• • • CITents: State has paid too midi' to fight prison reform BY GLENN SMITH Clikohicie Austin Bureau AUSTIN — Gov. William P. Clements Jr. said Friday t116te has paid too high a price for outside legal help in its battle to overturn U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice's prison reform order. Clements called the $800,000 tab so far paid by the qtate to the Houston law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski “excessive and exorbitant." He also said the legal fees should be paid from a $1 million fund appropriated to the attorney general's of- fice to pay outside lawyers, and not from the $10 million contingency fund included in the Texas Department of Corrections budget for "unforeseen developments." In a court order handed down last year, Justice man- dated sweeping reforms of Texas' prisons, which he found violated prisoners' constitutional rights. At the request of the Texas Board of Corrections, Attorney General Mark White in July hired lawyers From. theliouston law firm to assist in the appeal of the case, !now pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Nevcarleans. Records in the attorney general's office show Ful- right and Jaworski was paid $806,411.23 from July through January. No bill has been submitted for work done in February or March. Clements said he supported the board's request for outside legal assistance, calling work done on the case by White "absolutely inadequate." White, who is run- ning for the Democratic nomination for governor, and Clements, a Republican seeking re-election, have ex- changed bitter words several times over the White's representation of the state on the prison case. Clements said neither he nor the Legislature intended the $10 million in the prison's contingency fund to be used to pay for lawyers. In an apparent contradiction, however, Clements said he would rather the money be spent for legal fees than to make some of the changes in the prisons ordered by Justice. He said he has approved payment of the bills because they were presented to him "after the fact," and to turn down a bill approved by the Board of Corrections and the attorney general for work already done "would be absurd." In other matters, Clements said he would take into consideration a request from Speaker of the House Bill Clayton for $2 million from the governor's contingency funds to fight the spread of fire ants in Texas. Clements said he felt the growing problem with fire ants was serious enough to warrant expenditure of the money. PRESS CLIPS 718 WEST 5th ST AUSTIN TEXAS 78701 411675` Houston Chronicle Houston, Texas rvIR 2710