Press Contact: For all media inquiries, please contact Madison Kaigh, Communications Manager, at mkaigh@TexasCJE.orgor (512) 441-8123, ext. 108.
Lawmakers in Texas say their efforts to reduce prison sizes and costs offer lessons for Oklahoma, where corrections officials are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars to build new ones.
Read the rest of this article at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The woman who killed herself last week in the Harris County jail while locked up on a theft charge with $1,500 bail had threatened suicide at least once in the days before her death, according to sources familiar with the case.
The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a research and advocacy organization on CJ reform, has just issued a report on the use of probation for youthful offenders in Texas.
What happens to people after they're released from the Texas criminal justice system? Probation is typically the next step, but what does that process look like and how does it work?
Read the rest of this article at Texas Public Radio's The Source.
A Harris County inmate jailed on a theft charge died after hanging herself in a common area of the jail late Tuesday, marking the facility's second suicide in less than a month.
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.
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.
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.
A coalition of health and advocacy groups have jointly developed recommendations to address substance use disorder in Texas.
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.
Read the rest of this article at the Austin American-Statesman.
