Sheriffs Offered Caribbean Cruises and Florida Retreats as Part of Jail Telecom Contracts Smart Communications, a for-profit Florida company that sells phone, videochat, and email-like services to prisons and jails, told at least one sheriff’s department that it can live “the resort life” on a trip to Florida. Hayden Betts
When Prisons Locked Down, Prisoners Were Denied Release Leaving prison often hinges on completing rehabilitative programming. The pandemic caused many of these required courses to be put on hold. Daniel Moritz-Rabson
Pregnant Women Allege Abuse in Texas Jails At the same time, state lawmakers are pushing to incarcerate more people pretrial. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
San Antonio Activists ‘Cannot in Good Faith’ Support This Year’s Mayoral Candidates Local activists have soured on incumbent Mayor Ron Nirenberg, and no other candidate offers a compelling alternative. Jerry Iannelli
The Greatest Threat To Defunding The Police? State Pre-emption. A little-known legal tool allows states to override progressive policies in cities. John Pfaff
Austin Uses Money From Police Budget to Fund Substance Use Care The city will use $1 million in funds diverted from its police budget to expand substance use treatments and harm reduction services for low-income people in Austin and Travis County. Meg O'Connor
During the Pandemic, Houston Cops Went Undercover and Arrested a Homeless Man Over 0.6 Grams of Meth As Texas lifts its COVID-19 restrictions, the city’s jail remains overcrowded and its police and prosecutors continue to operate as normal. Jerry Iannelli
How Teri Castillo Plans to Protect San Antonio From ‘Salivating’ Housing Developers The housing advocate’s run for city council could be a Texan litmus test for the broad appeal of policies popular with working class voters. Eoin Higgins
30 Years of Power Outages and Campaign Donations in Texas State officials funded by power companies have been warned, since at least 1989, that the power grid was at risk of failure in cold weather. They have consistently failed to act. Jerry Iannelli
San Antonio Bulldozed a Homeless Encampment. Then the Winter Storms Started. Now, advocacy groups are struggling to keep unhoused people safe. Jerry Iannelli
Austin To Buy Second Hotel That Will Become Permanent Supportive Housing The city will use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the people who will live at the hotel. Meg O'Connor
Austin Will Use Money Cut From Police Budget To Establish Supportive Housing The City Council voted to buy one hotel and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there. Meg O'Connor
Rosa Jimenez, Convicted on ‘Junk Science’, Set for Release After More Than 15 Years in Prison The Travis County District Attorney’s office had joined the release request and, despite Jimenez being taken into custody by ICE, she is expected to be released today. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Austin’s Unreliable Crime Lab Could Lead to Another Wrongful Execution Dubious DNA evidence—and a potential coverup by the Travis County DA’s office—are at the heart of a judge’s recommendation that Areli Escobar gets a new trial. Jerry Iannelli
Hidden Foster Care: All Of The Responsibility, None Of The Resources Outside of the traditional foster care system exists a shadow system of potentially hundreds of thousands of children removed by CPS to their relatives or family friends—without a court case, monetary support, or due process. Roxanna Asgarian
Police Funding Is a Pivotal Issue in Two Austin City Council Runoffs Incumbents Jimmy Flannigan and Alison Alter have been targeted by conservative challengers because of the council’s votes to cut police funding and repeal a ban on public camping. Meg O'Connor
Some Texas Elections Suggest Voters Aren’t Afraid of Defunding Police None of the Austin City Council members who voted to cut police funding lost their elections, but a police union vice president who fearmongered about the defund movement did. Meg O'Connor
Reformer Ed Gonzalez Wins Second Term As Harris County Sheriff Houston area voters re-elected Gonzalez after he supported bail reform, cleaned up the county jail, and provided aid to incarcerated people living with opioid use disorder. Jerry Iannelli
Lorenzo Sanchez Wants to Provide Healthcare to Uninsured Texans Sanchez is running for one of the state House seats that Democrats are hoping to flip. Meg O'Connor
