Almost 157,000 inmates in the Texas prison system were counted by the U.S. Census Bureau as living where they’re incarcerated and not as residents of their home counties — a policy that some opponents argue has dire political and economic consequences.
Texas Department Of Criminal Justice
Posted in
Criminal Justice
A Conversation With Greg Abbott
For the 11th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the attorney general of Texas on the politics and constitutionality of gay marriage, why he’s suing the feds over health care and why he filed a brief in support of the Arizona immigration law.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Greg Abbott TribLive Interview and Audience Q&A
The full interview and audience Q&A with the Texas Attorney General.
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Criminal Justice
Pat Lykos: The TT Interview
The first female district attorney of Harris County on the massive scope of her job, softening her office’s tough-on-crime reputation, the link between mental health care and criminal justice, why she set up a Post-Conviction Review Section and what she’s learned from innocence cases so far.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Justice for Aaron?
He can’t read or write, struggles to speak, and at age 19 has an IQ of 47. Yet a judge in the northeast Texas town of Paris still sentenced Aaron Hart to 100 years in prison for performing sexual acts on a 6-year-old neighbor. An appeals court overturned Aaron’s conviction this spring. Now he sits in jail facing the same charges a second time, and his family is praying for a different outcome.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Defending the Innocent
The Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense today approved money to help establish a public defender’s office in Harris County — the largest urban area in the nation without one — along with a slate of measures meant to prevent innocent people from serving time.
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Criminal Justice
The Fox and the Hen House
Five of the nine members of the state’s Commission on Jail Standards, which oversees the 245 county lockups, are elected officials from or employees of the counties whose facilities they regulate. Advocates say that’s a conflict of interest, and they’re calling for a change in the commission’s makeup.
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Criminal Justice
Weed All About It
For nearly a decade, advocates of expanded use of medical marijuana have been spurned by the Texas Legislature — but giving up isn’t how they roll. So they’re trying again with a limited proposal.
Posted in
Demographics
Tony Hefner: The TT Interview
The author and former security guard at the Port Isabel detention center for illegal immigrants talked with the Tribune last week about the torture, sexual abuse and drug smuggling he says he witnessed there.
Posted in
Health care
Pols in Purgatory
State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, who is awaiting prosecution on corruption charges, is the latest Texas elected official under indictment but not yet convicted to languish in career-crippling limbo.
