After 21 days, the last of many Texas prisoners to consistently refuse food ended his hunger strike. In letters to The Texas Tribune, two prisoners spoke out on the dire solitary confinement conditions that led them to starve themselves.
Jolie McCullough
Jolie McCullough was a reporter at The Texas Tribune from 2015 to 2023. She began as a data visualization journalist and then reported on criminal justice policy, ranging from policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She joined the Tribune from the Albuquerque Journal, her hometown newspaper. She previously worked at the Arizona Republic and is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas death row prisoners spend decades in solitary confinement. A lawsuit wants to end that “cruel” treatment.
Men sentenced to death in Texas are held in isolation until their execution dates, with little human contact, medical care or legal help, according to a lawsuit filed to improve treatment of the condemned.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
After 10 days, dozens of Texas prisoners remain on hunger strike protesting solitary confinement practices
Although the number of men refusing food has steadily declined, 38 are still starving themselves to protest Texas policies that often keep prisoners in isolation for years or even decades.
Posted in
Juvenile Justice
Texas teens embark on an idealistic quest to shut down the state’s last five youth prisons
Spurred by reports of inhumane conditions at Texas Juvenile Justice Department facilities, Austin-area teenagers are lobbying the Legislature to reform the system.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
More than 70 Texas prisoners are 3 days into a hunger strike protesting harsh solitary confinement practices
Prisoners have refused food to protest practices that have kept more than 500 people in isolation for more than a decade.
Posted in
Robert Roberson
Questions about validity of shaken baby syndrome not enough to give Texas death row inmate new trial, court rules
Robert Roberson was sentenced to death for killing his 2-year-old daughter. Experts have since backtracked on the science used in part to win his conviction.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas executes Robert Fratta after high courts reject challenges to expired lethal injection drugs
Fratta was convicted in the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife. Lawyers unsuccessfully challenged Texas’ routine of extending the expiration dates of its lethal drugs, a practice begun when many pharmacies began refusing to provide doses for executions.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas prisoners launching hunger strike to protest state’s harsh solitary confinement practices
Hundreds of prisoners may participate in the protest beginning Tuesday, the first day of the state’s legislative session. Texas often keeps prisoners in solitary confinement for years or decades.
Posted in
Immigration
U.S. judge in Amarillo halts Biden administration’s attempt to end “remain in Mexico” policy
The Biden administration stopped enrolling new asylum-seekers into the Trump-era program in August.
Posted in
LGBTQ+ Texans
Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans
The behind-the-scenes effort by Ken Paxton’s office to obtain data on how many Texans had changed their gender on their licenses came as he and other Republican leaders in the state have been publicly marshaling resources against transgender Texans.
