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48-625: Allan B. Polunsky Unit ( TL , formerly the Terrell Unit ) is a prison in West Livingston , unincorporated Polk County, Texas , United States, located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Livingston along Farm to Market Road 350 . The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates the facility. The unit houses the State of Texas death row for men, and it has a maximum capacity of 2,900. Livingston Municipal Airport

96-409: A "bleak, foreboding complex". The Polunsky Unit was designed to house more problematic and dangerous inmates; the officials designed the unit to be more secure than the older TDCJ units. Throughout its history the unit housed administrative segregation offenders (offenders in solitary confinement due to chronic misbehavior or violence). The building housing death row inmates is separate from the rest of

144-475: A 2012 book by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian discusses the Polunsky Unit. According to one passage: "Whenever a condemned prisoner goes anywhere outside his cell, he must back up to the door, drop to his knees, and extend his hands backward through the narrow slot to be handcuffed. Then he stands, turns around, and waits for the door to be opened. The whole process of dropping to the knees and extending

192-410: A chance to shape the magazine, and that many of the articles that were printed during his time as editor were articles that had already been commissioned by Deirdre English. After being fired in 1986, Moore sued Mother Jones for $ 2 million for wrongful termination, but settled with the magazine's insurance company for $ 58,000 —$ 8000 more than the initial offering. In December 2013, Mother Jones

240-646: A fictional chef cooking the last meals for Death Row inmates in Polunsky. Llegada la hora (Spanish) Paperback: 214 pages; Publisher: Dharma Books (June, 2019); Language: Spanish; ISBN   978-607-29-1624-1 The National Public Radio (NPR) Podcast series Consider This devoted an episode about the death row radio station, The Tank 106.5, based on the reporting of Keri Blakinger for the Marshall Project for The Guardian. All death row prisoners on this list are and were under death sentences given by

288-572: A finalist for 31 National Magazine Awards , winning seven times (including three times for General Excellence in 2001, 2008 and 2010). The Park Center for Independent Media named Mother Jones the winner of the fifth annual Izzy Award in April 2013, for "special achievement in independent media", for its 2012 reporting, including its analysis of gun violence in the United States , coverage of dark money funding of candidates, and release of

336-453: A nearby creek and his body was found a week later. After the incident occurred, the TDCJ considered moving the death row for men, and the Polunsky Unit was the favored choice for the relocation. According to the TDCJ, the prison escape attempt had hastened the agency's decision to move death row inmates to a new location. TDCJ officials also stated that overcrowding at Ellis was another factor in

384-517: A newspaper article entitled "Meet The Dapper Young KKK Leader With A Message Of Hope". Video game website Kotaku said the addition was "clearly a shot at Mother Jones and any other media outlet who decides to start getting cutesy about white supremacy ". In 2022, journalist and media critic Jesse Singal defended the story as a valuable example of investigative journalism and characterized its critics as misinformed, writing that "it's almost impossible to imagine any reasonable reader confusing it for

432-603: A person walks on to death row, there is a sense of change. It's just a different atmosphere." During a US Judiciary hearing on solitary confinement, Anthony Graves, a former prisoner in the death row who was released in 2010, said that conditions were making prisoners lose their sanity. In 2013 James Ridgeway and Jean Casella of Mother Jones stated that "Some have been known to commit suicide or waive their appeals rather than continue living under such conditions." In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America ,

480-646: A place where they have a sliver of a chance to survive. That determination for life should be celebrated, not criminalized. Drum has an attitude toward immigrants that is xenophobic and deeply embarrassing for Mother Jones ." In late 2017, journalist and columnist David Corn was accused of workplace sexual harassment by former staffers who alleged the columnist of engaging "...in inappropriate workplace behavior, including unwanted touching and rape jokes". These allegations were published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Daily Beast and Politico . Mother Jones conducted an internal investigation of

528-399: A prison chaplain from Livingston , into his cell. The offender tied a sheet around the chaplain's arm and tied the other end to a toilet; Soria began cutting Westbrook's arm with a razor blade. The offender nearly tore Westbrook's arm off. The authorities used tear gas to stop the attack. Authorities treated Soria's former cell as a crime scene and moved Soria to a more restricted area within

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576-684: A puff piece." Singal cited the social media response to the article as an example of what he saw as an increasing problem of slander against journalists, concluding that "the Twitter gauntlet consistently destroys good journalism." In August 2017, journalist and Mother Jones contributor Glenn Greenwald criticized an article published by the magazine titled "Are People Disgusted By the Homeless?" by Kevin Drum, which Greenwald asserts uses dehumanizing stereotypes of homeless people. Kevin Drum would again be

