When Sandra Bland was booked at the Waller County Jail, she told the staff she had attempted suicide before — a staff, it turns out, who had not been sufficiently trained on how to safeguard the well-being of inmates who are mentally ill, suicidal or pose a risk to themselves.
Sandra Bland's suicide in the Waller County jail on July 13 was the 140th time that detainees in Texas county jails have taken their own lives since authorities began compiling jail suicide statistics six years ago.
On the morning of March 26, 2005, Jason Wang and two other teenagers, all disguised as utility workers, left a Mesquite, Texas, home with a safe containing nearly $70,000 in stolen cash and valuables.
Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa, who has served as the Executive Director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) since 2005, has accepted the position of Program Officer at the Washington, DC-based Public Welfare Foundation. She will be leading the Foundation’s Criminal Justice program, effective November 2, 2015.
In October 2014, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson partnered with local law enforcement to establish the First Chance Intervention Program, a rehabilitative diversion program for individuals with first-time, Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses. Today, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy released a report examining the First Chance Intervention Program and the potential societal, systemic, and financial benefits that would come with expanding the program to other offenses.
Effective today, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) announces Leah Pinney as Executive Director. The organization’s previous Executive Director, Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa, will be leading the Criminal Justice program at the Washington, DC-based Public Welfare Foundation.
Effective November 16, 2015, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) announces Shakira Pumphrey as its new Policy Director. In this role, Ms. Pumphrey has strategic and operational responsibility for generating and coordinating TCJC’s research and policy work.
Read the rest of this press release here.
This election season our newspaper added two questions on drug policy to questionnaires we sent candidates for state offices. Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, surprised me with his answer on whether he’d support putting a medical marijuana amendment on the ballot for voters to decide.
MEDIA ADVISORY
September 15, 2014
Contact: Robert Wood
Phone: (512) 637-7709
Broad-Based Coalition Launching Smart-On-Crime Initiative
AUSTIN, TX — The Texas Smart-On-Crime Coalition will announce a wide-ranging and comprehensive criminal justice reform agenda for the 2015 Legislative Session at a Capitol news conference on Wednesday, September 17, 2014, at 10:00 a.m.
