Grits for Breakfast

The Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee has finally posted the agenda for its first meeting of the 83rd Legislature. They're gettin...

Will new Harris County DA Mike Anderson and his incoming first assistant Judge Belinda Hill torpedo the county's new mental health court...

An advisory group on veterans services convened by the Legislature recommended the criminal justice system be tweaked to accommodate veteran...

This blog has long criticized the state's de facto use of county jails as mental health wards, and particularly Texas' failure to pr...

Doug Berman pointed out an academic article titled " Theorizing Mental Health Courts " by E. Lea Johnston that builds on ideas di...

Here's a press release received today from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense: New Options Increase Treatment, Reduce Recidivism ...

Dallas County is experimenting with outpatient competency restoration for some mentally ill people charged with misdemeanors, rather than ho...

From Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle, check out this must-read series of stories on Travis County specialty courts: Niche Justice: Trav...

Having written over the weekend about the rise of Texas veterans courts, I was pleased to see Travis County announce they'd also create...

During the 81st Texas Legislature a little-noticed amendment to SB 1940 may have launched the most comprehensive, aggressive brand of ...

Yesterday morning I heard a provocative and informative talk at the Texas Judicial Advisory Council's biennial sentencing conference fr...

An editorial in the Houston Chronicle supporting creation of a Harris County mental health court mentions that on Wednesday, November 4: [H...