http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... d%3A877701• Safer SAFPF for Inmates? The Gateway Foundation of Chicago, which provides substance-abuse treatment in Texas prisons, appears to be losing its grip on the state, possibly due to accusations of prisoner maltreatment. In 2008, inmates of state-funded, Gateway-run Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facilities sent Austin attorney Derek Howard letters detailing abuses they'd undergone, including
"tighthouse," in which inmates had to sit motionless in hard-backed chairs all day, sometimes for months at a time, while staff called them "bitches" and "bad mothers" as part of "confrontational therapy." (See "Rehabilitation or Torture?," May 23, 2008.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... oid:627435 ) Last year, former inmate Kerry Wolf testified about her experiences with "torture ... in the name of treatment" before the Texas Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee – in response, committee chair Sen. John Whitmire praised Gateway prodigiously. But during the latest budget cycle, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice awarded Gateway only six of 10 treatment contracts it sought this year (nine of which it held previously),
reducing its annual funding from $11.7 million to $6.2 million. New Jersey-based Community Education Centers has since taken over several former Gateway facilities. In an interview with the Chronicle, Howard credited inmate complaints with Gateway's partial ouster: "Four out of 10 – that's not a strike, but it's better than a gutter ball," Howard said.
– Patricia J. Ruland
