Most Recent in Texas Politics:

12021 Texas Lege in Review: Red Meat, Broken Promises, and More of the Same Old Shit

2The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

3Again, Texas Republicans Fail to Gut Local Labor Protections

4With a Special Session on Voting Restrictions Looming, Texas Dems Push for Federal Protections

5The Lege This Week: Bitterness and Brinkmanship

6Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

Most Recent in Environment:

1In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

2The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

3How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire to Save the Longleaf Pine

4La Niña Brings Wildfires

5Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet

6ERCOT Asked Texans to Conserve Power as Electric Grid Again Struggled to Keep Up with Demand

Most Recent in Border:

1Follow the Money

2Siguiendo La Ruta Del Dinero

3Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

4‘Not Celebrating Yet’: South Texans Wait for Biden to Cancel Trump’s Wall

5How Texas Courts Went Virtual

6In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Mentally Ill and Sentenced to Death

2An Irreversible Sentence

3Yet Again, Texas Lawmakers Face Crisis Conditions in Texas Prisons

4Armed With Lessons From a Dallas Serial Killer, Families Push for Reforms in Texas Law

5How Flawed Death Investigations Can Leave Texas COVID-19 Deaths Uncounted

6Editorial: Defund the Constables

Most Recent in Education:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

3‘I Felt Like They Were Demonizing My People’: Advocates and Families Point to Biases in Texas Curricula

4The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

5Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

6Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Texas Expands Access to Medical Cannabis—But Advocates Say It’s Not Enough

2In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

3Editorial: Even ‘Turning Texas Blue’ Won’t Fix Us If We Don’t Face Some Hard Truths

4Portraits of the Pandemic: Part Two

5Editorial: Texas Wasn’t Prepared for the Statewide Vaccine Rush

6COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Researcher Howard Henderson on Reimagining Policing in the U.S.

2Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

3How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

4Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

5Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

6American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

Most Recent in Books:

1‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies

2‘On Juneteenth’ Refuses Easy Answers About the Importance of People of Color to Texas History

3‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ Tours Dark Places That Are Hard to Call Home

4Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

5Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears

6‘Luz at Midnight’ Reimagines Blackouts, Polar Vortexes, and Environmental Justice in San Antonio

Most Recent in Features:

1How to Die in Texas

2Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

4San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

5The Ghosts of Jefferson

6Little Arthouse on the Prairie

Most Recent in Essay:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

3What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

4Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

5What’s a Bookstore for?

6Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Essential Women of Austin

2Eye on Texas: A House Divided

3Eye on Texas: The Black Yearbook

4Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

5Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

6Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

Most Recent in Poetry:

1‘My Cousin Dies, Like a Deer, On the Side of the Road’

2Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

3Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

4Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

5Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

6Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

Amalia Beckner

Amalia Beckner is a lawyer in the felony trial division of the Harris County Public Defender’s Office.

In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

by Amalia Beckner | Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 11:05 am CST

The essay's author speaks with book club participants during a meeting.

Criminal Justice

Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

Education programs make jails safer and reduce rates of recidivism when people reenter society.

Mon, Dec 2, 2019 |

I felt my blood pressure rising, heard my heartbeat in my ears, and tasted my mouth drying out as the heavy jail door slammed shut behind me. It was my first time in 4J2, a maximum-security women’s pod in the … Read More