Protest against closing of La Tuna prison
ANTHONY, Texas (KVIA) — Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced it will close several facilities, including the La Tuna Prison in Anthony, Texas.
The DOJ said La Tuna had a backlog of pending maintenance jobs worth more than $4 billion. The prison is set to close in March 2027.
Thursday at noon, a group of protesters were expected to gather outside of the facility to protest the closure. While not many showed up, their message was clear that the prison shouldn’t close.
Juan Fernandez, who worked at La Tuna for almost 25 years, said the building may be old, but it’s well maintained. He said closing it while citing maintenance issues doesn’t make sense.
“It’s like an old car. You get an old car, you’re going to put some money into it and make it work,” Fernandez said. “They just got to maintain it and invest the money and save this.”
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar also visited the prison Thursday. In a video statement sent to ABC-7, she said she didn’t see any evidence of why the prison needed to shut down.
“It’s going to require $80 million of investment. Just for context, Camp east, Montana, across town is a $1.2 billion facility. Budgets are about our values,” Rep. Escobar said. “My focus is keeping these jobs and making sure we have a safe facility here at La Tuna.”
ABC-7 reached out for the BOP about the closure date, but it didn’t respond.
Click here to follow the original article.