More than 280 inmates in county jails died from illnesses while in custody over a four-and-a-half-year period, according to data provided by the Texas attorney general and analyzed by The Texas Tribune. Many died of heart conditions, some of cancer or liver and kidney problems and others of afflictions ranging from AIDS to seizure disorders and pneumonia. There are no state standards for health care in county jails, but criminal justice advocates and correctional facility experts say the large number of illness-related deaths prove they’re needed.
Texas Department Of Criminal Justice
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Anti-Death Penalty Groups March Tomorrow
The 11th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty will begin Saturday at 2 p.m. on the south steps of the Capitol in Austin.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
The Sex Offender is Offended
Marvin Brown is a convicted sex offender who was released from jail in 1999. Today, he’s ill and elderly, suffering from diabetes, stage-four renal disease and congestive heart failure. He’s had three mini-strokes in the last two months alone. On good days, he walks with a cane. Other times, he gets around with a walker or an electric wheelchair. But according to Gov. Rick Perry, he poses such a threat to society that he has to wear an ankle bracelet so he can be continuously monitored. Brown says that’s a violation of his civil rights, and on Tuesday he filed suit in federal court. “They can’t give you freedom and then take it away,” he says.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Sharon Keller: The TT Interview
The soft-spoken and — until now — media-shy presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals sat down with The Texas Tribune last week to talk about capital punishment in Texas, what she was doing on the afternoon she closed her office at 5 p.m. to a last-minute death row appeal, the flaws in the way the state sanctions judges, what it’s like to be known as Sharon “Killer” Keller and the “ridiculous” idea that she doesn’t care about defendants or indigent defense.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
An Interview with Sharon Keller
The soft-spoken and — until now — media-shy presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals sat down with The Texas Tribune last week to talk about capital punishment in Texas, what she was doing on the afternoon she closed her office at 5 p.m. to a last-minute death row appeal, the flaws in the way the state sanctions judges, what it’s like to be known as Sharon “Killer” Keller and the “ridiculous” idea that she doesn’t care about defendants or indigent defense.
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Demographics
Adrian Garcia: The TT Interview
The first Hispanic sheriff in Harris County history in 2008 on growing up as a child of legal immigrants, how his mom helped change his liberal views about illegal immigration and whether Houston is a sanctuary city.
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Criminal Justice
Inquiring Minds
Judge Charlie Baird will decide today whether to recuse himself from an investigation into the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters. But with or without Baird, a bigger question is in play: Is a court of inquiry the appropriate venue to consider Willingham’s guilt or innocence?
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: More Waiting for Willingham
Navarro County prosecutor R. Lowell Thompson’s request that Judge Charlie Baird recuse himself from the Cameron Todd Willingham court of inquiry hearing wasn’t decided today.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
DNA Crime Lab Gets Clean Bill Of Health
A former Austin Police Department employee’s allegations of misconduct at the city’s DNA Crime Lab prompted an outside audit of the lab. As Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, the results of that audit have been released.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Ana Yañez-Correa: The TT Interview
The executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition on how criminal justice austerity measures demanded by state leaders would affect Texas prisons, poor people accused of crimes and the counties responsible for overseeing overcrowded jails.
