Lawyer formerly in clemency offic HOUSTON DEC 6 1181 aids inmates seeking parole BY GLENN SMITH Chronicle Staff An attorney Who reviewed paroles for former Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe has developed a lucrative legal practice repre- senting prison inmates before the state parole panel and the governor's clemency office, parole records show. Jay Floyd, an Austin attorney who served in Briscoe's clem- ency office and was nominated by Briscoe to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, says he has earned thousands of dollars representing Texas Department of Corrections inmates in their efforts to be paroled. While reviewing parole recommendations for Briscoe. Floyd was criticized by prisoners' rights groups and legislators for vetoing close to 14 percent of the parole recommendations for- warded to his office from the parole board. His appointment to the parole board was turned down by the state Senate. Since leaving the clemency office in 1979. Floyd has filed 80 affidavits with the parole board. records show. Not each of the affidavits represents a senaran, inmato cinep hP is appeared more than once for some. He said he didn't know exactly how many he has represented during that time. Attorneys appearing before the board are required by state law to file fee affidavits each time they appear before the board on behalf of an inmate. Floyd said he earns up to $1,000 for each case he presents to the parole board and clemency office. But some criminal justice experts contend attorneys are un- necessary to the parole process. Lawyers extract sizable fees from prisoners and their families but have little effect on a prisoner's chances for making parole, they say. -I've seen so many people taken advantage of," said Dr. George Beto. former director of the TDC and a former Illinois parole board member. Belo. now a professer at Sam Houston State University's Criminal Justice Center in Huntsville. said the parole process is a non-legal process that lawyers can contribute little to. ••When I was director of the prisons these poor people would come in my office and tell me about how attorneys were bleed- inp them." Re'n said "It was sad. and I did everything I could to prevent it. I always told inmates not to bother getting an attorney. Floyd said prisoners do benefit from his assistance, and he defenaed his role as parole advocate. "I feel like I render some help to inmates," he said. "I don't know how effective it is (for an inmate to hire a lawyer). There is certainly no guarantee of success. -But I think it helps to have someone sit down across the table from the parole panel and the governor's office. You can point out things that might otherwise be missed," he said. Floyd said he makes few personal appearances before the board. Most of his work includes investigating an inmate's background and sending a report to the parole board. If the parole panel (composed of parole commissioners and parole board members) recommends the inmate for parole. Floyd forwards his appeal to the governor's office, where a final determination is made. Floyd said that although he continued to work in the clemency office after Gov. William P. Clements Jr. succeeded Briscoe, he (Ally remained long enough to help in the transition and review- ed no parole applications after Briscoe left office. He said he has not used his former position to unduly influence the parole board or the governor's office. A spokesman for Clements said the clemency office bases its decisions on a prisoner's record. Arguments from attorneys receive little attention, Mark Heckmann said. Heckmann said Floyd "was a Briscoe man" who had never had any connection with the Clements administration aside from assisting with the transition. lie said Floyd's appeals to the clemency office were not illegal or unethical, though they accomplished little. Parole Board Chairman Ruben Torres said he is not opposed to lawyers assisting a prisoner during the parole process. "My opinion is: If the family can afford it, it would be the right thing to do," Torres said. "But an inmate gets the same consideration whether or not he has an attorney. Sometimes the attorney can point out some facts that aren't available to the board." He said, however, that inmates with attorneys are paroled no more frequently than unrepresented prisoners. He said he could recall no specific case where a lawyer had made a difference,- All else failing, blame the press HOUSTON CHRONICLE by Bo Byers DEC 6 1981 AUSTIN — When all else fails, blame your problems on the press. That is a tried and true panacea for politicians who find themselves in- volved in controversy which may Tring them adverse publicity. That -'ems to be the case with Attorney tieneral Mark White. White released a statement Thurs- day appealing "to everyone to pre- serve an orderly and safe environ- ment and to permit the resolution of issues in the Hinz prison reform) suit through the legal process.' That appeal came at the end of White's stotement. in which he earlier shot this arro% at the press -What we public servants involved ;n the case) must continue to do is focus on ON- work a! hand and refuse to ;Mow Misunderstanding, particular- ly that arising from press reports, to :mpede the process or erode the spirit •a'cooperation ." It always intrigues me when public officials gratuitously single out the press, by implication, as the cause of misunderstanding. Nonce the context of White's state- m(nt In the middle of sa tug that he and Texas prison director Jim Estelle and Vincent Nathan, the special mas- er appointed to oversee federal court- irdered prison reforms, must focus on he task and refuse to allow misunder- aanding ‘vhite tow in the phrase parti:::::_irly thatmisunde.rstand- r, as. -i7:Z !r 7m press reports.- Lordy, General White, just what were the sources of the press reports from which your misunderstandings with Nathan and the U S. Lkpartment of Justice and Gov. William P. Cle- ments .Jr. have arisen the past year in connection with the Ruiz case? The press reports have been based on what White and Estelle and Nathan land his assistant monitors) and Cle- ments have said to the press. Their statements, not the press reports, have been the basis of controversy, conflict, misunderstanding or whatev- er word White chooses to use. In February I noted in a column: "Eyebrows are going up more and more as Clements and White ex- change barbs" on prison reform. The major bone of contention then was which of the two should have had the lead role in consulting the Justice De- partment on an agreement for the state to do certain things to improve the prison system. White announced the agreement, and Clements angrily told reporters. "I wasn't consulted, and I am investi- gating that." White promptly issued a statement pointing out that "the attor- ney general is the chief law officer and performs two principal func- tions,- one of which Is to represent the state in civil litigation. White said he was sorry that Cle- ments had not had 'better inside counsel in the governor's office ) when he vetoed the prison appropria- tions bill two years ago. The current overcrowded prison conditions would not be in the shape they are in today had he not vetoed those appropria- tions." The misunderstanding reflected in those exchanges between Clements and White has continued to evidence itself, in the prison case and in other matters. There also has been misunderstand- ing between White and Nathan and Nathan's assistants. A few weeks ago White called a press conference to .lash out at Nathan for what White considered deliberate leaks to the press from Nathan's monitors in the Ruiz case. White felt so outraged he said he would complain to the court that the monitors were leaking their criticisms to reporters before Estelle or White had an opportunity to see and respond. It is clear that the attorney general is quick to call in the press when he wants to fire a salvo. The same is true of Clements. That is their prerogative, hut at times they have carried it to excess. If White wishes to criticize trie sources of news reports which upset him, fine. But that is not the same as suggesting that the misunderstand- ings are particularly the result of the press reports themselves. White is on better ground when he says, as he did Thursday, that "the process of the Ruiz litigation is ongo- ing. As in all litigation, results are neither immediate nor as prompt as some would desire. It has been a long 'and arduous task. The fabric has held /9 ‘. A, tic-