Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is backing an effort to keep defendants with violent pasts behind bars. On Tuesday, Abbott appeared in Waco to ask state lawmakers to pass a new law that, among other things, would require judges to set bail based partly on whether the accused person is a threat to law enforcement.
Drug abuse is involved 70 percent of the time when Texas Child Protective Services removes children from their families. Half of the inmates in county jails across the state have demonstrated a need for drug treatment.
The consensus was clear at the state Capitol among criminal justice and Child Protective Services professionals facing the nation’s opioid crisis: Texas needs more treatment options.
Criminal justice and child protective services professionals told legislators Tuesday that the state is severely lacking in treatment services to combat the opioid crisis and other substance use problems.
Read the rest of this article at the Austin American-Statesman.
The Texas Criminal Justice coalition calls for reforms to community supervision that are “developmentally appropriate” to young people who age out of the juvenile justice system but are still too immature to understand the consequences of their behavior.
Coding bootcamps for prisoners have been around since 2014, but they used to be exclusively for men. Girl Develop It is one of the women-led programs tackling that problem.
The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition released its newest report today, which examines how Texas’ probation system continuously fails young adults. The report, Young Adults and Community Supervision: The Need for a Developmentally Appropriate Approach to Probation, reveals that traditional probation practices are ineffective with 17- to 25-year-olds on adult felony probation.
By 2020, the only bachelor's degree programs available to incarcerated women in Texas will end. TCJC's Lindsey Linder shares the importance of adding more degree programs for women and examination of barriers to entry.
Lindsey Linder joins Bill Hammond of Texas Smart On Crime Coalition on an op-ed regardng the unjust pretrial practices of money bail bonds, their harm to the poor, and endangerment to public safety.
Public defender Amalia Beckner crowdfunds to purchase books for jailed clients. TCJC's Doug Smith shares his personal story to the power of books behind bars.
