Criminal Law

Texas' largest counties sending fewer to TYC

Posted on August 01, 2010
The number of juveniles sent to youth prisons from Texas' largest counties dramatically declined after 2007 - when the Legislature implemented reforms at the Texas Youth Commission in the wake of a sex abuse scandal - demonstrating the remarkable extent to which state and local decisionmaking drives incarceration policy as much or more than crime rates...

Dallas News backs closing prisons to save money

Posted on August 01, 2010
A Dallas News editorial yesterday looking forward at specific ways to cut in next year's Texas state budget offered these suggestions for saving money in the justice system:PUBLIC SAFETY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: $650.6 millionAlcohol and Beverage Commission $9 million 10%Overseeing prisons and felons $500 million 10%Repair and construction of prisons $10 million 50%Parole system $10 million 3%Central administration $7 million 6%Commission on Fire Protection $600,000 9%Juvenile Probation Commission $30 million 10%Department of Public Safety: Central administration and support $50 million 26%Texas Youth Commission $40 million 10% Unstated but implied, to reduce costs for "Overseeing prisons and felons" by $500 million would require closing multiple prison units and reducing the total number of people the state incarcerates and employs at its 112 units across the state...

Just as easy as ever to acquire fake passports

Posted on August 01, 2010
The quest to create a passport that can't be forged or faked - mirrored at the state level for driver licenses via the Real ID Act - has turned out to be a quixotic and expensive one.After 9/11, the US revamped passports and passed the Real ID Act attempting to require states (many have balked) to enhance supposed security measures to prevent fraudulently obtaining identification...

Arbitrator reinstated cop so lacking in credibility the DA won't use his testimony

Posted on July 30, 2010
Remember the San Marcos cop who an arbitrator reinstated after he was fired for lying and excessive force? Well he's back in uniform, but the Hays County District Attorney says he's no longer a credible witness and shouldn't be assigned to police work...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

TX Supreme Court to review "lawless" leniency for Keller by Judicial Conduct Commission

Posted on July 30, 2010
No favor done for Judge Sharon Keller, apparently goes unpunished. I described last week how the State Judicial Conduct Commission afforded her special treatment by applying a sanction more lenient than the ones seemingly required under the Texas Constitution...

Does drug treatment for juveniles increase recidivism?

Posted on July 30, 2010
Back in January I reported on the bizarre finding that Texas Youth Commission inmates who went through drug treatment had higher recidivism rates than addicted youth who didn't receive those services, according to a legislatively mandated report (pdf)...

Friday Roundup: NIMBYism, Incarceration Incentives, and Len Bias' Fading Ghost

Posted on July 30, 2010
Here are a few quick, end-of-the-week links that didn't make it into full blog posts this week:The Slow Fade of Len Bias' GhostThat's the title of a Dallas Morning News column by Mark Osler, who says it's "pathetic" it took 24 years to reduce the crack/powder disparity in federal sentencingReentry Housing Inhibited by NIMBYism Run AmokMost recently in Dallas and Houston...

What trick, what device, what starting-hole canst thou now find out?

Posted on July 29, 2010
Rodger Jones at the Dallas News sent Forensic Science Commission Chairman John Bradley a set of written questions - some of them pretty good ones, IMO - to which Bradley responded by saying Jones sounded like a "New York lawyer" and refusing to answer them...

DRP amnesty, indigence rules featured at Texas Tribune

Posted on July 29, 2010
I failed to mention that Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune this week had a feature on the DPS Driver Responsibility Program, new indigency and amnesty rules for which are due to be published as early as tomorrow in the Texas Register. Yours truly was quoted briefly in the article.

The Future of Juvenile Parole and Re-entry

Posted on July 29, 2010
The Texas Public Policy Foundation has announced a upcoming event that may interest Grits readers:POLICY PRIMER - The Future of Juvenile Parole and Re-entryAugust 12th, 2010How can Texas enhance its approach to parole and reentry to break the cycle of youth crime so there are fewer victims and taxpayers pay less to re-incarcerate the same youths? Featuring:     * The Honorable Jim McReynolds    Chairman, House Corrections Committee    * The Honorable Robert Eckels    Former Harris County Judge    * Cheryln Townsend    Executive Director, Texas Youth Commission    * David Reilly    Chief, Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department    Thursday, August 12, 2010    11:30am - 1:00pm    Texas Public Policy Foundation Offices - 900 Congress, Ste 400 - Austin, TX 78701    Click here to register...

