary, overseeing the treatment of convicts, preparing an annual inventory of property, and making an annual report to the Governor. Over the years the name and composition of the Board changed. While its basic functions were not greatly altered, some duties were added. These included acquiring land for the Huntsville and Rusk facilities, purchasing machinery, effecting repairs, leasing the penitentiaries, leasing convicts for outside labor, purchasing and/or leasing farms for the employment of convicts, and providing for the transfer of convicts from county jails to the penitentiary. During the 19th century the direct management of the prison was through the inspector, later known as the superintendent. Other officers included assistant superintendents, inspectors of outside camps, the financial agent, and physicians. The superintendent and financial agent had the most direct dealings with the Board and the Governor in the management of the prison system.

The prison system began as a single institution, located in Huntsville, known as the Huntsville Penitentiary. Convicts were put to work in various shops and factories housed within the institution. In 1871 the 12th Legislature directed that the penitentiary be leased to private individuals (Chapter 21, 1st Called Session). These men, known as lessees, paid the state for the convict labor and use of facilities, and in turn, managed the system, including clothing and feeding the convicts and paying the guards. It was during this period that the outside camp system was firmly established as part of the prison system. In addition to the use of convicts in and around the prison, the convicts were hired out to large labor employers, mainly plantation owners and railroad companies. A second prison facility, Rusk Penitentiary, was built between 1877 and 1882. It began receiving convicts in January of 1883.

The Legislature reorganized the prison system in 1881, abolishing the Board of Directors, and creating in its place a Penitentiary Board, consisting of the governor, the state treasurer, and the prison superintendent (Chapter 49, 17th Legislature, Regular Session). In April 1883 the administrative system was again reorganized, with the board comprised of the governor and two commissioners appointed by the governor (Chapter 114, 18th Legislature, Regular Session). In 1885 the board composition changed once more, now consisting of three commissioners appointed by the governor (House Bill 562, 19th Legislature, Regular Session). This board was succeeded by the Board of Prison Commissioners in 1910, composed of three commissioners appointed by the governor (Senate Bill 10, 31st Legislature, 4th Called Session). The legislation that created the new board also directed the prison system to begin operating again on state account, i.e., lessees no longer managed the prison system, effective in January 1911. Convicts, or inmates, were housed and worked in one of the two prisons or on one of several state prison farms. The shop industries slowed down while the prison farms expanded. This arrangement made it more difficult to provide education and other reform measures. Such measures were generally practiced at Huntsville, with some teaching extended to a couple of prison farms by the early 1900s.

The Texas Prison Board replaced the Board of Prison Commissioners as the governing body for the Texas Prison System in 1927, increasing in size to nine members (House Bill 59, 40th Legislature, Regular Session). The members of the board were appointed by the governor, with senate approval, to six-year overlapping terms. The Board formulated the policies and the manager carried them out. During the Board's tenure, 1927-1957, the Board made changes in the system including more emphasis on prison reform, teaching, recreation--including the establishment of the Texas Prison Rodeo--and a new method of classifying inmates. The Texas Prison System became the Department of Corrections in 1957 (Senate Bill 42, 55th Legislature, Regular Session). This Department was governed by the Board of Corrections, composed of nine members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate to six-year overlapping terms.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and the Board of Criminal Justice were created in 1989 by the 71st Legislature (House Bill 2335, Regular Session). The Board is composed of nine members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate to six-year overlapping terms. The governor may not appoint more than two members who reside in an area encompassed by the same administrative judicial region. This new agency absorbed the functions of three agencies: the Department of Corrections, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the Texas Adult Probation Commission.

As of 2006, divisions of the Department of Criminal Justice are the Parole Division, the Community Justice Assistance Division (former Adult Probation Commission), Correctional Institutions Division, Executive Administrative Services (Public Information Office and the Research, Evaluation and Development Group), Administrative Review and Risk Management Division, Health Services Division, Human Resources Division, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Inspector General, Rehabilitation and Reentry Programs Division, State Counsel for Offenders, Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments, Victim Services Division, Chief Financial Officer, Business and Finance Division, Manufacturing and Logistics Division, Facilitites Division, Information Technology Division, Internal Audit Division, and the Windham School District. Direct management of the prison system is through an executive director, with each division headed by a director and each individual prison unit managed by a warden.

