Statistics for 1999
There were 1649 attacks on TDCJ staff during the year 1999. These came from aggressive behavior, attacks by inmates, caught-in-between inmates, and unsafe conditions. (TDCJ Risk Management Report)
  1994 1997 1999
Number of Offenders 92,000 136,000 151,000
Correction Officers 1,700 30,000 28,000
Assaults on Officers 311 918 ('96) 1649
Statistics from Abilene Reporter-News
Dec. 1999, New Boston. . .Telford Unit
An inmate believed to be a member of the Texas Syndicate gang, was attacked and stabbed with a homemade object by five other prisoners. The inmate, who was assaulted during the evening meal, suffered 13 puncture wounds but was treated at the unit's infirmary. (Texarkana Gazette)
Dec. 20, 1999, Beeville. . .McConnell Unit
The McConnell Prison Unit is hit hard when several corrections officers resign in the wake of Officer Daniel Nagle’s murder at the hand of prisoners. Meanwhile, the understaffed prison is dealt another blow when an inmate armed with a 6- to 8-inch shank, attacked a female corrections officer, gains control of his cell block and frees 80 other inmates in the most secure area of the prison. It takes riot squads about four hours to regain control. (News of Texas)
Dec. 17, 1999, Beeville. . .McConnell Unit
Corrections Officer Daniel Nagle is fatally stabbed by inmates at the McConnell Prison Unit, a maximum-security prison unit in Beeville. (News of Texas)
Dec. 10, 1999, Iowa Park. . .Allred Unit
Correction Officer stabbed by inmate during count. The guard, whose name was not released, suffered non-life threatening injuries during the attack. He had a puncture wound from a "shank" - a homemade weapon the inmate fashioned out of a piece of metal, prison officials said. The officer's collarbone was also broken in the attack. Officials aren't sure when he'll return to work at the prison. The inmate, who attacked the guard in the administrative segregation area, has been transferred to another maximum security prison in Texas. (Wichita Falls Times Record News)
Fall, 1999, Beeville. . .McConnell Unit (exact date unknown)
Correctional officer assaulted as he and a fellow officer walked past the rows of locked cells containing the most violent inmates at the McConnell Unit. Suddenly, somehow, from behind one of the electronically locked, double-bolted cell doors, an inmate leapt out, swinging his fists. He bloodied male officer's eye, splitting his eyelid, before the female CO and other officers surrounded the man. At the time of this attack the unit was short 79 officers. (Corpus Christi Caller)
September 13, 1999, Huntsville. . . Ellis Unit
Inmate on death row since 1980 died in his cell. An apparent heart attack is believed to be the cause of death. (Abilene Report-News)
August 12, 1999, Abilene. . . Robertson Unit
An inmated received a stab wound to the neck after he and another inmate got into a fight in their cell. Guards broke up the fight before it had a chance to escalate. (Abilene Report-News)
Aug. 4, 1999, Palestine. . . Coffield Unit (?)
Two inmates drown. One inmate drowned after apparently attempting to swim across a stock pond near the northwest corner of the unit. The inmate was part of a work team scheduled to construct a barbed wire fence in the area. Another inmate also drowned after apparently jumping in the water in an attempt to rescue the first one. At the time of the incident, members of the work detail were apparently waiting for a survey team to arrive when the inmate stripped off his prison-issued shirt and pants and attempted to swim approximately 50 yards across the pond. After swimming approximately 30 feet from the bank, he encountered some difficulty, and the second inmated removed his clothing and swam out in an apparent attempt to save him. The CO then entered the pond to try to help but encountered problems and was pulled from the pond by his uniform shirt. (The Athens Daily Review)
Aug. 4, 1999, San Antonio. . . Dominguez State Jail
A large group of Hispanic inmates, wielding crudely made weapons, attacked a smaller Hispanic group of inmates at the Dominguez State Jail. (San Antonio Espress-News)
July 21, 1999, Gatesville. . . Hughes Unit
Two inmates escape from a Hughes Unit where they had been working in farm fields on prison grounds but beyond the unit fences when they fled. Prison officials believe the men quickly split up. (Abilene Reporter-News)
July 13, 1999, Iowa Park. . . Allred Unit
A correctional officer with the Allred Prison Unit was attacked and stabbed by an inmate during a prisoner head count. The guard suffered non-life threatening injuries during the attack. He had a puncture wound from a "shank", a homemade weapon the inmate fashioned out of a piece of metal, prison officials said. The officer's collarbone was also broken in the attack. Officials aren't sure when he'll return to work at the prison. The officer was attacked in the administrative segregation area. (Wichita Falls Times Record News)
July 12, 1999, Abilene. . . Robertson unit
At supper time, two inmates from a neighboring dorm walked into an inmate's quarters and began fighting with three men. Sometime during the confrontation, someone pulled a makeshift knife and stabbed on of the inmates eight times in the chest and stomach. Two other fights in different location of the prison occurred at the same time. He survived the night but died the next day of internal bleeding at a local hospital. (Abilene Reporter-News)
June 28, 1999, Huntsville. . . Estelle Unit
Estelle unit inmate escapes when he slips one hand out of his handcuffs. The scaled a 25-foot chain-link fence , then fell to another fence that covers a walkway and jumped to the ground. He reached a 12-foot fence equipped with sensing devices and climbed over it. He then climbed a 16-foot camera tower to jump over a second 12-foot fence covered with four coils of razor wire. The inmate kept running toward a creek bottom and took off his clothes and shoes, apparently to foil tracking dogs. He eluded captors for about 48 hours before he is caught. At the time the inmate escaped, only 167 of the available 198 corrections officers jobs were filled. (Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
April 27, 1999, Lubbock. . . Montford Unit
A nurse is held for nine hours by two inmates at the Monford unit in Lubbock when they overpower guards and take her hostage with homemade knives. She was not injured. (Abilene Reporter-News)
April 2, 1999, Iowa Park. . . Allred Unit
Thirteen inmates are stabbed and four others are taken to a Wichita Falls hospital after a brawl involving nearly 90 prisoners breaks out at the Allred Unit. The fight was between black and Hispanic prison gangs, police said. The fight ended when dozens of guards descended on the inmates after first disorienting them with tear gas. The disturbance began about 1:30 p.m. in the recreational yard, an outdoor area where inmates spend about two hours a day playing basketball, handball, walking or jogging. The melee started with a fist fight shortly after the inmates entered the yard. (Abilene Reporter-News)

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