624-470: A security firm that spied on environmental groups for corporations. Winner of the 2005 and 2006 "People's Choice" Webby Award for politics, MotherJones.com has provided extensive coverage of both Gulf wars, presidential election campaigns, and other key events of the last decade. Mother Jones began posting its magazine content on the Internet on November 24, 1993, the first general interest magazine in

672-520: A state, California, that just decided to raise the minimum wage to $ 10." Following the publication of the article, Mother Jones announced that it would reform its budget to provide fellows with equivalent to California's minimum wage. According to Davis, a former intern alleged that they were advised by the company's human resources department to register for food stamps. The magazine was subject of controversy regarding an October 2016 article about white supremacist figure Richard B. Spencer titled, "Meet

720-739: A subject of controversy in July 2019, when Naomi Lachance of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting criticized Drum's handling of the Wayfair Walkout in a blog post titled "I Don't Understand the Wayfair Walkout". The Wayfair Walkout was a planned protest action taken by workers and employees of the furniture company to express their opposition to the companies contracting with ICE and other government agencies involved in detainment of suspected undocumented immigrants. In response to news of

768-411: A total of 504 cells. Prior to the relocation of the men's death row, prison authorities held non-death row "administrative segregation" prisoners in these cells. These prisoners were relocated when the men's death row changed locations. Death row offenders receive no programming and are not allowed to work. Death row prisoners receive meals through bean slots, gates in the cell doors. Whenever an offender

816-539: A two-story facility which opened in 1993 to house administrative segregation prisoners in solitary confinement. This building has three rectangular sections, and a recreational area, in the shape of the circle, is in the center of each section. The death row offenders live in single person, 60-square-foot (5.6 m) cells, with each cell having a slit window and a concrete door. There is a "tempered air" system intended to keep inside temperatures at 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) or below. The death row buildings have

864-557: A video of Mitt Romney stating that 47 percent of the people of the United States see themselves as victims and are dependent on the government. In August 2013, Mother Jones ' co-editors Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery won the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing . Also in 2010, Mother Jones won the Online News Association Award for Online Topical Reporting, and in 2011 won

912-636: Is "the hardest place to do time in Texas." Perkinson added that while the prison is not in a "gloomy" location and that the facility is not "dangerously dilapidated", the prison's "existential problem" is the fact that it is the state death row. In May 2013 Mother Jones magazine ranked Polunsky as one of the ten worst prisons in the US, based on Congressional testimony from former inmate Anthony Charles Graves (TDCJ Death Row#999127, released due to overturning of conviction on September 7, 2006) and research conducted by

960-674: Is located on the other side of FM 350. The unit, along the Big Thicket , is 60 miles (97 km) east of Huntsville . Polunsky was named after Allan B. Polunsky, a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and former chairman of the Public Safety Commission , the governing board of the Texas Department of Public Safety . Polunsky houses Texas' " supermax " units and is notable for being

1008-685: Is named after Mary Harris Jones , known as Mother Jones, an Irish-American trade union activist, socialist advocate, and ardent opponent of child labor . For the first five years after its inception in 1976, Mother Jones operated with an editorial board, and members of the board took turns serving as managing editor for one-year terms. People who served on the editorial team during those years included Adam Hochschild , Paul Jacobs , Richard Parker , Deborah Johnson, Jeffrey Bruce Klein , Mark Dowie, Amanda Spake, Zina Klapper, and Deirdre English . According to Hochschild, Parker, "who worked as both editor and publisher, saw to it that Mother Jones took

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1056-408: Is taken from his cell, such as when the offender goes to take a shower, the offender is strip searched . The offenders receive individual recreation in a caged area. Depending on the custody level, death row offenders may be eligible for having radios. Death row inmates wear white jumpsuits, and the death row uniforms have the letters "DR" in black on the backs. Perkinson said that the wait times that

1104-561: The Houston Press said that the unit "sits amid the same kind of lush, green and hilly East Texas terrain that surrounds Governor Bush 's lake house 100 miles to the north in Athens ." Marc Bookman of Mother Jones said that the prison "looks as one might imagine a death row would look—a series of imposing concrete structures surrounded by excessive razor wire and four guard towers." Alex Hannaford of The Nation described it as

