le "-As mos Weern By VIRGINIA FIVS and PATTI KII.DAY Ausln Bureau" AUSTIN — Gov. William P. C.4 - merits • Jr. angrily demount*: thee: Texas Board of Coffee-dons day for closing the state's views te neW illinatat and denandlad that they be .reopened no la* than Monday. • "Let there'be no mistinderetand- frig- --- the 'doers of the TestesePe- pa.rtment of Cormetioni aiim open on May 17, 1982," Oasnents said in 3 hotly worded letter to board chairman T. L. &lath of Dallas. In ,the meantime. Clements said he would direct the board aitd pris- on director W. J. Estelle to produce a "comprehensive" plan to alleviate the overcrowding tlutt had precipi- tated the latNt mita* in the come- . tions system. If Estelle is uaable to Ur plement a plan, Clemems said "we'll get scene- one who can, . make no about its' • MAY 1 4 called for widespread reforms In the prisons sytem and a limit On the population density in each prisons. The prison board's report showed.. that a surge in the growth of prison populations had forced officials to crowd too many inmates into mane dormatory areas. The court order '- had required the state to provide at:. least 40 squere feet of dormatory: space for each prisoner. But Clements said there were : other alternatives the board could have considered beim it took the drastic step of closing the prisons tr new inmates.' In a series of rhetorical questicas, Clements asked why the board had not conaidered directing its lawyers to seek a postponement of portions of the -dgeil - eider, "considered'' ereting more tene for temporary housing, or asked the governor or the National Guard for help. • "Had Itgan apprised of the situa- tion, you can be assured steps would have been taken to prevent a shut down of TDC (Teem Department of Coreections) admissi•ens," he said. • But Austin, an appointee of for- taer Democratic Gov. Dolph Briscoe Who was forced to bear the brunt of the Republican governor's anger, said none' of Clements' alternatives would have been feasible. While ad- mitting that the board had taken an unpopular step, Austin said there . was nothing else it could have done. "We're reponsible," he said. "They can kick us in the fete arid criticize us, but we're responsible. I" know ft's shocking and revolting and other things, but it was the only thing we could do." If the board hadn't taken emer- gency action. Austin said, each member could have faced individtfal contempt charges from U. S. District. '•40ur criminal justios system must wotit'and Irstaille eternal' part of tae" ilements said. "He is dettain- ly not going to be the. tip of toil: that wags the dog." The order ante only hours before U. District Judge William Wayne Juedoe of 'Tyler- mimed a Dallas County motion to intervene in the Texas prison lewsuit and force the ciWitiiorts department to treet4 prisoners eetenreire county. Count/ .itifyivitti, iarl Wake* * court ie:eal • clisasterotis' ie the rapitry: Della* Cath iffn q01061, • use Clemente: SeCaticeiii5 the icoe'reT0404.411060, (oeki 'är in a no-wirte*ituation,". Luna, sei0. 'If they cttNy with the cbilli• ere; des of Judge Justee, then they'll be': rafiliflaction oontiar- y to the ordeil of the governor who appointed theta. If they amply with the gov- ernoios order, they'll be running some risk of penalties from Judge Justice." Clements' remarks on Estelle marked the first time the governor bla publicly criticized the prison di- rector, but Clements later softened his remarks by saying he did not mean to imply that Estelle's job wes in jeopardy. The governor, who waited three days after the board's action to pub- lically denounce its move, said the board was not only wrong in closing prisons to new inmates, but in fail- ing to notify him that a crisis was imminent. "Locking the doors of the Texas prison system to incotteng inmates is not an acceptable alternative or so- lution to the problem and it never veill be," he sad. "I firmly believe that this action was ill-advised and poses disastrous and dransatic rant, Tice-done for Teas' justice community."- The board decided Monday to close the staills's ,prisons to new in- mates when it was ptesented with * report that showed iewas in , eitee of a feders1 sotatik order. 114: Judge William Wayne Justice of Tyler. "People who have the answers are not the ones who can be held in contempt of court," he said. Other board members echoed his response. Board member Harry Whittington said he also believes the board legally had no choice but to shut the prison system's doors. When told of Clements' order, Es- telle said he would abide by it. "I always do what my boss tells me to do," he said. But he warned that the prison system may have to continue crowding inmates into small dormi- tory areas. Clements said he would try te fa- cilitate reepening the prisons by or- dering the Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite the release of in- mates who were eligible for parole. He estimated that a minimum of 450 prisoners would be released over the weekend. If the state can keep the prisons open now, Clements said, enough new facilities will be constructed by September to solve the overcrowd- ing problem and provide the prison system with a temporary surplus of 1,187 beds. However, because the system is currently admitting 500 new inmates a month more than it Is discharging, he said the state can expect a need for 6,000 new prison beds each year in the future. Meanwhile, Clements immediate- ly drew support for his actions from his own "County Officials Advisory Committee" which happened to be meeting in Austin Thursday. The committee criticized the "ir- responsible" prison board action it said had left local jails "literally bursting at the seams." "The board of corrections has sin- glehandedly created a crisis throughout the Texas criminal jus- tice system by locking it prison's doors without a moment's notice to local or state officials," the commit- tee said. Mexican-American vote heaviest in May races AUSTIN ISVATESMAN By SRUCI MIGHT MAY 1412 American-Statesman Staff Mexican-American voters turned out at the polls in the May 1 Demo- cratic primary races at a higher rate than the state's voters as a whole, ac- cording to a study released Thursday by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project in San Antonio. "White only 18 percent of the re- gistered voters in tte 4ate partici- voted in the Democratic Primary election, 26.5 percent of the rep- tered Mexican Americans went to the polls," the study showed. The study also said that this year's Democratic primary "marks the sec- ond consecutive primary election where Mexican-American voters participated at a higher rate than the general voter population." Even so, Mexican-American WI% nout, like the overt!! turnout, ' opped in 1982 compared With 1980. 211 the 1980 Dernocrritie, pd. " • mary, Mexican-American turnout was 38 percent, compared with a 35 percent r tewide turnout, the study said. Temple finished second to Attor- ney General Mark White in the gu- bernatorial race and subsequently dropped out of the June 5 runoff against White. The study said Tem- ple won 44.6 percent of the Mexican American vote, while White got 35.7 percent and Bob Armstrong, consi- dered the most liberal of the three candidates, got 11.8 percent. The overall statewide turnout of registered voters was about 21 per- cent, 18 percent in the Democratic Primary and 3 percent in the Repub- lican Primary, figures from Secre- tar: of State David Dean's office show. Of the 1.1 million votes cast in the Democratic primary, 211,000 of them were from Mexican-American - voters, the Study estimated.