From the Editor - Prison Legal News

Flurry of Escapes Emphasizes Prisoners’ Desperation
Last September produced a bumper
crop of prison and jail escapes
around the country, including a desperate
escape by two Texas prisoners that resulted
in the death of a guard, a car jacking and
two shootouts. Plus a dead horse.
Jerry Duane Martin, 37, and John
Ray Falk, Jr., 40, were just two Texas
prisoners working oppressive field labor
jobs at the Wynne Unit, a Texas Dept.
of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facility, until
they escaped and killed a guard in the
process on September 24, 2007. Field
labor is the TDCJ’s equivalent of a chain
gang. The “hoe squads” work outside the
prison fence in agricultural fields, often
literally with an eight-pound hoe in hand.
They are supervised by armed guards on
horseback.
The work is hard. Verbal and psychological
abuse by the guards is plentiful. It
is essentially a disciplinary detail without
the benefit of any disciplinary process.
Prisoners who have disciplinary problems
are put to work in the field, as are new
prisoners – who must “prove themselves
worthy” of a non-paying job in industry
or support services – and prisoners the
administration simply doesn’t like, such
as “writ writers.” In Martin’s case, he was
likely on a hoe squad due to allegations
that he had a sexual relationship with a
nurse at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston,
Texas. That infraction cost him 30 days of
good time and resulted in his transfer to
the Wynne Unit.
At about 10:30 a.m., Martin and
Falk were deployed in the fields outside
the 2,600-bed prison in Huntsville, along
with 74 other prisoners monitored by six
guards on horseback. Five of the guards
were directly supervising the hoe squads
and were armed with pistols, while sevenyear
TDCJ veteran Susan Canfield, 59,
was a “high rider,” a guard who carried
a rifle and was charged with preventing
any escapes.
Martin approached the guard who
was supervising his squad and asked
him to hold his watch while he worked.
Violating procedures which require armed
guards to maintain a 30-foot separation
from prisoners, the guard allowed Martin
to approach to hand over the watch. Instead,
Martin snatched the guard from his
horse and wrestled his .357 magnum pistol
away from him, then tossed it to Falk.
by Matt Clarke
The pair retreated across a field and
stole a flatbed truck that was parked at
a nearby repair facility with the keys in
the ignition. They fired shots at Canfield,
who returned fire along with other guards.
Canfield maneuvered in front of the truck,
which struck her horse – injuring it and
causing Canfield to fall and receive an
immediately fatal injury. Martin and Falk
fled the immediate area. The horse, which
survived the collision, was euthanized
after it was discovered that it had also
been shot.
The two escapees didn’t get far. They
ditched the truck at a defunct fast food
joint about a mile south on I-45 at the
Texas 30 interchange. At a nearby bank
drive-through they carjacked a pickup
truck and kidnapped the woman driving
it. The Huntsville police, in close pursuit,
shot out the pickup’s tires and forced the
pair to flee on foot.
Falk was caught without further incident
soon thereafter. Martin was tracked
by dogs and discovered hiding in a tree less
than three hours later; after brief gunfire
he was recaptured.
Falk had been serving a life sentence
since 1986 for killing a Matagorda County
lawyer after robbing him of $143. Martin
was serving a 50-year sentence following
a high-speed chase during which he used
a .38-caliber revolver to fire on county
deputies and state troopers who had
responded to a domestic disturbance
complaint. The pair now face dozens of
felony charges, including “unauthorized
use of a motor vehicle, escape, cruelty to
animals, [and] multiple attempted capital
murders because there were dozens of
people that were shot at,” said Walker
County District Attorney David Weeks.
“When it all comes down, both will be
charged with capital murder, but it will
take some time to sort through it.”
Asked by the news media why he did
it, Martin put it this way: He had no hope.
“I don’t have nothing left to lose,” he said.
Indeed, most Texas prisoners can understand
that sentiment, as they are faced
with an arbitrary and capricious state
parole system that saps the hope from
prisoners as they receive denial after denial
for unchanging historic factors such
as the nature of their offense and prior
criminal record, with no inkling of when,
or if, they will ever be released.
The TDCJ has one of the most secure
prison systems in the nation, having experienced
only two escapes each in 2005 and
2006. The total number of escapes from
2001 to 2006 was only 14, and many of
those were “walk aways” from outside
trusty camps.
“Prisons are stronger and better
designed, with lots of bells and whistles,
and there is more security,” said Terry
Perez, a Texas criminal justice consultant.
“And there is no honor among criminals
anymore. You hatch a plot today and
somebody is going to snitch you off.”
It makes one wonder all the more why
TDCJ insists on taking any prisoners –
especially ones with disciplinary problems
and long sentences – outside secure prison
fences, even if they are under armed supervision.
This is especially true in light of
the State Comptroller’s recommendation a
decade ago that the TDCJ eliminate field
labor, because the work being done by
the hoe squads could be completed more
efficiently by farm equipment already
owned by the TDCJ. Further, the cut in
personnel would save TDCJ millions of
dollars a year.
So why does do Texas prison officials
insist on perpetuating the field labor
system? It is a legacy of the plantation
slavery mentality of the Old South. Prisoners
in the hoe squads call the guards
“Boss,” and have to receive permission
to perform even the most basic of bodily
functions like urinating or drinking water
– reminiscent of the 1967 movie classic
Cool Hand Luke. As frequently reported
by PLN, prison slave labor is an economically
inefficient taxpayer boondoggle that
serves the ideological needs of politicians
in showing how “tough” they are on prisoners.
Alas, it is not confined to the former
confederacy.
In the tradition of southern slavery
there were house slaves and field slaves,
with the house slaves having the more
prestigious status. TDCJ perpetuates this
tradition by degrading its prisoner field
workers. The field labor crews are also
used to intimidate prisoners in the general
population. Incur the displeasure of the
administration, or even a single guard, and
Texas prisoners can expect to end up on a
hoe squad without any due process protections,
since a transfer to field labor is an
“administrative,” not disciplinary, act.
April 2008
16
Prison Legal News