1152-732: The Utne Reader Independent Press Award for General Excellence. In 2017, Mother Jones won the Magazine of the Year award from the American Society of Magazine Editors . In addition to stories from the print magazine, MotherJones.com offers original reported content seven days a week. During the 2008 presidential election campaign, MotherJones.com journalist David Corn was the first to report John McCain's statement that it "would be fine with [him]" if

1200-621: The Dapper White Nationalist Riding the Trump Wave", which was interpreted as presenting Spencer in a positive light in contrast to his promotion of violent, racialist views. In response to the controversy, Mother Jones deleted a tweet promoting the article, in addition to removing the word "dapper" from the title of the article. The 2017 video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus featured

1248-524: The State of Texas. Awaiting execution but moved out of Polunsky: West Livingston, Texas Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 217494319 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:47:37 GMT Mother Jones (magazine) The magazine

1296-543: The United States military were stay in Iraq for "maybe a hundred years"—that what should be assessed is not their simple presence but how many casualties are being suffered. McCain said the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea , Japan, Europe, Bosnia and other countries is a “generally accepted policy of America’s multilateralism”. Also in 2008, MotherJones.com was the first outlet to report on Beckett Brown International,

1344-471: The administration of the death penalty. In addition he reportedly was ambivalent regarding capital punishment. In exchange, the former Ramsey III Unit was renamed the Terrell Unit. In 2010, the TDCJ accused five men who were serving life sentences of attempting to break out of the unit. Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire , said in 2010 that Polunsky "probably"

1392-614: The arms backward is particularly difficult and painful for the older convicts with arthritis." Jackson and Christian point out that the state laws for Texas, and most other states, do not lay out "the specific conditions under which condemned prisoners live." Polunsky is a setting of the book Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell . The popular novel by John Grisham, The Confession , is set around Polunsky. The Confession [John Grisham] Paperback: 464 pages; Publisher: Arrow (May 1, 2011); Language: English; ISBN   978-0099545798 The Mexican novel Llegada la hora by Karla Zárate talks about

1440-427: The best of what could be learned from the world of commercial publishing". Russ Rymer was named editor-in-chief in early 2005, and under his tenure the magazine published more essays and extensive packages of articles on domestic violence (July/August 2005), and the role of religion in politics (December 2005). In August 2006, Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery were promoted from within to become co-editors of

1488-413: The compound. Polunsky has a kitchen, a medical treatment clinic, psych interview rooms, and classification office space. Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire , said that Polunsky, a white concrete building with blue steel supports, is "functionally designed and pleasantly asymmetrical" and that a person would mistake the building for a community college "if not for

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1536-536: The country to do so. In the March/April 1996 issue, the magazine published the first Mother Jones 400, a listing of the largest individual donors to federal political campaigns. The print magazine listed the 400 donors in order with thumbnail profiles and the amount they contributed. MotherJones.com (then known as the MoJo Wire) listed the donors in a searchable database. In the 2006 election, MotherJones.com

1584-401: The death row inmates on Friday June 18, 1999, with the first 55 inmates all classified as being troublesome. The death row transfer, which took ten months, was the largest transfer of condemned prisoners in history and was performed under heavy security. In February 2000 two death row inmates took a 57-year-old female corrections officer hostage, forcing negotiations involving the warden. One of

1632-463: The death row move. Six months after the escape attempt, the TDCJ decided to move the death row. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty criticized the move of the death row, saying that the conditions of the prisoners were worse than those in their previous location. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved the relocation of the men's death row on Friday May 21, 1999. Polunsky took

1680-630: The health of the ocean (March/April 2006), and the magazine's massive Iraq War Timeline interactive database. As the magazine's first post–baby-boomer editors, Bauerlein and Jeffery used a new investigative team of senior and young reporters to increase original reporting, web-based database tools, and blog commentary on MotherJones.com. The cover of their first issue (November 2006) asked: "Evolve or Die: Can humans get past denial and deal with global warming?" In 2015, Bauerlein became CEO, and Jeffery became sole editor in chief. David Corn , former Washington editor for The Nation , became bureau chief of

1728-419: The hostage-takers, Ponchai Wilkerson (TDCJ#999011), was scheduled to be executed on March 14, 2000, and was, in fact, later executed on that date. The other, Howard Guidry, had no scheduled execution date. Guidry remains on death row. On May 9, 2000, 33-year-old death row inmate Juan Salvez Soria (TDCJ#837), who was scheduled to be executed on July 26, 2000, pulled the arm of 78-year-old William Paul Westbrook,

