[1] It began as a civil action, a handwritten petition filed against the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) in 1972 by inmate David Resendez Ruíz alleging that the conditions of his incarceration, such as overcrowding, lack of access to health care, and abusive security practices, were a violation of his constitutional rights.
[6][7] The son of migrant farmworkers and the youngest of 13 children, he got into trouble with the law from an early age; as a child he was arrested for fighting and shoplifting.
He initially was placed in Huntsville; two weeks later he was assigned to the Ramsey Farm in Brazoria County, Texas, where he worked in fields.
[9] Thirteen months after his release, in July 1968, Ruíz was again placed in the custody of the TDC; he said that he had "picked up the gun" because he had no education or trade skills to support himself and his family.
[10] There, David Ruiz joined a group of "writ writers" and activists known as "Eight Hoe" under the leadership of Fred Cruz and his attorney Frances Jalet.
After Ruíz left solitary confinement, he refused to work in the fields any longer and cut his Achilles tendon with a razor.
[12] There followed a long period of further litigation in the form of consent decrees, appeals and other legal actions, until a final judgment was rendered in 1992.
[13] In 2007, in the consolidated case of Jones v. Bock the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, set forth limitations on the extent of prison litigation.