My Experience at Byrd Farm (Huntsville, TX) – by Steven McCain

January 25, 2023

It might be good to post my Byrd farm experience, as it is not only mine but the experience of many others as well. A recap follows:

• Two persons are placed together inside of 5’x9′ concrete box for 22-24 hours per day, with the only exceptions being meal service and showers. Prisoners are allowed a shower every other day. The two hours of which the prisoners are allowed outside of their cells are spent just a few feet in front of their cells, where they must sit on steel benches or a steel picnic-like tables. Prisoners either sit and talk to one another, do bible studies, or watch a television which produces no sound.
• The cells are cold, but prisoners are allowed neither coats, nor thermals, nor even t-shirts to help keep them warm, and are dressed only in sleeveless jumpsuits.
• Prisoners are allowed to bring no writing supplies with them, and they have no access to telephones, so they are unable to communicate with anyone in the outside world.
• Prisoners are allowed to bring with them neither books nor a radio, so for 22-24 hours everyday there is nothing for them to do but stare at the walls, ceiling, or, if they are on the bottom bunk, as I was, at the bunk above them.
• Prisoners are not allowed to bring food items nor a hotpot to cook food in.

Most of those persons who find themselves in transient status at the Byrd farm are in the intake process and do not have ID cards, so they cannot go to commissary, even if they have money available, which many do not. My cellie had been there for more than 30 days, and was still awaiting an ID card. As for me, my ID card had been lost during my early December trip through this same process, and I, even now, have not been issued a replacement.

For those in medical transient status there is yet another problem, a new policy which allows the Byrd farm to hold prisoners for up to 90 days awaiting their next medical appointment. Consider enduring the conditions described above for 90 days, and without so much as mail delivery. What good could possibly come of such?

Well, anyway, I am glad to be away from the environment for at least a while. I have another appointment upcoming, however, and must need be exposed to it once again in the very near future.

In solidarity always,

Steven McCain 02096064
Wainwright State Plantation
2665 Prison Road 1
Lovelady, TX 75851