Clements pitches inmate tent idea By SARALEE TIEDE Austin Bureau AUSTIN — After months of three- way bickering, Gov. William P. Cle- ments Jr., Attorney General Mark White and Prisons Director W. James Estelle have finally agreed on a plan that should get the mattresses off cell floors in overcrowded Texas prisons by placing inmates in tents. • Army-issue, six- to eight-man tents provided by the Texas National Guard would be pitched on prison grounds to house 1,500 low-risk pris- oners until the weather turns cool, Clements said Thursday. • The tents, combined with a 1,500- inmate work furlough program, should eliminate triple-ceiling by July 1, demonstrating to U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice that the state is trying to comply with his or- der to alleviate overcrowding. , The state is seeking a stay against Justice's order that prisoners be housed one to a cell by August 1983, and that 2,500 prisoners be placed in work release programs by November 1982, but it plans to meet his mandate to climate three inmates in a cell by Aug. 1. Justice said he would put a lid on prison admissions Nov. 1 if extreme crowding is not alleviated. "It's going to be real difficult to get a stay order with prisoners sleeping on the floor," White said. 'It's not all that bad. They'll be big tents with cots and board floors, very comfortable.' —Gov. William P. Clements Jr. Clements isn't willing to claim cred- it for the unorthodox idea, but he does defend it as a sound plan that should be acceptable to both the court and the inmates. There is already a list of volunteers who want to move outside, he said. "It's not all that bad. They'll be big tents with cots and board floors, very comfortable," he said. Later in the day, Clements ordered the National Guard to pitch a sample tent on the Capitol lawn so it could be inspected by the press. Col. Walter Dingier said there are 243 eight-man tents at guard head- The work furlough plan Clements announced at his weekly press conference is a compromise be- tween the $18 million proposal he made to purchase the Harris County Rehabilitation Center for a work release program, and Estelle's plan to furlough 2,500 men. This plan would accelerate the paroles of 1,500 prisoners, who would live in halfway houses that already exist in metropolitan areas. Clements said Estelle's bill, already passed by the Senate, will be ALLG amended to authorize the compromise program. Both Clements and White objected to Estelle's plan, claiming it could allow criminals out on the street before they are ready for release. Sen. Kent Caperton, D-Bryan, sponsor of the bill, said Thursday's proposal is "the first I've seen from the governor that recognizes the emergency of the situation we face." "I'm glad the governor has now joined us in attempting to reach a speedy and responsible solu- tion to this very dire problem," he said. quarters and more could be borrowed from the active Army. The encampments will be within prison security perimenters and should not present any risk of es- capes, Clements added. By fall, the .$35 million dormitory construction projects at three prisons should be nearly enough completed to house the inmates who spend the summer in tents, he said. White, one of those to first push the tent encampment idea, contends that it is a worthwhile temporary solution. "The National Guard does it," he said. "I used to do it in the Boy Scouts." See TENTS on Page 15 14W-f1 1.3) Vg / 9t( Gov. William P. Clements Jr.