Twin Peaks defendants offered misdemeanor probation, negligent murder, and other stories

Let's clear some browser tabs with a roundup post. Here are several items of which Grits readers should be aware, even if I haven't had time to write about them:

Twin Peaks defendants headed to trial
The McLennan DA offered one of the 150+ defendants in the Twin Peaks biker massacre a plea deal of a deferred misdemeanor probation instead of the first-degree felony he was charged with, and the defendant said no, we're going to trial. Grits had earlier placed the over-under regarding how many of the original 177 people arrested would be convicted of anything at 1.5. That still sounds about right, though at the moment, if Grits were a betting man, I'd place my wager on "under." I couldn't begin to estimate the over-under regarding how much this fiasco may eventually cost McLennan County in civil suits for constitutional rights violations, but it'd be a good bet it'll be a non-trivial number.

Firing director not a cure-all for Dallas juvie detention woes
In Dallas, the juvenile probation director may or may not have been run out of her job but is definitely on the hot seat for allegations that youth under her care at a treatment center weren't allowed time for outdoor exercise. The same facility last year witnessed allegations  that five boys aged 13 to 17 engaged in sex acts with one another while sleeping on the floor of the cafeteria due to understaffing. I don't dispute that the chief needs to go, but this is not an NFL team. Firing the coach doesn't change much about a government bureaucracy, which is more effectively influenced through the passage of laws, policies, and budgets. At the end of the day, real solutions will likely involve ponying up more money for staff and services to solve the problem, not just firing the bureaucrat in charge.

All about the money
It took a guest columnist instead of working reporters to get to the heart of the debate over Austin's newly rejected police contract. Read Lauren Ross' article, it's the first time in the local press that the economic critiques of contract critics have been presented to MSM consumers in full form.

Six year old died in awful shooting by Bexar deputies
A six year old was killed by a stray bullet last month after four Bexar County Sheriff's deputies, including one with a rifle, opened fire at an unarmed suspect, who also died (law enforcement insists she earlier had a gun but now cannot find it). As a result, the Sheriff is reviewing use of force policies. This one is a mess. The officers appear to have fired based on assumptions they brought with them to the scene, not what they saw in front of them. And clearly they didn't take into account that she was standing in front of an occupied mobile home when they opened fire. Bodycam footage would help here. A GoFundMe page was created on behalf of the family to cover funeral expenses.

Some TDCJ units ill-equipped for cold weather
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice faces allegations that inmates at up to 30 units slept in un- or under-heated cells during the recent cold snap. TDCJ denies the problem, but the Texas Inmate Family Association identified a couple of dozen underheated units, notably including the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls. Editorialized the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "An ongoing lawsuit is demanding the state improve summer conditions. While they’re at it they should fix the heating for winter."

Negligent murder?
In Waco, a murder conviction was overturned because the jury was instructed to convict a defendant of murder based on "reckless" and "negligent" rather than "intentional" behavior. (A day care owner had given children in her care Benadryl and one of them died.) Prosecutors have appealed the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where three votes to uphold the conviction are virtually guaranteed.

Clemency beneficiary reoffends
When Barack Obama issued sentence commutations to hundreds of drug offenders, it was inevitable that some of them would eventually reoffend. That has finally happened in San Antonio. The Express-News had the coverage. While some may use this to criticize the commutations, to me it's remarkable it's taken so long for somebody to screw up, and more remarkable still that the overwhelming majority of those with commuted sentences have not gotten into trouble again.

3 policies that punish the poor
Rudy Apodaca, the former chief judge of the New Mexico Court of Appeals, now living in Austin, had a column in the Express News linking three punishing policies for the poor: Overreliance on property taxes, money bail for criminal defendants, and the Driver Responsibility surcharge. He concluded, "Without change, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor poorer, the gap between them growing further apart. And caught in between, the middle class will keep struggling."

(Literally) sick of prison food
The Atlantic has the story of prison food literally making inmates sick. Prison inmates are six times as likely to contract a food-borne illness compared to the rest of the population, a recent study found.

With less crime, do we need fewer cops?
The Washington Post pointed out that, despite crime plummeting in the last three decades, the number of police has not declined. "In 2016, there were slightly more officers per capita than in 1991, when violent crime peaked, according to data collected by the F.B.I. Now, officers deal with half the crimes per capita that they did then." Grits could make an even stronger case that we have too many prosecutors.