UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CULBERSON

Op-Ed for the Houston Chronicle

Give thanks: Texans running Texas prisons again

By Representative John Culberson

June 23, 2002

The oldest prison reform lawsuit in the history of the United States, the Ruiz case, ended this week when federal District Judge William Wayne Justice quietly signed a one page order dismissing the entire case. This is a monumentally important event that we must not let pass without careful thought and thanks.

The importance of ending the Ruiz case is especially vivid when you remember the television images from ten years ago showing hoards of jeering criminals whooping and laughing at us as they poured out of the open doors of the Harris County Jail. Remember how virtually every elected official in Texas said we were powerless to stop this flood of early releases because of the omnipotence of one federal judge?

The only reason Judge Justice signed that order ending the case is because he had no other choice. The American Bar Association honored him last summer because he is a brilliant jurist who personifies liberal judicial activism. For thirty years, Judge Justice has fought tenaciously and defeated every attempt to limit, much less end, his total control over the Texas prison system. He imposed population caps and thousands of other management controls that led to the early release of thousands upon thousands of dangerous criminals. He gave the San Francisco based ACLU lawyers for the inmates virtually everything they asked for, including tens of millions of Texas tax dollars in lawyer fees.

Those who believe Texans should run Texas should take great encouragement from the one page order Judge Justice signed this week because it represents the victory of our republican form of government over perpetual judicial rule. I have had the great privilege of spearheading the effort to end Judge Justice`s one man rule, so I know we defeated the very best efforts our liberal opponents could throw at us. I know Judge Justice is sincerely and honestly dedicated to his principles as a liberal judicial activist, and that he has been an extraordinarily capable and determined opponent of my eleven year effort to take back control over Texas prisons. But we won. Here`s how we did it, and who we owe a deep debt of gratitude.

The late Pam Lychner organized crime victims into Justice for All, and she became an absolutely tireless advocate for our work to end the Ruiz case. Her last public appearance was in May 1996, at a fundraiser we organized for The Fund to Take Back Texas Prisons. Generous donors that night helped us raise enough money to hire private lawyers to get around Attorney General Dan Morales` blockade and successfully sue Judge Justice in his own courtroom. State Senator J. E. "Buster" Brown joined me as an intervenor in the Ruiz case that year, and it was our intervention that forced all of the events that led to that vital one page order of dismissal that Judge Justice signed this week. Pam was indispensable to our successful launch, and my only regret is that she is not here with us to share this great victory or to share our pride in Justice for All`s continued effectiveness in the realm of victims` rights.

Senator Brown and I had to pass a state law in 1991, HB 124, and then the Republican Congress had to pass a federal law in 1996, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), to box Judge Justice in so he had no choice but to surrender his control. Congressman Tom DeLay and former Congressman Bill Archer were vital to the success of the PLRA in the U.S. House, and Texas` U. S. Senators Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison were vital to the PLRA`s passage in the Senate.

Texas` Governor George W. Bush and his General Counsel Alberto Gonzales helped us encourage the Texas Congressional delegation to support the PLRA, and supported our lawsuit to bypass Morales` blockade. We were very fortunate we could hire a superb legal team made up of Greg Coleman, Eddy Daniels and T. Gerald Treece, who are all brilliant and principled attorneys who share our commitment to the Tenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and its promise to let Texans run Texas.

We are also in debt to Houston talk show host Jon Matthews of KSEV, AM 700. Jon stood behind us every step of the way, and he explained over and over again the complex and difficult legislative, political and legal steps we had to take over the last eleven years to win this battle.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle. The editorial board patiently listened to my complicated explanations of what I was doing, printed my often too long editorials, and always came out in support of my work to take back Texas prisons.

The greatest lesson we can take away from this is the importance of Winston Churchill`s advice to the graduating class at Yale University one year when the Prime Minister`s entire commencement speech was, "Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, ever give up."

###