TX prisons consider switch to local hospitals for convict care

State prison officials are poised for the first time in 18 years to contract directly with someone other than a state university to provide medical care for Texas convicts. Officials confirmed to the American-Statesman on Friday that an agreement has been reached for Huntsville Memorial Hospital to provide nine emergency-care beds on the second floor of its hospital, and that negotiations are under way for the hospital to operate an emergency room and specialty care clinic inside the Estelle Unit east of town.