Jail shut after cops discover recliners in cells
Texas site also had rooms that lock from inside, rack made of nails

updated 1:38 a.m. CT, Sat., Jan. 3, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas - A jail has been closed and its nearly 60 inmates transferred as authorities investigate what they call dangerous conditions for jailers and those behind bars — including cells that locked from the inside or contained recliners.

Five inmates had already been moved from the Montague County jail to one in a nearby county this month after an FBI raid, said Jack McGaughey, district attorney for Montague, Clay and Archer counties.

McGaughey declined to say what prompted the investigation, also being conducted by the Texas Rangers. But he said authorities found contraband in the jail. New Sheriff Paul Cunningham moved the inmates to the Wise County jail on Thursday a few hours after he was sworn in.

McGaughey said some surveillance cameras' cords had been disconnected; recliners were in cells; some bathrooms and cells could be locked from the inside; and inmates had made partitions out of paper towels to block jailers' views inside their cells. One alarming discovery was a type of rack made of nails, he said.

'Safety'
"This action was taken because there was a concern for the safety of the prisoners and the jail personnel," McGaughey said Friday.

Some inmates had apparently used extension cords to lock deputies out, and unidentified pills were strewn about other jail cells, Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA reported.

No one has been arrested, but McGaughey plans to present evidence to a grand jury and said "a number of people" — inmates as well as jailers — could be indicted.

The U.S. attorney's office also is working with the FBI and may bring federal charges, McGaughey said. The FBI in Dallas did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.

Cunningham told WFAA-TV that the conditions made him "shiver" but said he hopes the jail will reopen in two months, with repairs made and inmates back under a new set of rules.