Over the last two years, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition has worked to make the state’s criminal justice system more transparent by obtaining and visualizing criminal court data. Beginning with Harris County, this project has helped hold people in power accountable for their promises of reform.
On any given day, Dallas County incarcerates about 5,100 people in county jail. About 71% of these inmates are “pretrial,” which means they are awaiting trial for the charges against them. If they are in jail as a pretrial defendant, it generally means they cannot afford bail, or they are held without bail.
This is a MUST READ op-ed if you want to understand why bail reform is so important: Cash bail system promotes profit, not justice.
Texas was recently awarded $27.4 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to combat opioid use disorders. The funding is absolutely critical to expanding treatment capacity in Texas. For low-income people in need of detox or treatment in Texas, they are likely to wait nearly five weeks for opioid therapy services – a period of time when they are at grave risk of overdose. The new funding will create new capacity to serve those at risk, and will also help to alleviate the waiting list for treatment for those suffering from addiction to other drugs.
