An Eyewitness Account of the Hays County Transport Process
By: Cyrus Gray
September 1st, 2022: At 2am on Thursday morning, Hays County correctional officers came into the dorm very aggressively and alarmingly to grab inmates out of their sleep. The corrections officers came in 8-10 people strong with paintball guns (containing pepper spray bullets) and Tasers, with the type of energy and urgency that could be expected in a raid.
Without warning, they proceeded to forcefully wake inmates up, grabbed them in their panicked state of duress, cuffed them, and took the confused and panicked inmates out to be sent on “chain” to another county while they await the resolution of their pending charges in Hays County.
Many of these guys were not even given the opportunity to dress themselves. They were taken out into the hall with others in only their underwear and sleeping attire. They were not told where they were going or allowed to pack their belongings, instead their property was carelessly thrown into trash bags by COs to be transported to the other county.
These inmates (42 total) were taken 6 hours away from Hays County (a long bus ride in handcuffs and shackles - hence the phrase “chain” used to describe the transactions) to be held in a county around Abilene, Texas, for God knows how long. They are in a place where they will not possibly have any chance of communicating with their court-appointed attorney or of a fair defense in fighting their charges.
It has been said that tonight (the morning of September 2nd) HCSO intends on doing the same to 50 more inmates. HCSO has even gone to the lengths of getting out of state contracts in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma - according to COs - to house HCSO inmates (however true that may be).
How could anyone possibly have a chance or right of due process or a fair defense under the circumstances: when you are randomly grabbed in the middle of the night and shipped to a county (as a pretrial detainee) where you have no ties, no help and no business being there at all to be held while trying to fight to resolve pending charges elsewhere miles and miles away?
How is this justified or even being allowed to carry on?
This is human trafficking, plain as the eyes can see, and it's because of lazy judges and overzealous, vindictive prosecutors who refuse to do what is right in the interest of justice. It’s important to understand that this transport situation is not a solution to the problem of the jail being understaffed. No effort is being put into place to resolve the backlog of cases that’s keeping people in jail pretrial for years on end.
The way this process is being carried out places not only inmates but guards themselves in harmful situations.
What would've happened if one of those confused and panicked inmates that were woken up that way at 2am reacted negatively to the confusing situation?
What will happen if these inmates, who are HCSO’s responsibility, are placed in threatening or harmful situations in these foreign counties and are harmed badly or harm someone else?
Cyrus Gray III has been held in the Hays County Jail pretrial since March of 2018. He is currently working with Mano Amiga to produce a report on jail conditions in Hays County.
Despite $60M jail expansion, Hays County spends millions to send inmates to other counties
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Oct. 17, 2022 | Updated: Oct. 19, 2022 10:45 a.m.
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