Texas Juvenile Justice Department's watchdog is latest to go in Abbott shakeup
Gov. Greg Abbott is set to make his latest move in shaking up leadership at the scandal-plagued Texas Juvenile Justice Department, multiple reform advocates said Tuesday.
TCJC In the News
Press Contact: For all media inquiries, please contact Madison Kaigh, Communications Manager, at mkaigh@TexasCJC.org or (512) 441-8123, ext. 108.
Gov. Abbott replacing ombudsman, board chair at troubled Texas Juvenile Justice Department
Gov. Greg Abbott is in the process of replacing two top officials at the scandal-plagued juvenile justice agency that is still adjusting to a new executive director who took the helm last month.
Travis County Plans New Women's Jail
One evening last September, an employee at the local organization Grassroots Leadership was scanning through Travis County's proposed budget when she stumbled upon plans for a new $91 million women's jail on the county's Del Valle correctional campus.
In crisis, Texas Juvenile Justice Department looks to an unconventional new leader
With no experience working directly with incarcerated kids, Camille Cain is an unconventional choice to be the new director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. But experts hope she'll be well-suited to handle problems like staffing shortages and a sexual abuse scandal.
In bid to boost safety, juvenile justice agency reviewing violent youth for possible transfer
Staff at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department have been asked to review a few dozen problem inmates for possible transfer to adult prisons, a move that has sparked concern among activists and advocates.
5 lessons for teaching law and technology
Over the fall semester, we ran an experiment at the Georgetown University Law Center. Through a course we co-created and taught, we used technology to help students critically think through criminal justice policy and law.
'That would break us': Raising age of responsibility would create massive influx to juvenile lockups
Texas is unlikely to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 17 to 18 next year, a top state official has predicted, to the dismay of juvenile justice advocates.
Advocates Urge Halt To Travis County Plans For New Women's Jail
Instead, nine community groups urge for greater focus to be placed on implementing recommendations aimed at reducing incarceration rates.
Texas female prison population rises as male population decreases
The female prison population in the Lone Star state is on the rise even as fewer men are filling state lock-ups - but experts say it's not clear why.
Without The Contract That Created It, Office Collecting Complaints Against Police Still Intact
Despite the dissolution of a contract governing its existence, Austin’s Office of the Police Monitor will remain intact for now. The office fields citizen complaints against officers and has access to internal affairs investigations.
Austin Monitor Radio: APD contracts, the critics
In this edition of Austin Monitor Radio, editor Elizabeth Pagano sits down with Chas Moore of the Austin Justice Coalition and Kathy Mitchell from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition to talk about City Council’s unanimous rejection of the Austin Police Department contract.
Texas Matters: Maternal Mortality Rates; Women In Texas Politics; & Juvenile Sex Abuse Scandal
This week on "Texas Matters," we look at a major flaw in the way maternal mortality rates in Texas are tracked (00:25). Also, why are more women running for office in the state (7:53)? And, finally, we examine what's behind a new sex abuse scandal in the Texas juvenile justice system (17:39).
Read the rest of this article and listen to the radio interview on Texas Public Radio.
Life After Meet-and-Confer
Barring some last-minute Christmas miracle, the city's meet-and-confer agreement with the Austin Police Association is dead. Over the weekend, union membership voted overwhelmingly (1,305 to 110) to reject City Council's overtures for a renegotiation.
Cruel and unusual: Dallas County teen inmates locked indoors for months
Death row inmates in Texas are given at least an hour a week outdoors. Hardened criminals inside California's famous San Quentin prison get 10 hours. Yet kids at a Dallas County correctional center for boys went months, sometimes more than a year, without going outdoors more than a few times.
Police decline further contract talks for now
The Austin Police Association on Tuesday resoundingly rejected the City Council’s request that it continue its current contract for a few months and return to the negotiating table.
Some APD officers already putting in for retirement after contract was stalled
Austin police officers have exactly two weeks to decide whether or not they will keep hashing out a new contract with the city.
Austin City Council Takes a Step Toward Police Reform, Rejects Union Contract
Activists said the contract would perpetuate a broken system of citizen oversight and shield cops who engage in misconduct.
State youth lockups under fire
Outraged by reports of abuses in Texas’ secure facilities for young offenders, lawmakers in a Senate finance committee called for top-to-bottom reform, and they’re not the only ones.
Juvenile justice agency still plagued by high recidivism, turnover
Amid calls by children's advocacy groups for the state to close its six remaining juvenile lockups, and ongoing investigations into a chronic pattern of sexual assaults at those centers, a legislative committee on Tuesday is expected to open an inquiry into how to divert more teenage offenders into community-based programs rather than state custody.
More women are jailed in Texas, even though arrests have dropped. Why?
Back when the county jail here housed maybe three women, jailers didn’t have to worry much about contraband mascara, tampon shortages or raunchy love notes in the intra-inmate mail.