Tag Archives: Criminal Justice
In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives
COVID-19 lays bare the fundamental inequalities that a cash bond system creates, and highlights the unsafe conditions our jails and prisons have designed.
I arrived at the Harris County Public Defender’s Office before 7 a.m. on Friday, March 13. The calls for action to stop the spread of COVID-19 had been buildi...Read More
Texas Governor Greg Abbott Opens His Mind to Marijuana Decriminalization… Kinda
Activists say Abbott’s moderated stance is “huge,” but his call for reform still lags behind Texas Republicans and the general public.
For the past three years, Governor Greg Abbott has been viewed as a primary hurdle to rewriting Texas’ draconian marijuana laws. So on Friday, when he reveale...Read More
In Rare Legal Move, the City of Amarillo Takes Landowner to Court Over Homeless Camp
Experts say the city’s lawsuit, filed this month against a man who allowed a homeless camp to be developed on his property, is virtually unprecedented.
In a nearly unprecedented move, the city of Amarillo has made good on its threat to take a landowner to court over a homeless encampment on his property. City o...Read More
San Antonio, Dallas Primaries Could Usher in Prosecutors Who Promise a More Equal Criminal Justice System
Reformers have targeted Texas primary races where candidates promise bail reform and jail diversion.
South Texas can create a curious kind of conservative-leaning Democrat, but bizarre behavior by Nicholas “Nico” LaHood during his first term as Bexar County...Read More
Lawsuit Questions How Port Arthur Police, Hospital Staff Respond to Mentally Ill Patients
Family claims police and hospital guards cornered a schizophrenic man then smothered him to death when he refused to remove his underwear.
The Delacruz family realized Manuel was dangerously sick somewhere on the highway as they passed San Antonio. It was the summer of 2016 and they were coming bac...Read More
Problems Hide in Plain Sight at Texas’ Youth Lockups
Critics say Texas’ five remaining juvenile prisons not only fail to rehabilitate young people but “actually make them worse.”
It was spring break 2017 at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility, and the young inmates were more restless than normal. Some of the teens ro...Read More
The Road to Huntsville
My days on "the chain" — the prison bus to Huntsville — are long over, but they're still with me.
My days on "the chain" — the prison bus to Huntsville — are long over, but they're still with me....Read More
Traffic Ticketing Program That Feeds Debtors’ Prison Pipeline May Be in its Final Year
To repeal the Driver Responsibility Program, lawmakers are proposing to increase all Texas traffic fines by $20.
Since 2003, an obscure Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) program has trapped more than a million Texans in a cycle of debt, opponents say. For nearly as l...Read More
Sandra Bland Act Passes Senate Unanimously After Key Provisions Dropped
“I would’ve preferred a more robust bill, but I’m happy — I’m elated — that there is a bill,” said author Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.
The version of the Sandra Bland Act that unanimously passed the Texas Senate Thursday afternoon isn’t the uncompromising criminal justice overhaul it was once...Read More
