In the early 1970's, order in Texas prisons was maintained by 'building tenders,' inmates who kept other inmates in line in exchange for privileges from the prison administration. Building tenders were physically powerful and intimidating, enforcing their wills on other inmates often through brutal beatings. Prison administrations promoted the system as a means of maintaining general prison order without having to increase the guard force. In 1972, inmate David Ruiz filed a suit challenging the conditions of his confinement in Eastham. When the case was finally decided in 1980, the judge ordered sweeping prison reforms to be implemented under a special master. The first order of business was to dismantle the building tender system and increase the number of prison guards. In the process, anarchy emerged in the Eastham Prison as inmate gangs moved into the power vacuum left from the collapse of the building tender system. Between January 1984 and September 1985, 52 inmates were killed. The prison administration attacked the anarchy by placing gang leaders in administrative segregation. While Eastham has seen a reduction in violence, it still suffers from overcrowding, inadequate staffing, and charges of inhumane treatment in administrative segregation.