Texas House Candidate Celina Montoya Is Running To Expand Medicaid and Fund Public Education She is running for a historically Republican-controlled seat, and if she wins, it could help turn the state House blue. Meg O'Connor
Candace Valenzuela Is Running to Give All People a Chance at the American Dream If she’s successful in her bid to represent Texas’s 24th Congressional District, Valenzuela will flip the district to blue and become the first Black and Latinx member of Congress. Joshua Vaughn
Democratic Candidate Brandy Chambers Wants to Help Turn the Texas House Blue If Chambers can unseat the Republican incumbent in her district, she said she’ll prioritize expanding Medicaid, improving public education funding, and lowering property taxes. Meg O'Connor
How Julie Oliver’s Personal Experiences With Healthcare And Housing Have Influenced Her Run For Congress ‘Our Congress should be reflective of the people here, and it’s not,’ the Texas resident said. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
A Trumpist Texas Sheriff is Running for Congress. If He Wins, His Brother Might Take Over the Sheriff’s Office. Fort Bend Sheriff Troy Nehls wants voters to send him to Congress despite his department’s history of jail deaths and allegations of racial-profiling. Jerry Iannelli
‘Democracy Pressure-Tested’: Voter Suppression Efforts Underway As Election Nears Efforts by elected leaders in several states are making it harder to get to the polls and fomenting misinformation about the election amid a pandemic. Joshua Vaughn
As More States Turn To Mail-In Voting, Problems Pop Up Across Country Last week’s problems in New York were part of a widespread series of issues, both systemic and targeted, that are only now becoming fully apparent, activists say. Eoin Higgins
Four Austin Women Reported Their Sexual Assaults. But Police And Prosecutors Failed To Hold The Perpetrators Accountable. While a debate over defunding the police rages in Austin, a new lawsuit reminds its residents that assault cases in the city are routinely ignored. Jerry Iannelli
Texas Family Wants Justice For Deadly No-Knock Drug Raid In February 2019, police officers in Killeen shot James Scott Reed in his home. One officer entered a guilty plea to evidence tampering, but Reed’s family is still suing the city and several officers in federal court. Jerry Iannelli
Austin May Cut Police Budget by Nearly $150 Million The City Council will pass a budget this week that could cut nearly $150 million in funding from the Austin Police Department. The proposal appears to have majority support. Meg O'Connor
Pretrial Detention During A Pandemic Could Be A Death Sentence. Yet, Prosecutors Continue To Use It To Extract Plea Deals. A deadly pandemic should not be used as a bargaining chip against poor, detained people charged with crimes. Amanda Woog
Coronavirus In Jails And Prisons A new report finds that too many kids, particularly Black youth, continue to be held in dangerous juvenile detention facilities; California prison officials refused offers of free testing before and during San Quentin outbreak; and Gov. Gavin Newsom announces plans to release 8,000 incarcerated people. Kelly Davis
Requiring a Bar Exam in 2020 Perpetuates Systemic Inequities in the Legal System Prioritizing bar examiners’ gatekeeping function during a pandemic and economic crisis means putting aspiring lawyers at risk and making it harder for nonwhite and low-income people to enter the legal profession. Lauren Hutton-Work, Rae Guyse
Houston Police Chief’s Speeches Supporting Protesters Were Widely Circulated—But Video Proves His Officers Cracked Down on Them Videos contradict officers’ claims that they didn’t ‘kettle’ protesters. Jerry Iannelli
Texas Prisoner Whose Case Changed the State’s Death Penalty Law Is Granted Parole Attorneys argued for decades that Bobby Moore was intellectually disabled when he was sentenced to death in 1980. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to a change in his sentence last year and cleared the way for his release. Lauren Gill
‘I can never be more grateful.’ After Nearly 35 Years, Willie Mae Harris Is Released From Prison Harris, now 72 and blind, had been serving a life sentence for the shooting death of her husband, a man she said had abused her for years. Last month, the Arkansas Parole Board agreed to free her. Lauren Gill
