Texas Locks Down Prisons to Search for Drugs After 16 Killings

Texas is locking down all its prisons and searching for contraband in response to a surge in violence that has included 16 inmate-on-inmate homicides this year.

Visitation will be canceled until further notice and movement within correctional facilities will be limited. Texas also plans to increase screenings for narcotics by deploying drug-sniffing dogs and creating “specialized search teams,” according to a state corrections department statement released Wednesday.