Clements, White claim prison DALLAS TlivlES HERALD. Saturday, April 18, 1981 reform talk credit By RICHARD S. DUNHAM and VIRGINIA ELLIS Austin Bureau AUSTIN — The state of Texas and the Justice Department have started talking about prison reform again, and both Gov. William P. Clements Jr. and Texas Attorney General Mark White claimed credit Friday. A break in the stalemate took place when Deputy Attorney General Ed- ward C. Schmults told both state offi- cials the federal government might be willing to renegotiate several crucial areas of dispute in a civil rights suit filed against the Texas Department of Corrections. In a letter to Clements, Schmults said the Justice Department's civil rights division has "concluded that there is much room for compromise, allowing Texas great flexibility to adopt practices and implement struc- tural changes in the way Texas thinks best. "I want to assure you that it is not this department's policy to impose un- reasonable and unnecessary conditions upon the discretion of state officials," Schmults wrote. "The Department of Justice is most willing to conduct seri- ous compromise negotiations with the Texas Department of Corrections and the plaintiffs." Clements called the Justice Depart- ment action "a very positive indica- tor" that the federal government is willing "to work with the state of Texas to resolve the litigation." The Republican governor said he and David Dean, Clements' general counsel, will fly to Washington next Tuesday to discuss the matter with U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. White, meanwhile, hand-delivered a letter to U. S. District Judge Wil- liam Wayne Justice in Tyler, inform- ing the judge that the state and the federal government have agreed to reopen negotiations on the settlement of the politically sensitive suit. "Both the state and the United States have agreed to approach such negotiations with a sense of compro- mise and flexibility," the Democratic attorney general wrote to Justice. In December, after hearing months of testimony, Justice held that condi- tions in Texas prisons were so inhu- mane that they were unconstitutional. But he reserved issuing a final ruling to give the two sides time to agree to a settlement plan for relieving over- crowding in the prisons, reducing vio- lence against prisoners and improving medical care. Clements and White have been in- volved in a running feud over the prison suit. The governor has suggest- ed the state hire outside lawyers to handle the case, while White has said Clements damaged the state's case two years ago by vetoing an appropri- ation for additional prison construc- tion. The attorney general said Friday he hoped the reopening of the prison peace talks would prompt Justice to wait at least 30 more days before issu- ing a final order in the CaSP White said he thought the latest agreement by the Justice Department to reopen negotiations stemmed from several letters he had written to Smults requesting that the talks be resumed. "It should be viewed as a positive step that they are looking at this case again," White said. Clements, however, said he was the one who had requested a delay in im- plementing the Justice Department's prison reform plan. "It is incumbent on all state officials to act in a responsible way," the gov- ernor said. "This is not a partisan is- sue. It affects all Texans." The state and the Justice Depart- ment have agreed to a partial settle- ment on the medical issue but negoti- ations stopped when they were un- able to resolve some of the other issues in the case. Clements and White said the place- ment of prisons will be one of the subjects touched on in the new nego- tiations. "They indicate a willingness to ne- gotiate in that area — not as to a change in principle, but a change in timing," White said. Justice had criticized the prison sy- tern for constructing large isolated, maximum security facilities. The Texas officials also plan to dis- cuss the Justice Department demands for single ceiling of prisoners and in- mate capacities for prison facilities.