Incarcerated women should be treated in a way that acknowledges both their special needs and their dignity, whether by barring shackles when they are pregnant, or by providing them more opportunity to connect with their families and children, says the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC).
Incarcerated women in Texas have access to fewer educational and vocational programs compared to incarcerated men, a new study finds.
The 31 marked graves inside Old Imperial Farm Cemetery are rusted and crumbling, markers of a time that Reginald Moore believes Sugar Land hopes to forget.
HOUSTON – Blacks Lives Matter: Houston and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, along with six other organizations, have called for the suspension and removal of the 209th District Criminal Court Judge Michael McSpadden for comments made in a Feb. 23 Houston Chronicle report the groups claim show racial bias.
A new police contract between the city of Austin and the Austin Police Association could take five to six months of negotiating, said Ron DeLord, an attorney and police union contract consultant involved in the negotiations, at a panel discussion Wednesday hosted by Leadership Austin, a nonprofit that trains and connects local leaders.
Report says rise in incarcerated women hints at disparities in the male-dominated criminal justice system.
AUSTIN, Texas – Prison reform advocates say too many of the 12,000 women in Texas prisons don't need to be behind bars.
Women have been left out of the national focus on justice reform, even as the number of incarcerated females has increased, according to a Texas advocacy group.
Today, TCJC released part one of a two-part report series on women in Texas prisons and jails. A Growing Population: The Surge of Women into Texas’ Criminal Justice System examines the staggering rise in the number of women in Texas’ justice system and makes recommendations for programs and policies that can reverse this trend and effectively redirect women away from incarceration.
Read the rest of this press release here.
More women are finding themselves in Texas prisons and jails, and one criminal justice reform group is urging lawmakers and local officials to enact policies to stop that trend.
AUSTIN, Texas — Fifty-three-year-old Annette Price visits prisoners every week in hopes that sharing their stories gives them hope.
AUSTIN, TX — Travis County commissioners approved a year-long delay in allotting funding for the first phase of a $97 million women's jail expansion — a move hailed as a victory among criminal justice reform advocates who have long opposed increasing the facility's size.
With the Houston City Council set to vote on proposed ordinances to overhaul regulations for boarding homes and other multi-resident housing, criminal justice reform advocates objected to a proposed 1,000 foot buffer zone for “alternative housing facilities,” saying it would make it harder to provide re-entry services.
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Travis County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to ultimately postpone consideration to spend $97 million to build a new women's facility at the Travis County Correctional Complex (TCCC) and is expected to revisit the proposal in a year.
The ACLU of Texas and seven other groups filed a complaint today (Monday, March 5) with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct against 209th District Court Judge Michael McSpadden in Harris County, asking that McSpadden be immediately suspended and removed from the bench.
Eight state and local civil rights groups filed a formal complaint Friday with a judicial commission, seeking sanctions against a Harris County felony court judge because of comments he made to the Houston Chronicle about black defendants.
Reformers have targeted Texas primary races where candidates promise bail reform and jail diversion.
A majority of facilities at the Travis County Correction Complex need major infrastructure upgrades. Nineteen of 27 buildings fail functional, mechanical, and architectural ratings, according to the Planning and Budget Office. A two-year analysis resulted in the 2016 master plan with recommendations on renovation and expansion.
The Texas prison system is considering moving youthful offenders from a Brazoria prison to the former death row unit in Huntsville on the heels of a rape investigation, according to one lawmaker and multiple sources within the agency.
When Travis County commissioners approved the 2018 budget in September that included about $6.6 million to design a new women’s facility in the Del Valle jail, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt insisted, over the cries of criminal justice reform advocates, that it would not mean more beds overall but that more would be allocated to women.
Read the rest of this article at the Austin American-Statesman.