The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) manages offenders in state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities that contract with TDCJ. The Ruiz litigation case files document a 1974 class action suit filed by David Ruiz and others against the Texas Department of Corrections and director W.J. Estelle, on behalf of inmates in the Texas prison system over confinement violations. Records present include correspondence; interoffice memoranda; decision memoranda; reports (internal reports, reports of the monitor, reports of the special master); administrative records (unit reports, plans, procedures, statistics, lists of inmates, manuals, rules and regulations, weekly activity reports, etc.); notes; court pleadings; audio tapes and a DVD of interviews; and discovery documents, hearing transcripts, testimony and depositions from the 1999 hearings. Dates covered are 1964, 1971-2001, undated, bulk dating 1981-1989, 1996-1999. These are the correspondence and administrative files of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (formerly the Department of Corrections), General Counsel's Office during the period of federal oversight incurred due to the David Ruiz litigation. General counsels or assistant general counsels/directors represented in these records include Gerald Fall, Steve Martin, J. Kirk Brown, James Hall, and Jim Brady. Topics discussed covered all aspects of the federal oversight issues, including overcrowding, administrative segregation, health care and housing, classification of inmates, rules and regulations, incident reports, use of force, disciplinary action against inmates and guards, inmate access to courts, needs of special inmates, issues concerning SSI (support service inmates), and others. Correspondents include the Attorney General's Office (primarily Melinda Bozarth, Nancy Juren, Cynthia Milne and Scott McCown), plaintiff's attorneys (primarily Donna Brorby and William Bennett Turner), outside legal counsel for the state (primarily the firm of Fulbright and Jaworski), court appointed monitors or other court officials, including Judge William Wayne Justice, and the special master (Vincent Nathan). Internal memos are present between staff of the General Counsel's Office, the executive director's office, and other sections of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (fomerly the Department of Corrections). The described materials were reviewed to confirm (and in a few cases supply) folder titles and dates. Folder titles generally do not include all record types that may be present in the file. For instance, a folder labeled "Amended order of reference, July 24, 1981" may contain a copy of the order and/or possibly correspondence, reference materials or notes about the order. A few of the materials have some insect damage and/or mold damage. Most of the mold was removed, what remains is along the tops and edges of documents and is not active. In severe cases, some materials were photocopied on acid-free paper and the moldy materials were discarded. This series is part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice finding aid (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20127/tsl-20127.html).