Civil litigation over completely corrupt jail on OK border

Posted on July 28, 2010
An array of civil litigation has arisen related to the outrageous scandal at the Montague County jail last year, where the Sheriff and other leos allegedly took a cut from drug dealing and coerced sex from inmates. Reports the Wichita Falls Times Record News ("Four women file suit in sheriff scandal," July 28):As a long list of criminal complaints related to the Montague County Jail scandal works out of the courts, a spate of civil cases related to the scandal are working their way in...

US House votes to reduce crack/powder disparity

Posted on July 28, 2010
I just finished watching the US House floor debate on S1789 reducing the crack/powder disparity in federal sentencing guidelines from 100-1 to 18-1 and am pleased to see the bill is now headed to the President in a rare bipartisan moment for Washington...

A stolen life: Latest DNA exoneree did 27 years for rape he didn't commit

Posted on July 28, 2010
Several readers emailed to inform me of yet another DNA exoneration out of Harris County. Reports the Houston Chronicle ("DNA clears man 27 years after rape conviction," July 28):A Houston man prosecutors now say is innocent is expected to be freed this week after serving more than 27 years in prison ? the longest time behind bars of any Texan who has been exonerated ? for a rape he did not commit...

'Harris County sweetens public defender proposal'

Posted on July 28, 2010
The title of this post is the headline to a Houston Chronicle article published yesterday bringing news that Harris County has altered its proposal for a public defender office to include more courts after the Task Force on Indigent Defense balked at funding a more limited plan:Seeking to strengthen its bid for state funding to open a public defender office, Harris County has changed its application to ask for less money and to propose public defenders in more courtrooms...

ACLUTX on truancy, youth rights

Posted on July 27, 2010
The ACLU of Texas filed a lawsuit in Hidalgo County related to how truancy cases are handled in Hidalgo County, according to Valleycentral.com:The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class action lawsuit against all nine justices of the peace regarding the way they handle truancy cases...

Cuts to state mental health treatment would shift costs to local jails

Posted on July 27, 2010
As we approach an 82nd Texas Legislature that will be dominated by big-picture budget decisions, arguably cuts to mental health spending may be the biggest looming crisis for the justice system at all levels. Lillian Aguirre Ortiz of Mental Health America of Greater Houston recently outlined the effects of proposed cuts to mental health services in a column in the Houston Chronicle:While legislators are expected to face a difficult financial situation during the 82nd Texas Legislature, our state's leadership needs to fully understand and consider the ramifications of the proposed $134 million in cuts...

"Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little"

Posted on July 26, 2010
I should reference this notable Economist piece on US incarceration policies, "Too many laws, too many prisoners: Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little," which touches on many themes common to this blog. Here's a taste:Justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country...

'Punishment at jail for families, too?' Might web video solve visitation access?

Posted on July 26, 2010
The part of the title in quotes is the headline of a San Antonio Express-News story yesterday about Bexar County Jail visitation that opens thusly:Some days Sylvia Gomez thinks it is harder for her to get inside the Bexar County Jail to visit her son than it would be for him to break out and come to her...

Official Voyeurism: Open record exemptions leaves only voluntary disclosure of camera abuses

Posted on July 26, 2010
A Dallas area TV station last week reported:A Dallas County Sheriff's Lieutenant is out of a job after the department says he used jail cameras to watch female inmates in the shower.Lt. Steven Gentry, an 18-year veteran of the department, violated departmental policy, according to Sheriff's spokesman Kim Leach...

Authors explore stories of Texas exonerees

Posted on July 26, 2010
This press release (pdf) notifies us of the upcoming publication of a new book telling the stories of a dozen Texas exonerees. Reverend Dorothy Budd rejoiced at the recent announcement that deaf inmate Stephen Brodie may become the latest Texas prisoner to win his freedom after being wrongfully convicted...

