Criminal Law

A forensic science 'blockbuster' and the limits of accreditation

Posted on December 26, 2010
A couple of forensic science related items before I turn my attention away from the blog for the day: NAS Forensic Science Report a 'Blockbuster' In an interview, White House science adviser John Holdren was asked, "What single published finding or scientific paper has had the biggest impact on your office?" He gave several examples, but notably mentioned:[Another is] the Academies' report that came out last year on forensic science that suggested much of forensic science is less solid than is assumed...

Christmastime clemency is a joke, but pardons could be meaningful remedy for 'government overreach'

Posted on December 21, 2010
Governor Rick Perry's office announced its annual Christmas pardons yesterday, granting eight pardons for extremely petty, mostly long-ago offenses.I've come to be incredibly frustrated with this Christmastime pardon ritual, for reasons ably articulated in a recent blog post by P...

What's 'conservative' about dumping mental health costs on counties?

Posted on December 21, 2010
The Longview News-Journal on Sunday published a notable editorial demanding that Texas lawmakers avoid cuts to the mental health system that would shift costs to local governments, particularly jails and courts. The editorial opens with the question: "Can state lawmakers be 'conservatives' in Austin if they are cutting funding for necessary programs that governments back home will have to spend tax dollars to support? We think the answer is a resounding no...

Crime declines continued unabated in first half of 2010

Posted on December 20, 2010
Via Sentencing Law & Policy, here's a notable and welcome development regarding crime rates for the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009: The FBI says they're going down significantly nationwide, as evidenced by this graphic:Doug Berman's takeaway from this news hit most of the high points:This continuation of the great crime decline is notable and exciting for lots of reasons...

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Allegations of ritual sex with children may have been false

Posted on December 19, 2010
The San Antonio Express-News today published a story - which will be put online Wednesday - about four potential wrongful convictions following allegations of sexual abuse of a child against four women. Here's the overview:In the fall of 1994, months after two young sisters spent a week visiting their aunt Elizabeth Ramirez, the girls told their grandmother, father and police that they had been ritualistically and sexually abused by the aunt and her three female friends, ages 19-21...

'Quiet' consensus, slippery slopes, integrity lapses, conservatism, clemency, and justice, 'sanguinary and cruel'

Posted on December 19, 2010
Just a few, disparate items that may interest Grits readers:Texan named to advise federal science grantsReports the San Marcos Mercury, "Joycelyn Pollock, a professor in the department of criminal justice at Texas State, has been named by Attorney General Eric Holder to the newly created Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Science Advisory Board...

Whitmire: Merge TYC, juvie probation

Posted on December 17, 2010
In 2008, the Sunset Commission recommended merging the Texas Youth Commission with the Juvenile Probation Commission, but the 81st Texas Legislature chose not to do so. Now this year, the Sunset Commission recommended against a merger, but state Sen. John Whitmire and some advocacy groups at yesterday's hearing were still pushing the idea, reports Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman:?There are just over 1,400 youths left ? about the size of a middle school in Austin ? and yet the budget is $250 million, the central office staff remains large, the recidivism is still high ? the cost of caring for each youth is $120,000 a year ? an amazing amount,? Whitmire said...

Dallas' new 'graffiti czar' looking past criminal justice approaches

Posted on December 17, 2010
Dallas' new 'graffiti czar' (a moniker he's rejected which will inevitably stick) is a lawyer named John Barr who's willing to think outside the box, including defying the City in the past with overt vigilantism, illegally painting over graffiti without property owners' permission (which some argued was effectively the same thing as the graff writers were doing)...

Police misconduct roundup

Posted on December 17, 2010
I've noticed a number of remarkable Texas police misconduct stories in the news recently that deserve Grits readers' attention: Ripping off drug dealers A Harris County Sheriff's deputy has been arrested for allegedly conspiring with drug dealers to rip off their customers, reports James Pinkerton at the Houston Chronicle:"It sounds like this person was using his position in law enforcement to act as muscle for a drug dealers, and this what is called a 'drug rip,'?" said a law enforcement source familiar with the case...

Cuts to state mental hospitals would be massive unfunded mandate for county jails

Posted on December 16, 2010
Brandi Grissom at The Texas Tribune reports that "sheriffs across Texas are increasingly frustrated and worried about the ever-decreasing amount of bed space available at state mental hospitals." She writes:Too often, when mentally ill offenders come to their jails, sheriffs who are required to provide appropriate care for their inmates say they are forced to either drive hundreds of miles, wait for days in hospital emergency rooms guarding patients or try to make do in their local jails until a mental health bed becomes available...

Sunset hearing today considers TYC, juvie probation

Posted on December 16, 2010
The Sunset Commission is meeting this morning and will soon begin public hearings related to the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission. (See the video streamed here, and also the staff report [pdf] from Sunset staff on TYC and earlier Grits coverage...

Public surveillance cameras in Austin a PR-driven boondoggle

Posted on December 16, 2010
The Austin City Council today appears likely to approve new police surveillance cameras downtown supposedly to prevent crime, though there's no empirical evidence cameras in public places will achieve that goal. Reports KVUE-TV:The Austin City Council will vote on a measure Thursday that would add 23 surveillance cameras in downtown Austin...

'Right on Crime: Accounting for Accountability'

Posted on December 16, 2010
At The Crime Report, Marc Levin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation has a column about the group's new "Right on Crime" initiative, which opens thusly:Some of the nation?s most prominent conservatives are meeting in DC today to chart a ?tough and smart? criminal justice agenda...

TYC produces data to facilitate unit closures: What about TDCJ?

