Most Harvey-Relocated Texas Inmates Back at Original Prisons
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — More than 3,000 Texas prison inmates bused from Houston-area units to escape Hurricane Harvey-related flooding have been returned to their original lockups.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says inmates were returned to the Ramsey and Terrell (TEHR'-ehl) units, in Brazoria County, after relocating to other prisons. Clark says the repopulation of about 3,300 inmates was completed Saturday night.
Harvey made landfall Aug. 25 in South Texas. Prison officials the next day began evacuating the Ramsey, Terrell and Stringfellow units.
A judge on Thursday ruled that hundreds of Stringfellow inmates moved to the Pack Unit were put at risk due to a prior lawsuit challenging oppressive heat at the Pack facility.
Most of those relocated inmates have been added to the lawsuit and were not returned to Stringfellow.