U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, released a new ad today letting voters know he’s so conservative that he says ‘no’ to President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but yes to protecting gun rights.
Criminal Justice
Get the latest Texas Tribune coverage on criminal justice, including crime, courts, law enforcement, and reforms shaping the state’s justice system.
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Criminal Justice
Accountable to No One
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice oversees most state jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards presides over county jails. But the 350 city jails across Texas are wholly unregulated. The jail commission receives dozens of complaints about the conditions inside municipal lockups — most commonly about sanitation, food, supervision and medical care — but they have no power to investigate. While critics are calling on state lawmakers to implement at least minimum standards, city officials worry that expensive new rules could result in the closure of their jails, which would mean that already overflowing county jails would get even more crowded.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: AG’s Latest Environmental Lawsuits
Texas has fired off another volley of legal challenges against federal environmental regulators.
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Criminal Justice
2010: King of Tort Reform
In a rare campaign trail policy announcement on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind an effort to pass more extensive tort reform legislation.
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Criminal Justice
A Hardline in the Sand
Nearly half of all Texans would repeal the constitutional promise of citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, and nearly two-thirds would favor Arizona-style laws allowing the police to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop for any reason, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Galbraith’s three-parter on the battle over wind power transmission lines, Grissom on a convicted killer who got probation, Aguilar on how the U.S. census counts inmates in the Texas prison system, Stiles launches a new interactive tool tracking the candidates for governor, Hamilton on the Texas A&M University System’s latest accountability measure for faculty, Hu’s interview with Democratic megadonor Steve “Back to Basics” Mostyn, Philpott on how the Texas economy compares to that of other states and Ramsey on the start of the 2010 election sprint: The best of our best from Sept. 6 to 10, 2010.
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Criminal Justice
Still Seeking Justice
The mother of tow truck driver Steven Hardin explains her plight after a jury found her son’s killer guilty of murder but sentenced him only to probation. The killer, firefighter Barry Crawford, completed his probation a few months ago even though he didn’t fulfill the terms.
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Criminal Justice
Greg Abbott vs. Google
The Texas Attorney General is investigating suspicions that the Internet giant is gaming search results to harm competitors. Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports.
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Criminal Justice
Getting Away With Murder
Tow truck driver Steven Hardin was shot and killed in April 1998 by Houston firefighter Barry Crawford during a dispute over a parking space. At the end of a high-profile trial, a jury found Crawford guilty of first-degree murder but sentenced him only to probation. A judge required the convicted killer to comply with various terms, including the payment of child support to the victim’s family, but he failed to do all he was ordered. Nonetheless, a few months ago, he was released from his probation, leaving Hardin’s mother with no recourse but to lobby for a change in state law.
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Criminal Justice
Counting Convicts
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.