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In Texas, women's incarceration rates have increased dramatically over the past few decades—over 1000 percent since 1980. Within that group, Black single women are the persons with categorically the highest likelihood of ending up incarcerated. Still, conversations about the harms incarceration causes have historically and largely been centered around men.
In the nine months after Edee Davis arrived at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s William P. Clements Unit near Amarillo, Texas for mental health treatment, she says she only attended three peer-group sessions facilitated by a counselor.
On June 24, the architecture and design firm HDR Inc. held what it thought would be a standard event as part of the 2022 American Institute of Architects (AIA) conference at its office in Chicago, Illinois. But the firm, which has designed more than 275 jails and prisons while billing itself as progressive and morally responsible, was met with a powerful presence of abolitionists at its doorstep during the conference.
For Breezeblock #30, editor christin hu chats with community organizers Maggie Luna, Avalon Betts-Gaston, and Sashi James about their recent action at HDR (Henningson, Durham, Richardson), one of the largest architecture firms in the world, who are responsible for designing hundreds of prisons. Together, they discuss the reasons why architects should refuse to take part in the building of prisons and what they can do instead.
Advocates gathered Sunday afternoon at an east Austin park to raise awareness about the high rate of incarceration in Texas and the United States. According to a 2021 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, Texas has the 10th-highest incarceration rate in the country.
“The Box,” written and directed by Sarah Shourd, captures the horror of solitary confinement through both narrative and sensory experiences. Shourd herself was held for 400 days as an American political prisoner in Iran, and she collaborated with other survivors of solitary confinement to create the play, which premiered in 2016. In “The Box” Shourd plays a prison guard, alongside a cast which includes several formerly incarcerated people.
More than five million Texans have a public record of arrest or conviction, having served their time and paid back their debt to society. Still, our punishment often continues well past completing a sentence or period of state supervision. Texans with an old record face more than 1,000 barriers to re-entering society – from being ineligible for 90 of the 100 fastest-growing jobs to being barred from our children’s PTA or our homeowners’ association – shutting one in six Texans out of economic stability and community life.
Read the rest of the op-ed by Maggie Luna from the Austin American-Statesman.
Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday will consider a $25 million agreement to send jail inmates to the Giles Dalby Correctional Facility, a prison located in Post, a small Texas city near Lubbock. In January, the county shipped hundreds of inmates to a facility in Louisiana. Now, the county could approve an agreement to send inmates to an additional facility 475 miles away from Houston.
Life after prison can prove to be quite a challenge for formerly incarcerated people, especially when it comes to getting a job. But we’re following one Texas man that’s defying the odds and sharing his inspiring story with others. Then, we sit down with Maggie Luna from the Texas Center for Justice and Equity. She explains their mission and how they’re providing hope for those incarcerated.
A national organization helping connect people with criminal records to employment and housing opportunities is launching in Texas. TimeDone Texas held a resource fair Saturday with 300 Austinites who signed up for help.