The Facilities Division duties include facility planning, design, construction, maintenance, and environmental quality assurance and compliance. The Facilities Division headquarters is located in Huntsville but has maintenance employees working at state-owned and operated facilities throughout the state. The Engineering Department provides professional engineering and architectural support to the agency. The engineers, architects and project administrators assigned to the Engineering Department perform oversight, design, and construction operations and act as consultants for the Maintenance Department and any other office requiring technical assistance. The Maintenance Department maintains all facilities owned and operated by the TDCJ. Maintenance departments are located on each unit operated by the Agency. Headquarters staff is responsible for assisting in the maintenance and repair process by providing technical guidance, training and supervision to unit maintenance staff, by organizing projects constructed by the Maintenance Department, assisting in reducing energy consumption and developing procedural guidance for maintenance.

(Sources: Various editions of the Guide to Texas State Agencies, the website of the Department of Criminal Justice ( http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/index.htm; accessed September 7, 2006), and the records themselves.)

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Scope and Contents of the Records

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice provides for the confinement, supervision, rehabilitation, and reintegration of the state?s convicted felons. The records consist of project files of construction of currently two prison units, documentation for more units will be added at a later date. The files document the construction of a large unit in the early 1980s - Ellis II (renamed the Estelle Unit in 1995), and a prototype unit built in the late1980s/early 1990s, the McConnell Unit (2250 bed unit). The records are dated 1982 to 1995, bulk 1983-1992. Types of records include correspondence, memoranda, proposals, bid documents, progress reports (daily, monthly), change orders, proposed and pending change requests, logs, transmittals, submissions of transmittal forms requests for information, punch lists, requests for equitable adjustments, test and balance reports, claims against contracts, contracts, photographs, meeting minutes, field orders, requests for time extensions, vouchers, schedules, cost estimates, pay estimates, detail drawings, product specifications, inspection reports, test reports, project budget worksheets, and project manuals. Correspondents include staff of the TDCJ Facilities Division, contractors/subcontractors, architects, engineers, and manufacturing companies.

The Facilities Division of the agency maintains all the plans and drawings (original plans and drawings, design drawings, elevations, perspectives, site plans, as-built plans and drawings, etc.), final specifications, and copies of contracts. The Division also maintains the architect and engineering files (maintained for the life of the asset), which contain memos, correspondence and other items the architects or engineers (mostly TDCJ staff, some contracted architects or engineers) would maintain in their working files. Some of these materials are duplicated in the project files.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Because of the possibility that portions of these records fall under Public Information Act exceptions including, but not limited to: security issues (some items - plans and drawings mainly, bid specs, etc., show access to the prisons that could hinder law enforcement) (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Section 552.108), attorney-client privilege (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Section 552.107), and agency memoranda (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Section 552.111); an archivist must review these records before they can be accessed for research. The records may be requested for research under the provisions of the Public Information Act (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Chapter 552). The researcher may request an interview with an archivist or submit a request by mail, fax, or email including enough description and detail about the information requested to enable the archivist to accurately identify and locate the information requested. If our review reveals information that may be excepted by the Public Information Act, we are obligated to seek an open records decision from the Attorney General on whether the records can be released. The Public Information Act allows the Archives ten working days after receiving a request to make this determination. The Attorney General has 45 working days to render a decision. Alternately, the Archives can inform you of the nature of the potentially excepted information and if you agree, that information can be redacted or removed and you can access the remainder of the records.

Materials do not circulate, but may be used in the State Archives search room (Room 100). Materials will be retrieved from and returned to storage areas by staff members.

Restrictions on Use

Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).

Technical Requirements

None.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item), Texas Department of Criminal Justice building construction project files. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Accession Information

Accession numbers: 1996/006, 2007/059

These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the Texas Department on Criminal Justice on August 25, 1995 and on November 15, 2006.

Processing Information

Laura K. Saegert, May 2007

Appraisal Information

These records were appraised by the State Archives staff on September 26, 2006. The State Archives decided to take the complete project files for two or three of the prototype prison units, selected by staff of the agency's Facilities Division. The State Archives would also take project files of additions of new cellblocks or other buildings to the older facilities as deemed significant by the staff (perhaps medical facilities, new law library, etc.), especially additions to the oldest twelve facilities in the system. Additionally, the State Archives holds project files for construction of the Ellis II Unit (renamed the Estelle Unit). A copy of the full appraisal report is available in the reading room of the State Archives or can be found on the State Library's website, at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/appraisal/tdcjbuilding.html.

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Detailed Description of the Records