FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2024
Contact: media@texascivilrightsproject.org
TDCJ violated the Fourteenth Amendment by confining people to punitive custody for more than 10 years under their SPD policy without due process
AUSTIN, TX - Today, the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) and Beck Redden LLP filed a class action Complaint against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on behalf of ten people incarcerated in TDCJ. The lawsuit claims that TDCJ violated their Due Process rights by confining them in punitive custody for over ten years based on their Security Precaution Designator (SPD) codes without any meaningful opportunity to challenge or remove the codes, despite TDCJ policy. TCRP and Beck Redden are representing Curtis Gambill, Jesse Wade Holt, Mark Anthony Reyna, Eddie Ray Fowler, Prescilliano Martinez, Juan Antonio De Leon, Raymond Wingfield, Britney Gulley, Jerrod Spencer, and Ricky Smith in the lawsuit Gambill v. Collier. The lawsuit seeks to represent a class of nearly 500 men and women who have remained stuck in punitive custody for over a decade due to their SPD codes. It requests meaningful review of these codes so that people have an opportunity to be moved out of G4 and back to lower-custody housing. View the complaint here and the motion to certify the class action here.
Because of the SPD codes assigned to them, hundreds of people have spent over 10 years in G4 housing, a punitive custody wing that is effectively solitary confinement by another name. In punitive custody wings, people are restricted to their cells for 20-24 hours each day. These wings are also notorious for their unlivable conditions - intolerable temperatures, poor ventilation, water and power outages, clogged or overflowing toilets, and exposure to raw sewage. Plaintiffs were never informed of their SPD codes nor given an opportunity to contest their housing placement at a hearing, despite some of the SPD codes being retroactively added.
“Our clients took the initiative of representing themselves to shed light on their unjust situation. TDCJ’s goal was to assign these codes and discard our clients in punitive custody, ignoring their right to due process and confining them to unfit and unfair conditions,” said Randy Hiroshige (he/him), staff attorney, Criminal Injustice Program at Texas Civil Rights Project. “We will not sit idly by as TDCJ unfairly imposes and retains these codes that worsen virtually every aspect of our clients’ lives. Our clients deserve to have their codes reviewed properly and fairly so they have a chance to leave punitive custody and access the programming and services that have been denied to them for so long.”
Prior to this lawsuit, six of our clients represented themselves in a federal lawsuit against TDCJ to challenge TDCJ’s SPD Policy and the inhumane conditions of their confinement. They successfully advocated for themselves in the early stages of this case, and the court appointed Alex B. Roberts and Maryam Ghaffar, trial attorneys at Beck Redden, to represent them after recognizing the seriousness of their claims. TCRP joins Beck Redden in representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit.
“We are honored to work with the Texas Civil Rights Project in representing Texans who have unlawfully languished in its prisons enduring inhumane conditions for decades at a time, and we look forward to achieving the just and fair outcome they deserve,” said Alex Roberts, Partner, Beck Redden LLP.
TDCJ has the ability to classify people with SPD codes if they have engaged in an escape, hostage-taking, or staff assault resulting in serious injury. The codes keep people confined in their cells for most of each day and severely limit their access to educational, vocational, and rehabilitative programming.
To schedule an interview with one of TCRP’s attorneys working on this case, please contact media@texascivilrightsproject.org.
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