Criminal Justice
The System Works for Attorney General Ken Paxton. Again.
The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts
Among the Democrats who won all 59 judicial seats at play in the midterms: a socialist and 19 black women running on criminal justice reform.
The Democratic sweep in Harris County Tuesday night could remake one of the largest criminal justice systems in the country. When the blue wave crashed into Hou...Read More
Harris County Judges May Face a Reckoning Over Bail On Election Day
Republican misdemeanor judges in Houston have clung to an unconstitutional bail system. But their intransigence could cost them their seats.
Editor’s note: This story was produced in collaboration with The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice news outlet. Typically, down-ballot judicial races i...Read More
Dallas County’s Cop-Convicting DA Is Among the Most Vulnerable Down-Ballot Republicans This Election
Even with her record for prosecuting cops, Faith Johnson hasn’t won over criminal justice reformers, who’ve made Dallas ground zero in the movement to elect progressive prosecutors.
On the first day of early voting, Liz Wolff was walking up to her Oak Cliff polling place when a man campaigning for Dallas County DA Faith Johnson approached h...Read More
Author Shane Bauer on How the Racist Roots of Private Prisons Still Permeate the System
“I was struggling with this feeling that I was becoming this different person in prison — a person I didn’t like.”
Falsified reports, inadequate medical care, severe understaffing and a plethora of illicit drugs and weapons: These are the grim realities of America’s modern...Read More
In Arlington, How Not to Respond to a Police Shooting
The Arlington Police Department's bumbling response to the death of O'Shae Terry has only inflamed community tensions. Meanwhile, the DA has gone radio silent ahead of the election.
The meeting started cordially enough, but quickly turned sour. Angry community members lobbed question after question at a representative of the Arlington Polic...Read More
Texas Prisons Lead the Nation in Long-Term Solitary Confinement
Nearly a third of Texas prisoners in restrictive housing have been there for six years or longer, according to a new national survey.
The growing bipartisan consensus around solitary confinement — that it’s inhumane and overused across the criminal justice system — has led to its sharp d...Read More
Stand By Your Man
How the Collin County GOP derailed Ken Paxton’s prosecution and turned him into a right-wing hero.
by Michael Barajas October 1, 2018 Three years ago, just months after being sworn in as Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton’s days seemed numbered. In July 201...Read More
Cruz’s Reaction to ‘New Jim Crow’ Comments Ignores the Racist Roots of Mass Incarceration
O’Rourke talks racial disparities in the justice system; Cruz goes nuclear and embraces the politics of policing, revealing an aversion to confronting our dark past.
Several minutes into his first televised showdown with Beto O’Rourke on Friday, Senator Ted Cruz dove into a controversy that had dominated right-wing media, ...Read More
Civil Rights Groups are Changing Bail Practices in Texas, One City at a Time
On Thursday, a federal judge ruled against Dallas County’s strict reliance on cash bail, saying it discriminates against poor people and violates their equal protection rights.
If police arrest and charge you with a misdemeanor in Dallas County, and you can’t afford bail, you’ll likely be stuck in jail somewhere between four to 10 ...Read More