A New Orleans-based appeals court says the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s restrictions on beard lengths and religious head garments for inmates violate federal law.
Texas Department Of Criminal Justice
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Texas Prison Inmate Database Updated
The Texas prison inmates database has been updated with the latest data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Use the app to learn more about the most common crimes and look up any of the more than 144,000 inmates housed in Texas prisons.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Petition Seeks Ban on Sex Offender Pen Pals
Lori Williams was searching online last year when she found a plea apparently written by a Texas prison inmate looking for pen pals to write him in prison. The accompanying photo was of the man who assaulted her at knifepoint.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
FDA Blocks Texas Import of Execution Drug
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told the Texas Department of Criminal Justice it is tentatively barred from importing a drug used in executions.
Posted in
State Government
New Prison Rule Means Jailbirds Can’t Tweet
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided that prison inmates should not be allowed to have active social media accounts, even if friends or family on the outside run them.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Killer Executed in 12-Year-Old Boy’s Death
Pablo Lucio Vasquez, who admitted to slitting the throat of a 12-year-old boy and beating him to death before stealing a ring and necklace from the body 18 years ago, was executed Wednesday evening.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Execution Stayed for Dallas Accountant Who Gunned Down Daughters
A federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Dallas accountant who shot and killed his two daughters in 2001. John Battaglia’s lawyers argue he is not mentally competent enough to be put to death.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas Executes Man Courts Recognized as Mentally Ill
Adam Kelly Ward, whom appeals courts recognized as mentally ill, was executed Tuesday evening for the 2005 shooting death of a code enforcement officer.
Posted in
Bordering on Insecurity
Less Than 5 Percent of Texas Prison Inmates are Undocumented
About 4.6 percent of Texas prison inmates are undocumented immigrants with standing requests that they be turned over to federal authorities when their sentences are served.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
18 Texas Correctional Officers Disciplined in Inmate Death
Texas prison officials have recommended the firing of a supervisor at the Clements Unit and disciplinary actions against 17 others for allowing a severely beaten inmate to remain undiscovered in his cell for an unknown amount of time.