Posted on December 15, 2010
The Texas Tribune has an interesting story, along with an extraordinary accompanying spreadsheet (xls) from the Texas Youth Commission, about what TYC facilities might be closed and who will make the decision. The spreadsheet rates facilities by staff turnover, difficulty of recruiting, cost per day, the condition of the physical plant, and a variety of other factors...

Tim Cole's place in Texas history

Posted on December 15, 2010
Bob Ray Sanders at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a column about effort by the family of Timothy Cole - who earlier this year was posthumously pardoned after he died in prison serving a sentence for a rape he did not commit - to havea Texas historical marker placed near Cole's gravesite...

Tech students teaching art in Lubbock jail

Posted on December 15, 2010
The Lubbock Avalanche Journal reports on a creative anti-recidivism approach at their local county jail:A county jail would not seem a likely place to teach art classes, but a new program where Texas Tech art students are working with Lubbock County jail inmates on art projects is proving to be good for both the inmates and the Tech students...

Officer wreck offers rare glimpse inside Austin SWAT

Posted on December 15, 2010
The Austin Statesman published a story by Tony Plohetski the other day revealing some interesting tidbits about staffing of SWAT teams after an Austin SWAT member totaled his city vehicle driving home drunk from a football-watching party with fellow SWAT members and other officers ("SWAT officer's wreck spurs changes in elite Austin unit," Dec...

Forensic Science Commission diverting resources from investigating negligence, misconduct

Posted on December 14, 2010
This morning I attended the first public meeting of the Forensic Science Commission's Complaint Screening Committee, but arguably the most significant event of the day occurred in the meeting of the full commission where they voted 5-1 to hire a full-time General Counsel...

Number of new death sentences dropping like stone

Posted on December 14, 2010
The Dallas News' Death Penalty blog published a fact-filled press release for the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's 2010 Year in Review (pdf), including links to two interactive maps documenting new death sentences by county from 2007 to 2010 and from 1976 to 2010...

TPPF launches 'Right on Crime' campaign

Posted on December 13, 2010
I received this media advisory today about an event in D.C. that looks really interesting, with a call-in number available for those of us in the flyover states who can't attend:Conservatives have always been tough on crime, but when it comes to criminal justice policy, conservatives aren't being tough enough on the bottom line...

Sheriffs: Let technical parole violators bond out of jail

Posted on December 13, 2010
The Sheriff's Association of Texas will be pushing next year for passage of a law which was vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2007 allowing bail for parolees arrested on technical violations. Reports the Houston Chronicle ("Sheriffs say new parole law could free beds," Dec...

CCA retirement opens possiblity for budget savings, new judge

Posted on December 13, 2010
Faced with potential budget cuts to the courts, a remarkable suggestion was floated in an article by Peggy Fikac of the San Antonio Express News to reduce the number of judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Her story opens:Here?s one way to cut the budget at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Trim it by one judge, at least temporarily...

Stuff to Read: Prosecutorial misconduct, mass incarceration, and how the black man became schizophrenic

Posted on December 12, 2010
Several excellent recent blog posts may be found on Karen Franklin's blog, In the News: Forensic Psychology, Criminology and Psychology-Law, which may interest Grits readers:Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American PsycheAge Tables Improve Sex Offender Risk EstimatesThe Psychology of Jury Voir DireHow the Black Man Became SchizophrenicThe third of those posts contained a link to an excellent academic article titled, "Police Deception during Interrogation and Its Surprising Influence on Jurors' Perceptions of Confession Evidence" that's well worth a read...

'Let's keep our mentally ill youth out of detention'

Posted on December 12, 2010
The Houston Chronicle published a notable column today titled "Let's keep our mentally ill youth out of detention," by former Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O'Neill, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, Harris County Juvenile Probation Department Executive Director Tom Brooks and Dr...

Jones County pays for empty jail as detention bubble bursts

Posted on December 12, 2010
Using bonds approved by voters in 2005 for a new jail, officials in Jones County spent $25 million to construct a 1,127 bed detention facility on spec, hoping to house inmates on contract from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Now construction is complete, but TDCJ doesn't need the extra capacity and is under pressure to reduce spending instead of enter new contracts...

Strip searched in San Antonio? You might get paid

Posted on December 11, 2010
Here's a good way to ensure counties don't strip search nonviolent misdemeanants. Reports KENS-5 TV in Bexar County,"some 30,000 misdemeanants who were detained in the pokey in the last several years could get settlements of up to $1,000" as a result of being subjected to illegal strip searches...

Work at a private prison (or used to) and wanna talk to NPR?

Posted on December 10, 2010
John Burnett of National Public Radio asked me to post this, so here you go: To current and former guards & wardens at private prisons,           John Burnett, Austin-based correspondent for National Public Radio, is working on a story about private prisons and he?d like to speak with you...

Majority of Texas criminal cases taken to trial in FY 2010 resulted in acquittal

Posted on December 10, 2010
Via Courtex, the Annual Report for the Texas Judiciary has been published for FY 2010 by the Office of Court Administration, covering the activities of the state's 3,378 elected and appointed judges. See the 86-page summary (pdf), from which I'll pull a few highlights...

UTMB wants out of prison healthcare contract thanks to $61 million out-of-pocket costs

Posted on December 10, 2010
Might universities cease providing health care in the Texas prison system, reverting to TDCJ-employed doctors at the agency's 85 in-prison health clinics? Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman reports:Making good on an earlier threat, officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are seeking to stop providing medical care to the state's 154,000 convicts at in-prison clinics it now runs...

TDCJ to absorb 15% of latest state budget cuts

Posted on December 08, 2010
Texas' Governor, Lt. Governor and House Speaker yesterday announced that state agencies must cut an additional 2.5% from their budgets, which at the Department of Criminal Justice will come to $75 million, or about 15% of the $500 million in cuts ordered...

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