‘I Am Feeling Scared And Alone.’ The Reopening Of America Leaves Behind Prisoners Who Remain At Risk Of COVID-19 Texas’s governor has proclaimed that ‘safe practices save lives,’ but prisoners say that advice can’t be followed in the state’s prisons, where unsanitary conditions have left the novel coronavirus ‘spreading vigorously.’ Tana Ganeva
Pregnant Woman in Pennsylvania Jail Denied Release An Erie County judge said the pregnant 20-year-old would be ‘safer’ in jail from the COVID-19 outbreak. Victoria Law
Death Of New Mother At Federal Prison Hospital Prompts Calls For Accountability In Texas Andrea Circle Bear was confined within FMC Carswell while suffering from the novel coronavirus. ‘She was serving a 26-month sentence that ended up being a death penalty,’ one maternity specialist said. Tana Ganeva
Tennessee Set to Execute Intellectually Disabled Black Man In Killing of White Woman Even Though Innocence Questions Persist Attorneys say the prosecution’s theory of the murder case was ‘concocted out of whole cloth’ and based on ‘outdated racial stereotyping.’ Steven Hale
Judges Are Exploiting the COVID-19 Pandemic to Advance the Conservative Agenda A trio of cases in Wisconsin and Texas illustrates how Republican judges are feigning helplessness in the face of a public health crisis while furthering their own ends. Jay Willis
For Women At A Federal Prison Hospital In Texas, Fear That Coronavirus Will Spread ‘Like Wildfire’ ‘This is getting worse,’ one woman said. ‘People just want to sleep or fight. They play with our emotions constantly. This place is scary.’ Tana Ganeva
As Coronavirus Spreads, So Does Panic and Confusion at Immigration Courts Across The U.S. Lawyers, judges, and advocates for migrant children wonder what it will take to close all 69 immigration courts. ‘I hope that it won’t take a death, but I worry that it will,’ one lawyer said. Liz Robbins
Abortion Providers Fight to Keep Working During the Coronavirus Pandemic Conservative lawmakers are using emergency measures to restrict access to care. Akilah Wise
The Texas Appeals Court Upheld This Man’s Death Sentence Despite New Scientific Evidence The ruling is a setback for the state's so-called junk science statute. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
What Sheriffs Can Do To Slow the Coronavirus Outbreak Sheriffs wield enormous power, and they can direct it in ways that will help contain the spread of COVID-19 and protect incarcerated people. Jessica Pishko
Texas Court Issues Temporary Stay Of Execution Amid Coronavirus ‘Health Crisis’ John Hummel was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. The court, citing the current health crisis, has postponed the execution for 60 days. Lauren Gill
Sheriff’s Office Profiles New Jersey Student After School Shooting Thousands of Miles Away, Lawsuit Says The student, whose last name is Mohammed, was subject to improper searches based on little evidence, his attorney argues. Roxanna Asgarian
Bernie Sanders Endorses Audia Jones for Harris County D.A. Jones is challenging incumbent Kim Ogg in the 2020 election. Jay Willis
Rosa Jimenez Went to Prison for Murdering a Child. Four Judges Have Said She’s Most Likely Innocent Advocates say junk science was used to convict Jimenez. DA Margaret Moore has not yet decided whether she will drop charges or retry her. Kira Lerner, Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
A City Council Resolution Could End Marijuana Arrests and Fines in Austin, Texas The move is made possible by a Texas law that legalized the production of hemp last year. Jay Willis
U.S. Senate Candidate Endorses Ayanna Pressley’s Criminal Justice Reform Plan Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez of Texas told The Appeal about her vision for a complete overhaul of her state’s legal system. Kira Lerner
New Lawsuit Claims Texas Prison Guards Sexually Assaulted Female Guard Guards at the Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont are alleged to have led the victim to a hallway where there were no security cameras. , Roxanna Asgarian
Harris County D.A. Candidate Audia Jones Says She Won’t Prosecute Sex Work The incumbent in the race, Jones’s former boss Kim Ogg, will not support a blanket refusal to prosecute sex workers, her office says. Kira Lerner
Working Families Party To Endorse José Garza for Travis County D.A. The Austin-based labor and immigrant rights attorney, who has pledged to end money bail and nonviolent drug prosecutions, is looking to unseat incumbent District Attorney Margaret Moore. Aaron Morrison
