Frances Jalet-Cruz

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name = Frances Jalet-Cruz


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birth_name = Frances Tuckerman Freeman
birth_date = 1910
birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, United States
death_date = December, 1994 (age 84)
death_place = Trumbull, Connecticut, United States
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known_for = Inmate Civil Rights
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alma_mater = Radcliffe College
Georgetown University
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occupation = Lawyer
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spouse = Marius Jalet (1935-1937) & Fred Arispe Cruz (1972-1978)
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children = Five
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Frances Jalet-Cruz represented Texas inmates in suits against the Texas prison system and became one of the central figures in the Texas prison reform movement during the late 1960s and 1970's, leading to broad changes in the Texas prison system in the 1980s.

Life

Frances Tuckerman Freeman, born in Boston Massachusetts in 1910, earned a degree in international law and government from Radcliffe College in 1931. She than married Marius Jalet in 1935 at the age of 25 with whom she had five children. In 1937, Jalet received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and later, in 1958, earned a masters degree in law from Georgetown University. Jalet worked for American Association of University Women and as a legal aid lawyer in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and in New York and Illinois. She applied for and received a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law where she studied poverty law with fifty other lawyers in a special program sponsored by the Office of Economic Opportunity. Upon completion of the six-week course in 1967, Jalet than asked where were the toughest assignments, and was told that they were in Texas. So she moved to Austin, Texas and began her work for the Legal Aid and Defender Society of Travis County. Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) inmate, writ writer, Fred Arispe Cruz contacted Jalet to enlist her assistance in filing legal papers on his behalf. Shortly thereafter, Jalet began litigating for prisoners' rights, not only on Cruz's behalf but for other TDC inmates as well. Her work led to Texas Penal Officials to organize other inmates to sue her, saying that she was fomenting rebellion in the inmates. These inmates later recanted their stories, dropping their suit. The attention she brought eventually led to a broader movement focusing on prison reform, and in the 1980s the Federal courts ordered sweeping changes in prisons statewide. Jalet worked as a legal aid lawyer in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and in New York and Illinois. She than caused a scandal when she married Fred Cruz in 1972, after his release from prison, at the age of 61, she married Mr. Cruz, 32. They divorced six years later because of his return to heroin usage. Frances Jalet-Cruz died in Trumbull, Connecticut in December 1994 at the age of 84.

Her work with Fred Arispe Cruz was chronicled in the 2008 documentary, Writ Writer, and in the book "Texas Prisons: The Walls Came Tumbling Down," by Steve J. Martin and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. The book's dedication cited "her unwavering belief in the rule of law."

External links

* [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00348/cah-00348.html A Guide to the Frances Jalet-Cruz Papers, 1966-1986 on Texas Online Archives]
* [http://www.writwritermovie.com/ Writ Writer]
* [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/writwriter/ Documentary shown on PBS Independent Lens]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E3D91E30F931A35751C1A962958260&sec=&spon= New York Times Obituaries on Frances Jalet-Cruz]