Starting Sept. 1, a new Texas law will allow people with felony drug convictions to qualify for food assistance, ending the lifetime ban they currently face. Supporters hope the change will reduce recidivism as it helps felons get back on their feet.
Leigh Phillips will take over as chief executive officer of this organization, which helps low-income people build savings accounts.
Read the rest of this article at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
It’s not just the presidential race that’s in play next year. The stakes are also high in the House and Senate, especially for Democrats, who are hoping to retake the Senate after losing it in 2014 and are also eyeing the House, though the odds are longer there.
Grand juries do important work. They determine whether individuals have committed a crime worth prosecuting.
Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa, who has served as the Executive Director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition since 2005, has accepted the position of Program Officer at the Washington, DC-based Public Welfare Foundation. She will be leading the Foundation’s Criminal Justice program, effective November 2, 2015.
Mary E. McClymont, president of the Public Welfare Foundation, announced today that Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa, who is currently the executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC), will become the foundation’s Criminal Justice Program Officer, effective November 2, 2015.
Read the rest of this article at the Public Welfare Foundation.
Texas is on the verge of overhauling the way it selects grand jurors, shifting away from an antiquated process that critics say creates the potential for conflicts of interest.
On the morning of March 26, 2005, Jason Wang and two other teenagers, all disguised as utility workers, left a Mesquite, Texas, home with a safe containing nearly $70,000 in stolen cash and valuables.
Sandra Bland’s suicide in the Waller County Jail on July 13 was the 140th time that detainees in Texas county jails have taken their own lives since authorities began compiling jail suicide statistics six years ago.
Sandra Bland's suicide in the Waller County jail on July 13 was the 140th time that detainees in Texas county jails have taken their own lives since authorities began compiling jail suicide statistics six years ago.
When Sandra Bland was booked at the Waller County Jail, she told the staff she had attempted suicide before — a staff, it turns out, who had not been sufficiently trained on how to safeguard the well-being of inmates who are mentally ill, suicidal or pose a risk to themselves.
Imagine a political cause that is so powerfully moving that it can bring together people and organizations that normally campaign against each other, and have them call with one voice for something meaningful to be done.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán's brazen escape last week from a maximum-security Mexican prison prompted anger from U.S. officials.
If they finish their sentences and comply with any terms of parole, Texans convicted on felony drug charges soon will be able to receive food stamps, though another strike will put them back under a lifetime ban.
The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition worked closely with lawmakers and coalition partners to pass important criminal and youth justice reforms this legislative session. These reforms will improve public safety in Texas communities and bring long-term cost savings to taxpayers.
The Texas Smart-On-Crime Coalition – whose Executive Committee is comprised of the Texas Association of Business, Goodwill Central Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition – worked tirelessly with members of the Texas Legislature this session to pass cost-saving bills that increase public safety, strengthen the state’s workforce, and improve Texas communities.
America’s bloated prison system has stopped growing. Now it must shrink.
After decades of America's incarceration mania, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer recently told a congressional committee in Washington that America's criminal justice system is broken and that long, mandatory minimum sentences in correctional institutions that don't correct is a terrible idea.
What happens when prisoners go from complete isolation to complete freedom in a day?