Unfair Park from p6 plenty of guys who, despite being charged with a misdemeanor, have sat in jail for three or four months without knowing the status of their cases. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was a new low point. When the lights went out, McCormick says officers made him and the others in his “pod” stay in their pitch-black quarters for roughly four hours. The lack of water and knowledge led to some wild theorizing among the men, including the idea that they had been abandoned. “The officers weren’t very forthcoming with a contingency plan, but you kind of got the sense that they didn’t know, either,” McCormick says. “I don’t think there was a plan.” He also hasn’t noticed any policy changes since those days in darkness. There is one difference, though. “I have noticed they’ve been doing more fire drills lately,” he says. “I don’t know if that’s related or not, though.” When reached for comment, the sheriff’s office said there have been “no changes” to jail policy concerning weather preparedness. “The Dallas County Emergency Manage- ment Teams are equipped with plans regard- ing severe weather,” a spokeswoman said. The Bureau of Prisons shared a similar, albeit murkier, response. “Every Bureau of Prisons facility has contingency plans in place to address a large range of concerns or incidents, to include natural disasters, and is fully equipped and prepared to implement these plans as necessary,” spokesman Emery Nelson wrote in an email. “For safety and se- curity reasons, the Bureau of Prison’s con- tingency plans are sensitive in nature and are not available to the public.” Beyond the stories of February 2021, there are common sense steps experts in- sist jails can take to remedy confusion and reduce chaos. Jessica Pishko, an attorney and writer currently working on a book about sheriffs, says communication should be one focus. “Most people in jail are get- ting information from watching TV, not the sheriffs themselves,” she says. “That can create a lot of panic during a time like the winter storm, because people aren’t really sure what’s happening and if their families are OK.” Another option, she explains, is to simply release people who pose no threat to the community. At the time of publication, Dal- las County Jail is housing nearly 6,000 peo- ple, roughly 80% of its capacity. Police have stopped arresting people for some minor of- fenses, including small amounts of mari- juana, but arrests for other misdemeanors continue unabated. Additionally, data show that Dallas police arrest Black people for misdemeanors far more often than their white counterparts. From 2013 to 2020, 77% of all arrests were made for low-level, nonvi- olent offenses. As Cooper has witnessed, attempts to re- 88 duce those numbers are often met with end- less finger-pointing and the kind of hardline law-and-order rhetoric that is baked into Dallas’ DNA. “Criminal justice reform is just not a topic that anyone in Dallas County leadership wants to deal with,” Pishko says. “The right is not willing to do any criminal justice reform at all.” Mike Brooks Of course, Dallas County Jail is not the only facility plagued by crowded popula- tions and dangerous conditions. In early January this year, Harris County Jail was so overcrowded that hundreds of its occupants were recently moved to a jail in Louisiana. “It does not appear that the Harris County Jail is safe,” Pishko adds. “A few months ago, a 19-year-old was booked into the jail and killed by another inmate, and I was like, ‘Why was he there? He was a skinny, intellectually disabled kid, and they let someone kill him. That’s like Sheriff 101.’” The sheriffs in both Harris County and Dallas County have seen their budgets in- crease by millions in recent years. The Ob- server asked the local sheriff’s department if any of those new millions would be used to improve jail conditions, but the questions were directed to the Office of Budget and Evaluation. That office has yet to respond. Likewise, the Harris County sheriff’s de- partment didn’t respond to questions. Meanwhile, the sheriffs in both counties continue to exceed their budgets. In 2020, Sheriff Brown’s department spent $14.4 million in overtime. It was origi- nally provided for $2.5 million. As Cooper argues, that’s money that could go to pro- grams and initiatives focused on housing, education, homelessness and jobs. Then again, as Dominick points out, money isn’t really the issue, or at least not in the way people think it is. Taxpayers may not realize how much of their money goes to prisons. According to The Marshall Project, American taxpayers pay roughly $80 billion toward annual prison costs every year. In Texas, spending on prisons and jails has far outpaced spending on education. “I like to quote Representative Canales, who said, ‘I don’t think we have a money problem; I think we have a give-a-damn problem,” Dominick says. “I don’t think peo- ple truly understand how much money they spend on incarceration, and I don’t think they understand how bad it is in there.” That’s why Jerome Van Zandt, a