GOALS AND SERVICES

TX-CURE GOALS AND SERVICES

We encourage our members and their incarcerated loved ones to write to us about prison problems. We attempt resolutions. We answer inmate and family mail regarding prison conditions, policies, and related matters. Where aappropriate we interact with prison officials, and when necessary, we contact state legislators to intervene on behalf of our members. Over the past 40 years, CURE leaders have gained the experience and developed the relationships necessary to effectively communicate with prison officials for the common good of all concerned.

The Texas prison system is one of the least monitored agencies in the state: we have no state-sponsored citizen oversight committee. We have no effective legislative watchdogs to monitor the prison system to ensure that prison administrators are doing their jobs as the Texas and United States Constitutions mandate.

TX-CURE is proud to fill that role, but no citizens have the authority to enter the prison units unannounced to inspect them for cleanliness and safety or to ensure that inmates are receiving adequate medical attention or eating wholesome food in proper quantity. Therefore, we depend on our members and their incarcerated loved ones to keep us informed.

We believe that one of our greatest responsibilities, as well as our most effective means of bringing about change, is to closely monitor legislators and political candidates who wish to become legislators. Together we can elect officials who have the best interests of our prisoners and their families at heart.

Prisoners are not powerless. Conditions can be changed by peaceful means and peaceful community involvement. Communicating inmate problems to prison officials can achieve good results even when guards and other officials seek to protect one another: a “natural” and predictable reaction, but one that must not be allowed to break the law, violate the U.S. Constitution, or trample on the standards of human decency.

Prison officials have an obligation to manage their units in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, state law and their own administrative rules and policies. TX-CURE will work to ensure that the TDCJ-ID unit wardens meet that obligation. When prisoners have exhausted all remedies on the institutional level, we encourage them to contact us for further assistance.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  –Margaret Mead-