Female Inmates, and the Bad Water in Marlin Texas
Hobby Unit Prison's Water is Still Contaminated After All These Years
Bottled water is available at the commissary and can be purchased instead. The problem with that is if you have no family or friends that can help financially, your left with nothing to drink but the bad water. Even if you can afford the bottled water, there seems to be a problem in being able to purchase enough until the next commissary. It is also reported that prison staff purchases a lot of this bottled water leaving a limited amount to the inmates. I can't imagine not having enough cold water to drink in the blazing heat, and clean water should be recognized as a basic human right, right along side of food.
Some of these female inmates are forced to work hard labor on a "chain gang" type situation. With the blazing heat and lack of cold water reports have come in describing "inmates collapsing from the heat." Sources also report that the amount of cold water that is supplied by the prison is not enough for the number of inmates in the cell block.
Marlin Texas appears to be a poor community with averages below the norm in housing, education, employment, income, and small businesses according to "City-Data.com"
As of 2008, more blacks live in Marlin than any other race, 44%. This site gives statistics on almost anything you might want to know about Marlin, everything but the contaminated water that is. But it portrays this town as a poor, minority, and disadvantaged town.
According to reports and the information supplied by Tom Hardin, a long time advocate for the women in the Hobby prison unit, the Marlin City Lake reservoirs is the source of water into the Hobby Unit. Both reservoirs, Old City Lake, and new City Lake, have been high in contaminants for years according to water quality reports. I searched the Internet for current reports on the water conditions from the Marlin City Lake reservoirs but was unable to locate any, and I believe they are not public information anymore. The water has been contaminated at least as far back as 1995 according to this report
The main contaminate in the water is atrazine, and according to a petition against the bad water conditions,
"Potential short term health effects for Atrazine that the EPA has found when people are exposed to it for short periods of time are: congestion of heart, lungs and kidneys, low blood pressure, muscle spasms, weight loss, damage to adrenal glands.
Long term Atrazine has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: weight loss, cardiovascular damage, retinal and some muscle degeneration, and cancer." If you take the time to read some of the signatures, you will note that former inmates and family of inmates from the Hobby Unit, will vouch for the illnesses.
According to this news article, the Veterans Affairs Hospital along with other major industries have relocated due to the contamination in Marlin's water. They are hopeful that a $10 million water treatment plant is to be completed in 60 days, but that remains to be seen. If this is true, than the treatment plant should be completed sometime around the first week of September. They also state that the old VA hospital is to be turned into a prison hospital that will employ more people. I imagine this hospital will be filled with the ill inmates from the Hobby Unit who have been drinking this bad water for years.
Seems like everyone that was able to leave Marlin, has left. The women in The Hobby Unit, and the poor citizens of Marlin seem to be all that is left. Maybe that's why there has been no rush to fix the problem. The inmates, and former inmates from the women's prison remain to be ill, however.
I researched "scorecard'" an environmental site that states the pollution sites in each county and state, and these are the results for Marlin Texas, Falls County.
Another source of information about this ongoing problem can be read at The Texas Green Party Website, which can be read here.
Contact information for The Hobby Unit:
Hobby Unit
742 FM 712
Marlin, Tx.
76661
Warden: Lovetta Knox
Phone: 254-883-5561
Gilbert Compuzano
TDCJ Reginal Director's Office
4616 West Howard lane, Suite 200
Austin Tx. 78728
Phone: 512-671-2575
Sources:
Tom Hardin
Tom can be reached at this email address and has more details about this ongoing problem
t4texas@cox.net. Tom has followed the water problem in Marlin Texas, and has advocated for the female inmates there.
Scorcard:
http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/water/cwa-county.tcl?fips_county_code=48145#ranking
City-Data.com
http://www.city-data.com/city/Marlin-Texas.html
Petition
Please sign this petition and show your outrage
http://www.petitiononline.com/badwater/petition.html
News Article:
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/07/12/07122009wacmarlinside.html
Water Report
Published by Dee
I am a prison activist/advocate writing about prison issues, hoping to make awareness, and bring reform. One out of every thirty-two people in the USA are currently on parole, probation or in prison. I am ow... View profile
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18 Comments
Post a CommentI was on this unit and I have been sick I have been to several docters and still nothing I never thought of the water at Hobby Thans a buch to all who have posted
i was on hobby for over 5 years. im still thin as a rail and have swollen lymph nodes. its got to stop! God help us. im here to speak out if anyone knows what else we can do.
I spent 7 years on the Hobby Unit and sad to say, nothing has changed. Often the water we drank tasted like bleach due to the inordinate amount of chlorine that was put in it. During those times it was undrinkable because of the burn it would give. Sometimes when we did our own laundry, it would turn blue. I have not yet been able to see a doctor and wonder just how many of my medical problems are due to the water.
this is completley wrong,the criminal system is bs...wow the dirty water is bull,my mom is in this hobby unit.i cant beleive this,somebody should have this place shutdown,i love how people with power get the stupid syndrome,come on people.
My mother is 52 and also in Hobby Unit. The ACA have been investigating. I have written letters to public figures, the ACLU, Brad Livingston, the obudsman program, no one seems to care. Not only is the water contaminated and they suffer during the winters and summers, they have worms in the showers, rats, gnats. They will serve them spoiled milk at chow time. They are not given enough time to eat. They are treated worse than animals. I am told in order to go to commissary and be one of the first to go, because some days they have to many people and not everyone is allowed to go, they have to bribe certain guards with commissary items they receive. Some are housed in cells with paranoid schizophrenics who are not medicated properly. My mom since being there in November of 2008 has high blood pressure, a heart condition and believed she suffered a heart attack about 1 month ago and was not allowed to see the doctor for over a week and she is not the only one treated this way. It is a dis
My sweetheart is in Hobby Unit and to think she is consumming water that is contaminated is a total discrace. Its bad enough that the State of Tx.gives out some of the most harsh sentences at least make sure the wayer is clean. Tx. has to be one of the most backward egnorant states I've ever known. All I can say is if something happens to my woman because the St. of Tx. is to cheap to supply clean drinking water someones going to pay the fat lady I promise you.
my family member HOBBY UNITED%250D%250A%250D%250AFOR TWO YEARS I DONT VISTED IAM SCRED TO SEE HER I LIVE IN FLORIDA EVERONE SAY IT BAD.SHE HAVE 45 YEARS.
I know prison is not supposed to be a walk in the park but at least they should have clean water.
How terrible :)
My friends mother is there and has been ill due to the water, I think that this is so inhumane that nothing is being done, these ladies are paying for what ever they have done this is abuse they should not have to suffer because of the water something MUST be Done by the Prison Board how would they feel if it were there mother or loved one????