Alternatives to Incarceration

According to the Travis County Plan for Substance Use Disorders, there are more than 85,000 youth and adults who abuse alcohol or illicit drugs every year in the county.

Read the rest of this article at Spectrum News Austin. 

The flaws in the state's justice system cycle thousands of people through jails with little effort to address the roots of their behavior, says the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. 

Read the rest of this post at The Crime Report.

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition released the second report in its “One Size FAILS All” report series. The report, A Failure in the Fourth Degree: Reforming the State Jail Felony System in Texas, demonstrates through data and personal interviews with 140 incarcerated individuals the defective nature of Texas’ state jail system, and it puts forth actionable policy recommendations for consideration by the 2019 Texas Legislature.

Still reeling from two recent inmate suicides, the Harris County jail on Monday launched a crisis hotline for prisoners, a novel approach to mental health that’s believed to be one of the first such efforts in the country.

Read the rest of this article at the Houston Chronicle. 

Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly in favor of overhauling the criminal justice system. That’s partly because incarceration is expensive.

Read the rest of this article - and listen to an interivew with TCJC's Doug Smith - at the Texas Standard. 

Travis County moves forward with new women's building despite vote to delay and community outcry.

Read the rest of this article at the Austin Chronicle. 

Activists are mapping a path to end arrests for possession and broaden the state's medical marijuana program ahead of the next legislative session.

Read the rest of this article at the Texas Observer.

Lawmakers in Texas say their efforts to reduce prison sizes and costs offer lessons for Oklahoma, where corrections officials are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars to build new ones.

Read the rest of this article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a research and advocacy organization on CJ reform, has just issued a report on the use of probation for youthful offenders in Texas.

Read the rest of this article at The Austin Chronicle. 

A coalition of health and advocacy groups have jointly developed recommendations to address substance use disorder in Texas.

Read the rest of this press release here.