States seek to fix broken probation systems

Posted on July 26, 2010
Looking outside Texas' borders for just a moment, let me point out a couple of notable stories from other states on the usually sleepy subject of community supervision.An investigative report from the Boston Globe on the Massachusetts probation department found cronyism in hiring, dramatically inflated caseloads aimed at boosting state allocations, and a GPS monitoring program that was expensive and failed at most of its fundamental goals...

Preoccupying food question requires reader input

Posted on July 26, 2010
I have an off-topic food-related question I'm going to throw out to readers just on the off chance somebody has special insight, even though doing so requires me to apologize for self-indulgently straying far from the usual subjects covered on this blog...

The wish list, an empty, overbuilt jail, and the irony of short-sighted NIMBYism

Posted on July 26, 2010
A few blogworthy odds and ends:Law enforcement wish listLaw enforcement interests gathered in North Texas this week to hash out their collective legislative wish list.Jail pitched as paying for itself losing contractsAdd Dickens County to the list of places that overbuilt their local jails aiming to lease extra space for a profit, only to find taxpayers saddled with sizable debt for a mostly empty facility now that demand for beds is dropping...

Corpus police won't chase traffic violators or non-DWI misdemeanants

Posted on July 25, 2010
The Corpus Christi PD implemented a new high-speed chase policy this week, reports the Caller-Times ("Corpus Christi police update pursuit policy," July 24): "It is now the department?s official policy not to pursue motorists for traffic violations or misdemeanors other than driving under the influence, Cmdr...

If arson science in Willingham cas was 'flawed,' what about other, similar cases?

Posted on July 24, 2010
Two pieces of news from yesterday's Forensic Science Commission meeting in Houston stand out: 1) John Bradley's new, unilateral legal interpretation declaring the FSC couldn't investigate the Todd Willingham case was unanimously rejected, and 2) a committee examining the case said in an interim finding that "flawed science" was presented  in the Willingham case, but no negligence or misconduct by investigators occurred...

Latest exoneration out of Houston based on false eyewitness ID

Posted on July 24, 2010
Allen Porter walked free an innocent man in Houston yesterday after DNA and fingerprint evidence convinced Harris County DA Pat Lykos to reopen the case after 19 years. Allan Turner at the Houston Chronicle described the emotional scene in court:Dabbing at her teary eyes, state District Judge Joan Campbell said Thursday she will recommend that authorities free a Houston man who has served 19 years ? almost half his life - in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit...

Tulia documentary nominated for Emmy

Posted on July 24, 2010
Following news that the "Tulia law" requiring corroboration for informants in undercover drug stings is still working as intended to prevent drug convictions without adequate evidence, I'm pleased to learn from Rev. Alan Bean at Friends of Justice (a group founded in 1999 to fight the Tulia raids) that the documentary film "Tulia, Texas" has been nominated for an Emmy...

Special treatment for Keller may create "bad law" around judicial misconduct

Posted on July 23, 2010
Reacting to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's "public warning" regarding Judge Sharon Keller, I said on Wednesday that " I don't understand how the "warning" option jibes with earlier reports that the only options available were removal, censure, or exoneration...

Orwellian-named immigration policy massively subsidizes private prisons in Texas

Posted on July 23, 2010
Bob Libal at Texas Prison Bidness has authored a "green paper" (pdf) on behalf of the group Grassroots Leadership critiquing the Orwellian-named "Operation Streamline," which is the Bush-initiated practice of layering criminal charges for illegal entry on top of civil detention prior to deportation...

Reversed and aquitted: 80-year drug sentence overturned based on 'Tulia law'

Posted on July 23, 2010
Liberty and Justice for Y'all brings word of a case out of the 11th Court of Appeals where the appellate court overturned a guilty verdict and an 80 year sentence over 3.7 grams of cocaine, ordering acquittal because an informant's testimony in a drug case wasn't corroborated...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.