1776-785: The location of Texas's death row for men (executions, though, are conducted at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville). The Polunsky Unit opened in November 1993. At the time of its opening the public did not associate the prison with the death penalty, as the state's male death row inmates were housed at the Ellis Unit near Huntsville. In November 1998 Martin Gurule , a death row inmate in the Ellis Unit, escaped. He drowned in

1824-629: The magazine during a three-year period. As of 2014 the prison had 691 employees and 2,936 prisoners. As of that year there were 279 men on Polunsky's death row. The 584,000-square-foot (54,300 m) facility has twenty-three buildings, on 472 acres (191 ha) of land. The surrounding area includes fields and forests. It has a capacity of about 2,900 prisoners. David Casstevens of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described Polunsky as "a somber complex of putty-gray concrete buildings trimmed in blue on 470 fenced acres." Miriam Rozen of

1872-539: The magazine's newly established D.C. bureau in 2007. Other D.C. staff have included Washington Monthly contributing editor Stephanie Mencimer, former Village Voice correspondent James Ridgeway , and Adam Serwer from The American Prospect . Laurene Powell Jobs has donated to Mother Jones by way of her LLC, Emerson Collective . In December 2023, Mother Jones announced that it would be combining with The Center for Investigative Reporting . The merger took effect on February 1 2024. Mother Jones has been

1920-406: The magazine. Bauerlein and Jeffery, who had served as interim editors between Cohn and Rymer, were also chiefly responsible for some of the biggest successes of the magazine in the past several years, including a package on ExxonMobil's funding of climate-change "deniers" (May/June 2005) that was nominated for a National Magazine Award for Public Interest reporting; a package on the rapid decline in

1968-411: The offenders have before execution make the prison stressful for the inmates, visitors, and employees. Jonathan Bruce Reed (TDCJ Death Row #642, now TDJC#1743674 due to a reduction of the sentence to life imprisonment on November 3, 2011), a death row offender, said that the mentality of the death row unit is "we keep you kenneled until your date." Larry Todd, a spokesperson of the prison, said that "when

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2016-589: The prison. Soria was executed on schedule. The Texas Board unanimously approved giving former Terrell Unit its current name, Allan B. Polunsky Unit , on July 20, 2001. The board also voted to rename the Ramsey III Unit in Brazoria County, Texas to the Terrell Unit . The former namesake, a Dallas insurance executive named Charles Terrell, requested the name change because he did not want his name associated with death row because of questions about

2064-521: The staff, exploitation of interns, misinterpreting data about homeless people, and promotion of values that are perceived to be inconsistent with those of the magazine's namesake, Mother Jones . Michael Moore , who had owned and published the Flint, Michigan -based Michigan Voice for ten years, followed English and edited Mother Jones for several months, until he was fired for disputed reasons. Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard reported this

2112-566: The three-inch window slits." As of March 2013 about 290 male death row prisoners are housed in Polunsky. As of March 2013 eight are instead housed in Jester IV Unit , a psychiatric unit near Richmond, Texas . Photographs taken inside death row were provided by the State of Texas in response to a Freedom of Information Act (United States) request filed by attorney Yolanda Torres in 2009. The death row prisoners reside in Building 12,

2160-420: The walkout, Drum wrote, "But isn't our whole complaint that these kids are being treated badly? Shouldn't we want companies to sell the government toothpaste and soap and beds and so forth? What am I missing here?" In response to these comments, Lachance wrote "In a cruel and violent world, full of exponentially increasing climate change, natural disasters, food shortages and wars, people cross borders in search of

2208-585: Was criticized for its labor practices regarding the employment of interns, as part of the Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program. The program allowed college students to enroll as "fellows" who would receive a monthly stipend of $ 1,000 while working for the magazine in San Francisco . Writer Charles Davis of Vice criticized this practice as exploitative noting that "a fellow [working] at Mother Jones earns less than $ 6 an hour in

2256-640: Was for refusing to print an article that was critical of the Sandinista human rights record in Nicaragua —a view supported by The Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn , but denied by Hochschild and others at the magazine. Moore believes that he was fired because of his defiant reaction to the publisher's refusal to allow him to cover a story on the GM plant closings in Flint. Moore also felt that he did not have

2304-402: Was the first to break stories on the use of robocalling , a story that TPM Muckraker and The New York Times picked up. The Iraq War Timeline interactive database, a continually updated interactive online project, was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2006. Throughout its circulation, Mother Jones magazine has been the subject of criticism regarding the editorial position of

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