617 Inmates Fall Ill at South Texas Prison
Salmonella is blamed as more than a third of convicts are stricken

July 9, 2003
By Mike Ward, American-Statesman Staff

More than a third of the convicts in a Houston-area prison were sickened, apparently by food poisoning, last week in one of the largest such outbreaks in recent history, prison officials confirmed Tuesday.

Preliminary findings by state Health Department investigators called to the Darrington Unit, four miles north of Rosharon, south of Houston, indicate that the cause was salmonella.

"Testing is still under way, but it appears it was caused by something served at lunch or dinner on July 2 -- maybe a pea salad that had mayonnaise in it," said Larry Fitzgerald, a Huntsville-based spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which operates Darrington and Texas' 111 other prisons. "The investigation is still under way. A final cause has not been determined."

Fitzgerald and Larry Todd, the prison system's chief spokesman in Austin, said 115 convicts began complaining of stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, chills and fever within hours after lunch was served.

By the next day, hundreds more were ill. By Monday, prison officials said, the total was 617.

All sickened convicts were treated at the prison infirmary and returned to their cells, Fitzgerald said.

Darrington, one of Texas' oldest prisons, opened in 1917 and houses about 1,800 convicts.

Doug McBride, Austin spokesman for the Health Department, said several epidemiological investigators were sent to Darrington after prison officials called for assistance.

"It's not a public health threat because it's a confined population, but we want to know what caused it," he said. "At this point, it looks like salmonella."

Fitzgerald said that because only convicts fell ill and no guards were affected, investigators think the problem stemmed from the kitchen that prepares convicts' meals. A separate kitchen prepares meals for guards.

"We don't think it was intentional," he said.

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