federal corruption investigation

Federal corruption investigation includes Harris County Jail contracts among

targets

The local ABC station in Houston reports that an FBI corruption

investigation "that could become public in a matter of weeks" has

resulted in subpoenas in Harris County "looking for records of

dealings with two companies and contractors with close ties to a slew

of local politicians involved in the creation of city fire stations,

county jails and even our football stadium."

There's no additional information in the story about possible

connections to county jails beyond this one, tantalizing mention. But

we've seen scandals take down Sheriffs in Dallas, Bexar and Potter

Counties regarding allegedly improper or bribe-influenced commissary

contracts, so it'll be interesting to see which contracts related to

county jails wind up being wrapped into the investigation.

It wasn't that long ago that the Cameron County Sheriff was convicted

of escorting drug smugglers through his county, and San Antonio city

council members went to prison for bribe taking. With Harris County

added to the list of ongoing federal corruption investigations in

Dallas and El Paso, not to mention the Laredo police chief indicted

for bribery and the Bexar Sheriff having resigned last year over

alleged bribe taking, it seems like we're witnessing a rash of

increasingly serioius corruption in Texas - often regarding

government's criminal justice functions - that's becoming increasingly

hard to ignore.

I generally hesitate to attribute policy positions I disagree with to

"corruption," but taking that stance over the last couple of years has