TCJE Blog

Survivors Speak Comes to Texas

Three years ago, I traveled from Austin to Sacramento, California, to attend Survivors Speak—an annual event hosted by the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ), which brings together the largest gathering of crime survivors in the United States. The event allows crime survivors to share stories, honor loved ones, and advocate for change. 

During that first trip to the California State Capitol, I discovered a new victims’ movement—one where a diverse group of survivors was...

5 Lessons Learned from Launching TCJC’s Data Dashboard

Two years ago, when we began analyzing data about criminal court case outcomes in Harris County, we had a sense that the data would be useful for all types of criminal justice advocates. But most criminal justice advocates aren't statistical programmers. 

That's why we built the Data Dashboard. It's an interactive tool that helps advocates track cases and trends through Harris County’s criminal court system. Anyone can log on and explore the numbers by...

Sending Love to People Behind Bars This Holiday Season

I remember the holiday season during my sixth year in prison. I hadn’t seen my daughter since my arrest, and I longed to be able to see her face when she opened presents on Christmas morning. The extreme separation from my family created an agonizing emptiness that persisted despite my efforts to create a community of friends inside the prison walls. The pain was especially harsh that year because my father had died the month...

Our “Justice for Women” Campaign Represented at the Texas Conference for Women

If you’re familiar with our “Justice for Women” campaign, then you probably already know that Texas incarcerates more women than any other state in the country. You might also know the number of women in Texas’ criminal justice system has grown 908% since 1980.

The vast majority of women in Texas prisons are mothers. Nearly all of them have significant trauma histories—with 58% reporting having been sexually abused as a child, and 82% reporting having...

Second Look at the Texas Book Festival

“My survival has largely been fueled by hope of a second chance at life, and I am living proof that youthful offenders are not beyond hope or rehabilitation.” Chon Dimas, sentenced to 75 years at 17 years old

On October 27th and 28th, TCJC was at the Texas Book Festival, along with family members directly impacted by youth incarceration, talking with people from all over the state about the Second Look Book. This book is a...

We Can’t Stop Beating the Drum on “Raise the Age”

On July 16^th, I traveled to Durham, North Carolina, to attend the National Juvenile Justice Network’s annual conference. After checking into my hotel, I headed to the downtown Durham County Detention Center, where I joined dozens of other people from around the country who had gathered to hold a vigil in honor of Niecey Fennell, a 17-year-old girl who died while being held in the adult detention center.

I’ve often written and talked...

Friday Night Lights

In true Texas fashion, some coworkers and I spent Friday night beneath the bright lights of a high school football stadium. Giddings State School—one of five state-run secure detention facilities for kids in Texas—faced off against Hill Country Christian School of Austin in their first football game of the season.

Arriving at the stadium in Cedar Park, we were worried that there wouldn’t be more than a handful of folks there to root for the...

Cheaper by the Minute: Costs of Phone Calls in Texas Prisons Slashed

On Friday, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice unanimously voted in favor of a new phone contract that will cut the cost of calls for inmates and their families by 77 percent, from 26 cents per minute to 6 cents per minute. The new contract will also extend the length of calls from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. Effective September 1^st, a 30-minute phone call will cost around $1.80, instead of $7.80.                            

I...

GUEST BLOG: Belton, Texas, High School Student Advocates for Incarcerated Women to Have Equal Opportunities to Succeed

Texas 4-H Congress is a mock legislative event that allows young people to experience the process of drafting and passing bills firsthand. Every year, 4-H members from across the state come to Austin and submit over 300 bills for consideration by a mock House of Representatives and Senate, with hopes of the bill advancing to the desk of the 4-H Governor for signage into law.

I was proud to be a Senator in the 2018...

From Pride to Prisons: How Trauma and Stigma Drive LGBTQ Youth toward the Texas Justice System

I watched an LGBTQ Pride Parade for the first time in New York City in June 2008. I was 20 years old and in the middle of my undergraduate degree at a small college in the Midwest. A group of friends and I drove over 1,000 miles to spend two days in New York, basking in the one of the world’s largest celebrations of love, self-expression, and community. As a young gay college student, I...