Austin Braces As Texas Officials Plan Crackdown On Homeless Encampments Last week, the City Council reinstated a “no camping” ordinance meant to discourage people experiencing homelessness from sleeping on sidewalks and outside a shelter. Advocates say the city is criminalizing poverty. Aaron Morrison
DNA Testing Could Save This Texas Man’s Life. But Prosecutors Are Opposing It. Rodney Reed, set to be executed on Nov. 20, is innocent of a rape and murder, his lawyers say, and untested evidence will prove it. But prosecutors have pushed back, arguing the evidence is contaminated. Lauren Gill
Courts Are Intervening to Dismantle Unjust Cash Bail Systems Across the U.S. A series of victories for advocates reflects a shift in the ‘popular narrative’ around bail. Kira Lerner
Harris County D.A. Seeks Execution of Intellectually Disabled Man, Lawyer Says Kim Ogg ran as a reform-minded district attorney candidate, but her office has sought two death warrants for Dexter Johnson, whose lawyer says cannot name everyday objects and has an IQ of 70. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Caught on Video: A Texas Man’s Fatal Pursuit By Police The family of Ricardo Treviño, an unarmed 21-year-old killed by police last year, says they’ve spent months waiting for answers on why he was shot. Aaron Morrison
When Cops Lie, Should Prosecutors Rely Upon Their Testimony At Trial? In California, Texas and Florida, advocates sent letters to district attorneys, demanding that they refuse to work with officers with histories of misconduct. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Data Raises Questions About Harris County D.A.’s Push for More Lawyers Records show Kim Ogg’s office appeared to misrepresent felony prosecutor caseloads in its $21 million budget request. Keri Blakinger
A Baby’s Death, a Flawed Autopsy, and a Mother Locked Up for Life Tina Rodriguez was sent to prison in Texas for allegedly starving her son to death. But recent discoveries about the medical examiner who conducted the baby’s autopsy raise questions about her case. Debbie Nathan
Good Samaritans Punished for Offering Lifesaving Help to Migrants In recent years, the number of people federally charged with smuggling and harboring has jumped nearly a third. Debbie Nathan
Texas Is Poised to Make It Easier to Jail People For Voting Errors The legislation is part of a wave of bills across the country meant to criminalize mistakes in the name of voter fraud. Kira Lerner
Houston Homicide Under New Scrutiny After Misconduct Allegations About DEA Agent Emerge In 2000, Lamar Burks was convicted of murder and given a 70-year sentence. But the federal indictment of a DEA agent and witnesses who say Burks is innocent have raised new questions about his case. Mike Hayes
Texas Plans to Execute a Man For A Murder He Didn’t Commit Patrick Murphy didn’t even learn about the murder until later that day. A controversial law allows him to be executed anyway. Katie Rose Quandt
In El Paso Jails, Immigrants Are Incarcerated Far Past Their Release Dates In the deep blue home of Beto O’Rourke, attorneys and advocates are questioning the county’s multi-million-dollar contract to detain migrants and refugees. Debbie Nathan
Federal Prisons Official Used Prison Labor For Work On His Church The Bureau of Prisons’ South Central regional director utilized incarcerated people from a Texas prison to work on a landscaping project at his church. Lauren Gill
In Texas, D.A. Who Promised Reform Now Faces Challenge From The Left Audia Jones pledges to tackle ‘brokenness in the system’ by unseating Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. Roxanna Asgarian
Texas Sheriffs Stand Against Marijuana Policy Reform New bills would expand access to medical marijuana, but the state's sheriffs' association promises to fight even such modest legislation. Michael Arria
Prison Tech Company Is Questioned for Retaining ‘Voice Prints’ of People Presumed Innocent Defense attorneys say they were unaware of the practice and are unclear on how they can expunge the data of nonconvicted clients. George Joseph, Debbie Nathan
Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints The technology also allows authorities to mine call databases and cross-reference the voices of individuals prisoners have spoken with. George Joseph, Debbie Nathan
