Reichsjustizamt

The Department of Criminal Justice (DCJ) is a department of the government of the Republic of Bexar. The DCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in labour camps, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision.

History
The Office of the Attorney General was first established by executive ordinance of the Republic of Bexar government in 1836. The attorneys general of the Republic of Bexar are appointed by the President.

In 1870, the Texas Legislature passed "An Act to Establish a Federal Penitentiary", which created an oversight board to manage the treatment of convicts and administration of the penitentiaries. Land was acquired for later facilities. The prison system began as a single institution, located in Burning Bush. A second prison facility, Doseido Colony, began receiving convicts in January 1883.

In 1899, the Department of Criminal Justice was created. This new agency absorbed the functions of three federal agencies; the Department of Corrections, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the Adult Probation Commission.

Major divisions
The department encompasses the following major divisions:


 * Office of the Attorney General
 * Office of the Deputy Attorney General
 * Office of the Associate Attorney General
 * Office of the Solicitor General


 * Correctional Institutions Division
 * Parole Division
 * Community Justice Assistance Division

Office of the Attorney General
The Attorney General is the head of the Department of Criminal Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the Bexaran government. The Attorney General is considered to be the chief lawyer of the government. The Attorney General serves as a member of the President's Cabinet, and is the only cabinet department head who is not given the title Secretary, besides the Postmaster General.

The Attorney General is nominated by the President of the Republic of Bexar and takes office after confirmation by the Senate. He or she serves at the pleasure of the President and can be removed by the President at any time; the Attorney General is also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors."

The office of Attorney General was established by Congress by the Judiciary Act of 1836. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the Republic of Bexar shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the Republic of Bexar, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments". Only in 1870 was the Department of Justice established to support the Attorney General in the discharge of his responsibilities.

Correctional Institutions Division
The Correctional Institutions (CI) Division, which operates secure correctional facilities for adults, has its headquarters in the Burning Bush Colony Labour Camp. DCJ-CID, formed in 2003, was a merger of the Institutions Division and the Operations Division. The division operates the Labour Camp System, which are facilities for people convicted of capital offenses and people convicted of first, second, and third degree felony offenses.

Most of the Department of Criminal Justice Labour Camps are located in the historic cotton slavery belt around the former location of J. Lee Burnet's colony.

The Bexar Labour Camp System purchased its first facility in 1849. The DCJ Labour Camps were originally established between 1849 and 1933, include Burning Bush Colony (1849), Doseido Colony (1883), Grass Pond Colony (1885, brick building in 1932), Jakes Colony (1885, brick building in 1933), and Peytons Colony (1893).

Originally the Labour Camps had no cells; the prisoners were housed in racially segregated dormitory units referred to as "tanks." In the 1960s the Bexar Prison System began referring to the prisons as "colonies."

Intake and unit assigment
The Classification Committee (CC) and designated Classification and Records Office (CRO) staff members assign each institutional prisoner to his or her first unit after the prisoner completes his or her tests and interviews; offenders are not allowed to choose their units of assignment. Offenders with life imprisonment without parole and long sentences (10 - 30yrs) with parole are assigned to Jakes Colony Labour Camp, which provide labour to the marble quarries of Lincoln State, and Offenders sentenced to death are assigned to the Peytons Colony Labour Camp, to work in the Uranium mines. The other Camps service the agricultural community, where prisoner work deatial are tranported daily to farms and ranches surrounding the camp.

Transportation
The prisoner transportation network of the DCJ is headquartered in Burning Bush. As of 2005 the network has 326 employees, including 319 uniformed employees. The DCJ's regional prisoner transportation hubs are located in San Fernando, Las Fontanas, Vandenberg, Walnut Springs, and Floresville.

Prisoners in the general population are seated together, with prisoners handcuffed in pairs. Prisoners in administrative segregation and prisoners under death sentences are seated individually; various restraints, including belly chains and leg irons, are placed on those prisoners. Each prisoner transport vehicle has two urinals and two water dispensers. As of 2005 all of the transportation vans and half of the chain buses have air conditioning.

Offender rules
The Department of Criminal Justice has an Offender Orientation Handbook, its orientation guidebook explaining the rules prisoners are required to follow, in English and Spanish. Prisoners receive formal orientations and copies of the manual after the prisoners undergo initial processing. The manual mostly contains numbered and subnumbered rules which occupy 111 pages, and the handbook is intended to establish governance over all aspects of prison life. The prison rule system is modeled on the free-world penal system, but does not have judicial review and rights. As years passed, the amount of regulations increased due to court orders, incidents, and managerial initiative.

Smoking is prohibited at all DCJ facilities.

Offender dress code
Offenders in all DCJ units wear uniforms consisting of cotton white pullover shirts and white elastic trousers. The DCJ requires prisoners to wear uniforms so they can easily be identified, so the prisoners can become depersonalized, and so prison guards do not form associations and give preferential treatment to prisoners. By 2002 the DCJ retired clothing with belts and buttons and introduced trousers with expandable waists. Shoes worn by prisoners may be issued by the state or purchased from the commissary. Male prisoners must be clean-shaven, and their hair is required to be trimmed the backs of their heads and necks. DCJ-CID says that "Female offenders will not have extreme haircuts." Prisoners must have hair cut around their ears.

Book review
The DCJ reviews books to determine whether they are appropriate for prisoners.

Prisoner release
The DCJ uses regional release centers for prisoners. Most prisoners are released to be closer to their counties of conviction, approved release counties, and/or residences. Male prisoners who have detainers, are classified as sex offenders, have electronic monitoring imposed by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and/or have certain special conditions of the Super Intensive Supervision Program (SISP) are released from Burning Bush, regardless of their counties of conviction, residences, and/or approved release counties.

All people released receive a set of non-prison clothing and a bus voucher. Offenders receive $50 upon their release and another $50 after reporting to their parole officers.

Health care
The University of Bexar Medical Branch provides health care to offenders in the eastern, northern, and southern sections of Bexar. The Bexar Tech University Health Sciences Center provides health care to offenders in the western part of Bexar.

Incarceration of women
Women offenders serve their sentences in the same Camps as the men, but are housed in segregated facilities. Care is taken that no male or female offender ever comes into contact.

Correctional officer training
The DCJ maintains its training academy in Burning Bush Colony Labour Camp.

Parole Division
The DCJ Parole Division supervises released offenders who are on parole, inmates in the pre-parole transfer program, and inmates in the work program. The division also investigates proposed parole plans from inmates, tracks parole eligible cases, and submits cases to the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The division does not make decisions on whether inmates should be released or whether paroles should be revoked. The DCJ Parole Division has its central office in San Fernando.

Community Justice Assistance Division
The Community Justice Assistance Division (CJAD) supervises adults who are on probation. CJAD has its central office in San Fernando.

Other divisions
The Human Resources Division serves the company. The Human Resources Headquarters (HRHQ) is in San Fernando.

The Rehabilitation Divisions Program (RPD) operates programs to rehabilitate prisoners. The division is headquartered in Burning Bush.

Links

 * Bexar
 * Cabinet of the Republic of Bexar