Republi- can, thinks criminal justice reform should be bipartisan. By phone in late January, Van Zandt offered a seemingly endless flow of The Frank Crowley Courthouse is home to Dallas County’s criminal courts. anecdotes about his seven months behind bars. He touched on the commissary, the cramped quarters and the endless fighting. “There was always something going on,” he says. But there was one story he seemed eager to share more than the others, a story to which he kept returning: his own. He doesn’t have anything against the police, he says. He was just scared, so he ran. Yes, he knows he screwed up, and no, he doesn’t want a free pass. But he doesn’t think he deserves the treatment he received in jail. And on that day in fall 2020, before the cuffs, before he ran, he wants you to know that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. “I don’t know what you’d call it,” he says. “I guess maybe you’d call it a cry for help.” ▼ EDUCATION FREE SPEECH FAILURE W AFTER APPEARING ON LAST YEAR’S LIST, COLLIN COLLEGE HAS BEEN DUBBED ONE OF 2022’S TOP 10 WORST SCHOOLS FOR FREE SPEECH. BY SIMONE CARTER ith so-called culture wars erupt- ing on campuses nationwide, it’s not easy to stand out in the cam- paign to crack down on academic freedom. But stand out Collin College has, earning it- self an unfortunate distinction that probably won’t make its way onto the school website. Last week, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released this year’s list of 10 worst colleges for free speech. For the second year in a row, Collin College made the cut. The timing is pretty impeccable. Earlier last week, history professor Michael Phillips became the latest in a string of faculty mem- bers to claim they were fired for exercising their free speech. Last month, Lora Burnett, a former history professor, accepted the col- lege’s offer to pay her $70,000 and attorneys’ fees after she sued the school for violating her First Amendment rights. In its summary of Collin College’s consti- tutional crises, FIRE cites the controversial terminations of Burnett and professors Audra Heaslip and Suzanne Jones, the last of whom has also filed a lawsuit against the school. Plus, FIRE notes that last year, the col- lege attempted to ban public speakers from expressing “anger” during board meetings. (Sounds a bit like trying to hold a moonbeam in your hand, no?) Speaking to FIRE, Burnett proved to be prescient: “I hope I am the last professor that Collin College fires for exercising her First Amendment rights, but if history is any indication, no one who has an opinion is safe from Collin College leaders’ thin skin.” As we now know, she wouldn’t be the last. FIRE updated its blurb with a note about Phillips’ unfolding case, saying it’s “reigniting its fight against Collin College” and telling readers to “stay tuned!” Collin College did not return the Observ- er’s request for comment. The school’s back-to-back bad publicity is prompting many academics to take notice, including Robert P. George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton Uni- versity. “Whether it’s Collin College or Georgetown Law School, it’s time for aca- demic administrators to get the memo: Your job is to honor and protect academic free- dom, not to police the thought and censor the speech of students and faculty,” he said in a tweet last Monday. Next, Sen. Ted Cruz weighed in, sharing George’s tweet along with the word, “Amen.” Huh, we didn’t see that one coming. Speaking to the Observer, Adam Stein- baugh, a First Amendment lawyer with FIRE, cited Einstein’s definition of insan- ity: repeating the same thing over and over but expecting different results. The way Steinbaugh sees it, Collin College hasn’t learned any lessons and seems intent to continue suppressing the voices of faculty and students. These cases are tarnishing the college’s reputation, he said, adding that the stifling of free speech there could be even more per- vasive. “This has been long-running, and it’s not just one case; it’s not just one professor,” Steinbaugh said. “It’s a lot of faculty mem- bers, and these are just the ones that we know about.” ▼ CITY COUNCIL CONCRETE CRITERIA I NEW RULES FOR DALLAS’ CONCRETE BATCH PLATS COULD GO TO CITY COUNCIL FOR CONSIDERATION IN APRIL. BY JACOB VAUGHN f you look around, just about everything you see is made of concrete, Josh Left- wich pointed out. He’s the president and CEO of the Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association. “Roads and bridges, and everything we do in our lives and what we experience is supported by a foundation of concrete,” he said. “You’re mixing water, cement, sand and some rock together, so it’s not that bad a thing,” Leftwich said. But the Environmental Protection Agency says concrete manufacturing is the third-largest industrial source of pollution. Kathryn Bazan, the vice chair of the Dallas Sierra Club’s Eco Action and Conservation Committee, said the plants are also >> p10 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 10–16, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
