This Saturday, system-impacted Texans will gather in Edinburg for a community-building event. Organized by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity’s Statewide Leadership Council (SLC), the event will expand outreach to local community members who’ve been arrested, incarcerated, on probation or parole, or family members of those who have. “Know Your Rights! - Navigating the Legal and Carceral System” is free and will be hosted at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg.

This Friday, local coalitions and organizations will gather for a community conversation focused on incarceration, public safety, and healing. “The State of Public Safety Through Healing and Equity” will be led by crime survivors and Texans who’ve been personally impacted by the criminal punishment system. The event is free for all community members, and will be hosted at St. Edwards University.

Letter to the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board from Sarah Reyes, TCJE Director of Youth Justice: The Texas Center for Justice and Equity is pleased that the editorial board has raised serious questions about the state allocating $200 million to build new child prisons.

Over the five-year time period, 12 people were convicted after never being visited by their attorney, according to the report. Additionally, 56 people — less than 10% of cases — were visited by an attorney more than once per month. “It speaks to the nature of our system,” said Jay Jenkins, the Harris County project attorney for the TCJE. “We arrest so many people that cannot afford their attorney and then provide inadequate representation for them.”

At the Fountain of Praise, a Black church in southwest Houston, senior pastor Remus Wright was preaching to his congregation about the importance of protecting their dreams. In the crowded sanctuary that Sunday morning sat several political candidates with dreams of their own: among them was Sean Teare, a former assistant district attorney who is now the front-runner in a race to unseat his former boss, Harris County district attorney Kim Ogg, in the Democratic primary. 

Twenty-three hours out of the day, youth in juvenile detention facilities in McLennan County, Texas are being locked in their cells for solitary confinement. Just a couple miles away at a youth prison in North Texas, children reported using water bottles as makeshift toilets because they were prevented from leaving their cells to use the bathroom.

On December 30, a group of formerly incarcerated and justice system-impacted Texans will convene in San Antonio. The event, “From Prison to Power: Finding Your Voice After Incarceration,” is organized by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity’s Statewide Leadership Council (SLC).

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District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo this summer filed a council consideration request to designate opioid-related overdoses a public health crisis and focus on efforts to help reduce fatalities among those already grappling with addiction issues. The harm reduction component of the plan includes boosting community access to Narcan, the nasal spray form of naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

When John Whitmire was handed the reins of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, county jails across Texas were buckling under a backlog of inmates, all awaiting transfer to state prisons that had no room for them. People locked up for violent crimes were routinely being let out early in their sentences to make room for low-level offenders, sparking public outrage.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leon Theodore. Hi Leon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers. 

Read the rest of this interview from Voyage Dallas.