Monday, June 06, 2016

Roundup: Buena suerte a Kerry Cook, pretrial detention, user-pay justice and a flooded prison

Lots more has been going on than Grits has had bandwidth to blog about, so let me flag a few items in a roundup format which merit readers' attention:

TDCJ's Terrell Unit, photo via AP.

8 comments:

  1. That's the C.T.Terrell Unit.

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  2. The water is clearly not inside the main building of the facility.

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  3. Fixed it, gracias 10:04.

    @11:10, hard to tell. The high water mark was several days prior.

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  4. Since Texas is being sued for not having the prisons air conditioned, any units with air conditioning should not be closed. I don't know if Terrell has it or not, but a/c should be the deciding factor.

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  5. I touched on this in a comment on a story you had about new theft rates. You hit on an important enhancement that needs serious overhaul. 2 Misd thefts + 1 = SJF is out of control.

    I agree, no one likes a thief. No business should be subjected to lost income, etc. But I have personally handled cases of SJF on a pair of pants, another dealing with baby formula, another dealing with a candy bar and others. All had two prior thefts, and all looking at 6 months to 2 years in a SJF. Is stealing wrong, yes. No question. But we are not talking about jewel heist masterminds who turn around and do it again. Time and time again it's low end theft. What is the remedy, I am not sure it's locking someone up for 6 months to 2 years, so they lose whatever income they did have, or any opportunity to have an income to have the taxpayers pay for incarceration.

    These are not rich folks who are bored, typically the poorest of the poor who are stealing essentials (e.g. jeans so they can have something to go to work in). Does it make right, no. But these SJF theft enhancements are not the answer either.

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  6. My God! Glad they evac'd the offenders and the officers! Target this one for demo!

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  7. Grits doesn't want anything to do with the Kerry Max Cook injustice in Tyler...a little nepotism involved Grits? The Smith county DA's(AD Clark, Jack Skeen, David Dobbs, Matt Bingham) have 40 yrs.of Criminal injustice against a innocent man Mr. Cook. Now Gary Udeshan of the innocent project has sold Mr.Cook out.

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