Here are a few items that may interest Grits readers:
The mounting crisis in indigent defense
According to Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune, "Texas is reaching a crisis point, putting itself at risk of a civil rights lawsuit — or worse, a total meltdown of the criminal justice system — because it so severely shortchanges the system designed to ensure impoverished accused criminals get adequate legal representation, advocates told a Senate committee last week."
Strange TX bedfellows model unlikely alliance on criminal justice reform
Writes Jessia Pupovac at the Crime Report, "Texas’ experience has gone a long way towards convincing other states to take the political risk of criminal justice reform. The savings achieved by the abandonment of expensive new prison-building projects have converted Texas legislators into effective national champions for reform."
Judge shopping for defense counsel that won't seek her recusal
Mark Bennett says Houston Judge Nancy Johnson shopped around for defense counsel in cases involving illegal immigrants looking for lawyers who would waive detention hearings that might force her to recuse herself because her husband is the acting US Attorney.
Jails as the new mental hospitals
Read Tom Kirkendall's post reacting to news that the number of mentally ill housed in prisons outnumbers those in hospitals.
A captive labor pool
I was surprised last session to see nonprofit groups showing up to oppose potential modifications to community service requirements because they didn't want to reduce their free labor pool. This story out of Kilgore describes the array of nonprofits and municipal functions that rely on local inmate labor in Gregg County.
Forward thinking on graffiti
Jeff Gerritt at the Detroit Free Press makes an observation about graffiti echoing suggestions frequently touted here on Grits. "Instead of trying to eradicate urban art, maybe the city ought to try to relegate it to certain public places. Philly has done it with mural art. With city government support, Philadelphia has become the mural capital of the world, attracting tourists worldwide."
Hiding police addresses lets them hide from accountability
Not long ago Texas moved to conceal police officers' and later judges' home addresses in public records. In California, a similar law has resulted in police officers ignoring thousands of parking tickets because the systems use public records to notify offenders and seek collections. I'll bet if Texas reporters cross-referenced parking absconders with local police rosters, the same thing is happening here.
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Defending Mexican citizens for "returning after deportation." Only a small number are ever apprehended.
Forward thinking on graffiti.
The Detroit Free Press and other progressives argue that gang taggin is art that must be tolerated and supported. That's "forward thinkin."
No public employee should have his address, etc concealed. You take my dough, I want to know where you live.
3:32, DFP argued no such thing and neither did I. You either didn't read the links provided or are just spewing out uninformed bile.
I thought the address concealment for police, judges, etc. didn't pass? Maybe this was in reference to property tax records. Hell, an armed security officer can have his information redacted from property tax records.
Maybe I was thinking of the property tax records; the reason I didn't do a longer post on that is I didn't have time to go look up what they did! They passed it for judges last session
Not sure you are right here. My personal information is listed in Austin MVD and LIDR records, including my home address. Information can be obtained also through tax appraisal records as you will read below.
Now as far as Texas peace officers not paying parking tickets you are probably right.
The public information disclosure exception for peace officer and jailer information I believes relates to the release of the information by the governmental entity who employs the officer and not some state agency who has the information in their system, like Austin MVD and LIDR.
Go to Open Records at Texas Government Code, Sec. 552.1175. CONFIDENTIALITY OF ADDRESSES, TELEPHONE NUMBERS, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, AND PERSONAL FAMILY INFORMATION OF PEACE OFFICERS, COUNTY JAILERS, SECURITY OFFICERS, AND EMPLOYEES OF THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE OR A PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE.
The Detroit Free Press is one of the worst offenders when it comes to the left wing bias in the media.
"Not long ago Texas moved to conceal police officers' and later judges' home addresses in public records. In California, a similar law has resulted in police officers ignoring thousands of parking tickets because the systems use public records to notify offenders and seek collections. I'll bet if Texas reporters cross-referenced parking absconders with local police rosters, the same thing is happening here."
a) You used to be a reporter. When did the valuable statistics and facts reported on this site get replaced with all this guessing and conjecture you've had up lately?
b) The obvious solution to the problem, if it exists, is to require a substitute address -- the place of work -- to be used, not to reveal the home addresses of people who do jobs that make other people want to occasionally kill our families.
7:28, I used to be a reporter but no one is either paying me to do this nor requiring you to read what I write. At the moment I'm not being paid to work on these issues professionally and am mostly focused on completely unrelated subjects.
So no, I recently haven't been putting the same amount of free labor into posts like this one that readers might have come to expect when I was ensconced in these topics for pay and it was easy to stay abreast of details. Indeed, I'm going to need to decide soon whether there's some business model for the endeavor or if I should close the blog altogether. Perhaps in the meantime you can point us to your blog where you do a better job so I can see how a real pro does it?
Apparently, one doesn't need to behave like a "real pro" even if one claims the credentials. One can "guess" and "bet" and "assume."
Just pointing out that it costs you cred, especially since you publish here under your own name (as opposed to those of us who publish anonymously online precisely because we're just lazy rumormongers.) But if you're fine with that, hell, it's your blog.
Gee, 3:21, I'm so sorry you think less of me. Whatever will I do?
Kirkendall claims that the U.S. Incarceration rate is 756 per 100k population. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show 2008 as the latest year with data and reports it as 504, (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/incrttab.cfm).
Is there an official place to get more up to date info that I am unaware of?
Thanks!
"The obvious solution to the problem, if it exists, is to require a substitute address -- the place of work -- to be used, not to reveal the home addresses of people who do jobs that make other people want to occasionally kill our families."
Why should you be any different? I get death threats, and other less dangerous stuff done AT MY HOME monthly, all due to your registry.
So here's a neat idea, find another job... Or atleast one that has shown and gained public perception to violate civil rights of persons daily.
so I will research the law tonight and if I find it is legal, I will do my part to post as much stuff about my local police force online that I can gather from public info!
how does the reason US District ruling in Smoak's court affect public information on Police officers concealing addresses?
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