The Oldest Prison in Texas is Locked in a Vicious (Losing) Battle With a Colony of Stubborn Bats

The feared entity we know today as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice began in 1848 with the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas.

With as robust and mighty as the Texas prison system has become, you'd be hard-pressed to think of anything that could throw a wrench in the Lone Star state's most intimidating administration.

But, consider the bat.

The Only Foe of TDCJ

For nearly two decades, a colony of 750,000 bats have been the bane of TDCJ's existence.

Directly across from the Huntsville unit, there is a dilapidated cotton warehouse that was badly damaged by a fire and condemned. Prison officials have had the warehouse on their "must demolish" list, but that can't happen until the hundreds of thousands of bats that have made it their roosting place can be coaxed out.

According to an interview with Click2Houston in 2018, TDCJ facilities director Frank Inmon noted that officials had been grappling with the bat colony since 2009.

“Here it is 2018 and we still have not taken it down,” lamented Inmon to the news outlet.

Six years later, the bats haven't budged one bit.

Two Protected Species of Bats

TDCJ officials' desire to raze the defunct warehouse can only be resolved by finding the colony a new home and convincing them to roost there for good. See, the fearsome prison administration of Texas has their hands tied by an authority much higher up: Texas Parks and Wildlife and former president George W. Bush.

See, the bat colony is made up of Brazilian and Mexican free tailed bats, species that are protected in their natural habitat--which includes the warehouse across from Huntsville prison. To top it off, then-president George W. Bush signed legislation that designated the Mexican free-tailed bat trhe official flying mammal of Texas.

The colony living in said warehouse is the eighth-largest colony in the state.

TDCJ Officials vs 760,000 Bats

As you can imagine, high-ranking officials with TDCJ have been flabbergasted that a tiny flying animal with a penchant for rabies have produced decades of administrative red tape and turmoil. And to be fair, the bats haven't made it easy.

“I've been working for the agency for 33 years, I never once thought I would be working on a bat project,” said David Sweetin, TDCJ’s deputy director of facilities told Click2Houston in the 2018 interview.

TDCJ worked with wildlife conservationists to formulate a plan that involved building four luxury bat pads on Huntsville prison unit property to entice the colony out of the warehouse. The houses reportedly cost TDCJ $8,000 each to build.

“It's everything a bat would want,” Sweetin told Click2Houston.

The bats never budged.

“We've started looking around to see if we could locate a bat whisperer,” said Sweetin in the 2018 interview.

Has TDCJ Found A Bat-Whisperer?

Granted, the last update in the tale of Texas' oldest prison unit and the stubborn colony of bats was in 2018. But in just a few short days, Click2Houston's reporter, Robert Arnold, will return to Hunstville and see if TDCJ has indeed found the bat-whisperer of their prayers.

Will TDCJ continue to be at the mercy of the bats? Or will they finally be free to demolish the condemned warehouse? We'll find out on October 31st.