Reasonably Suspicious Christmas episode: The Grinch story "if the Whos were us," plus the policy failure of high fines, examining recent innocence cases, and reviewing Texas' biggest criminal-justice stories of 2019

Here's the December 2019 episode of Just Liberty's Reasonably Suspicious podcast, co-hosted by me and our good friend Mandy Marzullo, of the Texas Defender Service. This month includes a special Christmas poem in the intro! Enjoy:

Here's what's on deck this month:

Intro

• Christmas Poem: "If The Whos Were Us"

Top Stories

• Why high fines and fees are a plague on the criminal-justice system.

Musical interlude: Debtors Prison Blues

• What recent Texas innocent cases tell us about needed policy reforms.

Year in Review: Fill in the Blank

• Bail reform in Harris County
• Abolition of the Driver Responsibility surcharge
• Texas Legislature unintentionally decriminalizes marijuana
• More prosecutors going after cops in police shootings

The Last Hurrah

• Care for seniors makes up half of Texas prison health budget
• Prison supervisor busted in contraband scheme
• How Potter County lost ALL its historic criminal-court data to a ransomware attack and what it means

You can listen to the podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud. As always, I'll order a transcript and post it below the jump when it's ready.