Migrants Say They Pay For Inclusion On ‘La Lista’ To Make Border Crossing Migrants near Brownsville, Texas say that if they don't bribe Mexican officials they're stuck at the bottom of a list of people seeking refuge in the U.S. via international bridges. Debbie Nathan
Migrants Endure Brutal Conditions in Border Encampments As they wait for permission to cross into the U.S., migrants, including children and infants, sleep on concrete and under plastic tarps, exposing them to cold, wind, rain, and illness. Debbie Nathan
The ‘Failure to Appear’ Fallacy Prosecutors denounce bail reform efforts when people miss court dates, but ‘failure to appear’ rates obscure the fact that many who miss court aren’t on the run. Puck Lo, Ethan Corey
‘Things Have Changed’: A New Texas Anti-Immigration Measure Feeds Fear of the Police SB 4 encourages officers to ask for the status of anyone they detain. Debbie Nathan
Black Men Disproportionately Represented On Sex Offender Registries Even though it’s unlikely that they commit sexual assault at higher rates than other ethnic or racial groups, nearly one of every 100 Black men is on a sex offender registry, a rate double that of white men. Debbie Nathan
A Suit on Behalf of 6,000 Women Decries Law Enforcement’s Handling of Sexual Assault Cases In Travis County, detectives refused training that would have helped them interview victims of trauma. Kira Lerner
States Are Enacting Their Own Bans Against ‘Sanctuary City’ Policies In response, a new ‘Freedom Cities’ movement is rising to defend immigrants’ rights. Debbie Nathan
Program Meant To Fight Terrorism and Narcotrafficking Is Being Used to Target The Undocumented Community Opposition to Operation Stonegarden, however, is spreading; one Arizona county just rejected over $1 million of its funds. Debbie Nathan
Cash Bail Yields A New Casualty A Texas jail suicide involving a woman who couldn’t make bail in a shoplifting case highlights of the plight of pretrial detainees with mental illness. Lauren Gill
The Appeal Podcast: On the Ground in Dallas’s High Stakes D.A. Race With Dominique Walker of the ACLU, Reverend Edwin Robinson of Faith in Texas, and Joe Estelle of Texas Organizing Project. Adam H. Johnson
Texas D.A. Who Sent Woman To Prison For Five Years for Voting Made Her Own Election Mistake Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson prosecuted Crystal Mason for casting an illegal ballot. But Wilson escaped charges for a possible election violation of her own. Steven Yoder
After Hearing Concerns about ICE, Texas Sheriff Ran Apparent Traffic Sting That Led to Deportation Proceedings A community group met with the Bastrop County sheriff in an effort to build trust between the sheriff’s office and the immigrant community. Then, the sheriff ran a sting that led to more than one dozen arrestees being handed over to ICE. Michael Arria
Austin Cops Said They Shot A Man Who Fired On Them–But It Turns Out He Didn’t Fire A Shot Lawrence Parrish faces charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and remains jailed on $500,000 bond even though the Austin police admitted he never shot at them. Michael Arria
Texas’s First Death Sentence of 2018 Crystallizes the State’s Longstanding Capital Case Crisis Lauren Gill
San Antonio DA Nico LaHood, an Anti-Islam, Pro-Death Penalty Democrat, Faces Former Pal in Primary Alex Hannaford
The False Promise of Bail Reform in Dallas County: Debate Continues While People Languish in Jail Rebecca McCray
How a Dallas District Attorney Reached Her ‘Nixon in China’ Moment Faith Johnson’s recent indictment of a Mesquite police officer for shooting an innocent man follows years of work by community activists. Rebecca McCray
Nico LaHood Faces a New Challenger in the Primary — His Former Law Partner, Who He Threatened to “Destroy Former business partner of Nico LaHood will run against him after LaHood threatened to shut down his law practice Larry Hannan
Houston Conviction and Death Sentence Goes to U.S. Supreme Court Court watchers believe Justices will side with plaintiff Larry Hannan
Underage teenager faces life as registered sex offender for having sex with underage girlfriend Larry Hannan
Houston Police officers will not be tried over invasive body cavity search of black woman Larry Hannan
Dallas prosecutor suspended after seeking “a break” from law enforcement during DWI arrest Larry Hannan
