Effective Solutions for Texas

My friend Ann del Llano's terrific website, Effective Solutions for Texas, has undergone a Texas-style makeover and added a whole bunch of impressive new content.

See especially the resources she's posted from the Texas Justice Advisory Committee's Third Annual Sentencing Conference in January. I've barely started through some of U. Cincinnatti's Edward Latessa's work on "evidence based" probation practices she has linked, but along with terrific Texas-CJAD specific program information and sentencing-related news stories, it gives anybody who wants to understand the push to overhaul Texas' incarceration-weighted sentencing scheme even more background than sitting through a long legislative hearing (though that's also pretty informative).

Ann posted a newsletter (pdf) from Restorative Justice Ministries Network which announces its upcoming conference April 21-22 in Houston, and also notice of the May 6 "Quality of Life" conference of the Texas Alliance of the Formerly Incarcerated in San Antonio.

Finally, she posts detailed information including results of open records requests to the Governor's office regarding HB 2193, Texas' legislation strengthening the probation system that the Governor vetoed last year.

Ann and I both work with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition and the ACLU of Texas, so be ye hereby notified of said terrible conflict of interest - then rush over and check out her new digs.