TCJE in the News


Press Contact: For all media inquiries, please contact Madison Kaigh, Communications Manager, at mkaigh@TexasCJE.orgor (512) 441-8123, ext. 108.


 

Report Shows How Texas LGBTQ Youth Are More Likely To End Up Incarcerated

On average, one-third of families reject children who come out as LGBTQ, which puts them at greater risk for homelessness and incarceration.

Read the rest of this article at the Texas Standard

Walk-In Walk-Out

County commissioners change course on substance abuse treatment funding.

Read the rest of this article at the Austin Chronicle

The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts

The Democratic sweep in Harris County Tuesday night could remake one of the largest criminal justice systems in the country.

Read the rest of this article at the Texas Observer.

Promise not to kill anyone? After losing election, TX judge wholesale releases juvenile defendants

After losing his bench in a Democratic sweep, Harris County Juvenile Court Judge Glenn Devlin released nearly all of the youthful defendants that appeared in front him on Wednesday morning, simply asking the kids whether they planned to kill anyone before letting them go.

Read the rest of this article at the Houston Chronicle

Talking Points: Best quotes and tweets of the week

"What we ultimately got was a juvenile system where the lawyers get rich ... and everybody wins but the kids." — Jay Jenkins, an attorney from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, who said Harris County judges and lawyers are part of a "pay-to-play" system.

Read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News

LGBTQ Community Over-Represented in Justice System: Report

One-size-fits-all justice systems fail lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, who experience worse outcomes and are over-represented in every part of the justice system, according to a new study released by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.

Read the rest of this post at The Crime Report

Costly Calls: Shelby County makes $1 million from jail phones amid national reforms

Every day in Memphis, more than 5,000 people, on average, spend their hours locked up inside one of four Shelby County facilities, according to figures provided by county officials. More than half are pretrial detainees, held behind bars before being convicted of any crime.

Read the rest of this article at Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Harris County juvenile judges and private attorneys accused of cronyism: “Everybody wins but the kids”

An analysis of state and county data by The Texas Tribune shows that the county’s three juvenile district courts — led by Republican Judges Glenn Devlin, John Phillips, and Michael Schneider — have been assigning an extraordinary number of cases to a handful of private lawyers.

Read the rest of this article at The Texas Tribune.

Sugar Land May Relocate Skeletal Remains of African American Inmates Against Advice of Task Force

After discovering the convict cemetery in March, the city appointed a panel of stakeholders. Now it’s ignoring their recommendation.

Read the rest of this article at Texas Monthly

New Report Finds LGBTQ People are Often Unseen but Frequently Incarcerated

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition released the third report in its “One Size FAILS All” report series. The report, Out of Sight: LGBTQ Youth and Adults in Texas Justice Systems, explores how the Lone Star State often fails to adequately address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Texans, and instead frequently moves them into the youth and adult justice systems at higher rates than people in the non-LGBTQ community.

Read the rest of this press release here.