TDCJ Execution
Alert: Officer Daniel Nagle’s Last Public Statement Haunts Texas Prison
System
Huntsville, Texas - There was no judge, no jury, or no right
legal counsel on the afternoon of December 19, 1999 when convicted murder
Robert Pruett executed Officer Daniel Nagle at the William G. McConnel maximum
security prison in Beeville, Texas. Officer Nagle was assigned to watch
over one of the common areas of the maximum security prison in Beeville that
had a TV viewing room, barber shop, and craft shop area on the afternoon he was
murdered. Officer Nagle had no backup, no two way radio to call for help,
or any weapon to defend himself against the convicted felons he watched over in
Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison.
On the afternoon of his death, Officer Nagle stopped Offender
Robert Pruett from taking an unauthorized sack meal to the recreation
yard. Offenders were not allowed extra items that could conceal
contraband on the recreation yard and Officer Nagle wrote Offender Robert
Pruett a disciplinary case for the rule infraction. Later Offender Pruett
assaulted Officer Nagle with a room full of witnesses watching the brutal
assault. Officer Nagle was stabbed repeatedly with prison made knife
(shank) in the neck and head by Offender Pruett. The disciplinary report
Officer Nagle wrote was torn up and left next to Nagle’s body.
Officer Nagle was the correctional officer’s union Beeville
chapter president at the time of his death and was very outspoken about the
dangerous conditions officers faced working in the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. High offender to officer staffing ratios and lack of funding in
Texas makes the prison system an extremely dangerous place to work in.
At the beginning of December 1999 Officer Nagel and his
fellow officers made a trip to the Austin Capitol complex where Nagle uttered
his last public statement, “Someone would have to be killed before TDCJ got the
message.” Lance Lowry president of the Huntsville Charter of Texas
Correctional Employees states, “Officer Nagle’s warning and death continue to
be ignored by state bureaucrats and budget writers. The Texas Department
of Criminal Justice is massively underfunded compared with other states of
similar size. The New York Department of Corrections has a staffing ratio
of 3 inmates per officer while Texas’ staffing ratio is double. Texas
needs to stop allowing inmates to terrorize officers in this controlled
environment and allow proper resources to safely operate its prison
system. TDCJ downplays chronic staffing issues and problems plaguing it
prison system. Employees who speak out can expect some type of
retaliation.”
Since 2015 two TDCJ correctional officers were brutally
murdered in the line of duty. Serious staff assaults are at their highest
level after the agency’s managed health care administrators cut back the usage
of certain psychotropic medications. The Texas Department of Criminal
Justice still experiences massive staffing shortages with approximately 2,000
unfilled correctional officer positions in a system lacking proper staffing
ratios compared with other large states.
Facts at a glance:
California 131,000 inmates per 24,000 Correctional Officers
(1/5 ratio Officer per Inmate)
New York DOCCS 52,245 inmates per 18,734 Correctional
Officers (1/3 ratio Officer per Inmate )
Texas TDCJ 145,000 inmates per 23,000 Correctional Officers
(1/6 ratio Officer per Inmate)
