The agency is so understaffed that teens have reported spending up to 23 hours locked in their cells, using water bottles to go to the bathroom. A staggering number have hurt themselves or been placed on suicide watch.
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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Juvenile Justice
Inspection reports reflect the desperation and danger youths face in Texas juvenile prisons
Visits to Texas’ severely understaffed youth prisons show suicide attempts without intervention, water bottles being used as makeshift toilets, and a rash of possibly gang-related fights.
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Criminal Justice
Texan who prosecutors say “lit the match” of Jan. 6 riot sentenced to more than 7 years in prison
Guy Reffitt, a 49-year-old Wylie resident, never entered the Capitol but helped ignite the crowd “into an unstoppable force,” a prosecutor at his trial said. His sentence is the longest given out so far from the Jan. 6 riot.
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Criminal Justice
Bucking other Texas Democrats, Cuellar and Gonzalez vote against U.S. House bill that would ban semi-automatic weapons
The chamber’s attempt to ban semi-automatic weapons after a series of mass shootings appears destined to fail in the Senate.
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Uvalde school shooting
Uvalde elementary principal reinstated after school shooting investigation, lawyer says
Mandy Gutierrez was put on paid leave Monday and responded Wednesday to a Texas House committee’s investigative report about the massacre. On Thursday, her attorney released a letter from the Uvalde superintendent saying she’s no longer on administrative leave.
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Uvalde school shooting
What we know, minute by minute, about how the Uvalde shooting and police response unfolded
State officials provided a timeline of the massacre and have corrected crucial details amid public demands for information on how authorities handled the situation.
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Operation Lone Star
Texas troopers are causing car chase fatalities and racially profiling drivers under Abbott’s border crackdown, complaint claims
Two civil rights groups have expanded their request for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Operation Lone Star, citing evidence of risky pursuits and more frequent traffic stops of Hispanic drivers.
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Guns in Texas
Texas’ complex relationship with firearms: Leading America in gun sales, but with a declining gun ownership rate
We examine decades of data on gun ownership and gun violence to show trends across the state. Some of them might surprise you.
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Uvalde school shooting
Uvalde principal placed on leave pushes back against investigation’s findings about school security
In a letter to the Texas House committee investigating the state’s deadliest school shooting, Robb Elementary principal Mandy Gutierrez says school leaders weren’t complacent about security.
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Criminal Justice
U.S. reportedly offering prisoner trade with Russia in exchange for Texan Brittney Griner
CNN reported Wednesday that the U.S. has offered a prisoner exchange in order to bring the WNBA player and Paul Whelan home. Biden reportedly backs such a deal.