A majority of facilities at the Travis County Correction Complex need major infrastructure upgrades. Nineteen of 27 buildings fail functional, mechanical, and architectural ratings, according to the Planning and Budget Office. A two-year analysis resulted in the 2016 master plan with recommendations on renovation and expansion.
When Travis County commissioners approved the 2018 budget in September that included about $6.6 million to design a new women’s facility in the Del Valle jail, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt insisted, over the cries of criminal justice reform advocates, that it would not mean more beds overall but that more would be allocated to women.
Read the rest of this article at the Austin American-Statesman.
If everything goes as planned, Texas could shutter some of its state-run juvenile prisons over the next five years, according to the newly installed director of the troubled Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Tyler Junior College hosted a public hearing of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety February 1, in the board room on the TJC main campus.
Across Texas, kids are getting into less trouble with the law even though the state population is exploding. So why is Harris County's juvenile detention center bursting at the seams?
The network backed by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch is investing millions to research how to help former prisoners successfully re-enter society in Texas and three other states.
Over the fall semester, we ran an experiment at the Georgetown University Law Center. Through a course we co-created and taught, we used technology to help students critically think through criminal justice policy and law.
Violent crimes — including murder — jumped up again last year in Texas and across the nation, according to new FBI data. It's the second year violent crime has increased from record low levels in 2014.
The FBI released its 2016 Crime in the United States report today and, although there are pockets of increased crime, the data indicates that Texas crime rates have dropped statewide.
Today, six statewide organizations, along with individuals and organizations directly engaged in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, filed a formal petition asking the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to issue a one-time Driver Responsibility Program (DRP) fee amnesty in Texas’ disaster area counties.
