Judge William Wayne Justice has died at age 89. The connection with the Tyler jurist lies in a controversial 1980 federal court ruling in which he declared the Texas Department of Corrections to be violating the U.S. Constitution by packing prisoners into cells. The ruling sparked a prison-building boom throughout Texas. The William P. Clements and Nathaniel Neal units in Amarillo were products of that boom.

The prison units produced several hundred jobs for Panhandle residents and helped improve the state’s prison system, which had been sued by inmate David Ruiz in 1972, citing unsanitary conditions and hazards to inmates’ health. Justice presided over the federal trial that resulted in the ruling that changed the Texas prison system forever.

One might argue with Justice’s liberal leanings. Perhaps he was something of a so-called “judicial activist.” But on this one landmark ruling, the Amarillo economy benefited right along with the Texas corrections system.