Saturday, March 30, 2019

Class C misdemeanor arrests and incarceration in Texas, by the numbers

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Beginning with the consideration of HB 482 (Thompson) in the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday, the Texas Le...
5 comments:
Thursday, March 28, 2019

Bail-reform blues: Can't please all parties when reforming pretrial-detention process

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Governor Greg Abbott's endorsement of bail reform last year appeared to give the issue fresh life. But Abbott has now  backed a bail-ref...
4 comments:
Saturday, March 23, 2019

Modifying 3-strikes theft enhancement would ↓ TX state-jail population

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On Monday, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will hear a good little decarceration bill modifying the enhancement for misdem...
8 comments:
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Why Police Should Be Required to Get a Warrant to Use Cell-Site-Simulators (aka, "stingrays")

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Legislation heard this week in the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee,  HB 352  (Blanco) would require warrants for Texas law enfo...
6 comments:
Monday, March 18, 2019

Podcast: Elsa Alcala says Texas death penalty unreliable; parsing new TX traffic-stop data; prospects for Lone-Star marijuana reform, and other stories

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Here's the March 2018 episode  of the Reasonably Suspicious podcast, recorded last week on the SXSW Podcast Stage hosted by Cadence13. F...
4 comments:
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Defining an 'undue hardship': Updating last session's debtors-prison reform bill

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The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday heard  HB 465 (White) , which is update legislation from debtors-prison reform le...
6 comments:
Saturday, March 09, 2019

New reports show Austin police use force at traffic stops much more often than other agencies

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UPDATE : Austin Police Chief Bryan Manley announced that his agency had mis-reported use-of-force data in its racial profiling report. See h...
10 comments:
Thursday, March 07, 2019

A tale of two approaches to Texas property-theft thresholds

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A pair of bills heard in two Texas House committees this week demonstrate opposing philosophies when it comes to incarcerating people for lo...
18 comments:
Wednesday, March 06, 2019

TX marijuana reform news, notes, and questions

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Grits' analysis of prospects for marijuana penalty reform haven't changed since the beginning of the legislative session . Full-blow...
12 comments:
Monday, March 04, 2019

Funding needed to bolster Office of Capital and Forensic Writs

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My Reasonably Suspicious podcast co-host, Amanda Marzullo, who is the executive director of the Texas Defender Service, asked me to publis...
2 comments:

Pot debate at #txlege launches early, Soldiers as cops?, Tailoring corrections practices to women prisoners, and other stories

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At the Texas Legislature this week, criminal-justice bills are finally being heard, although not yet in all committees, and all on the House...
12 comments:
Thursday, February 28, 2019

Reasonably Suspicious podcast: Harris commissioners nixed DA hiring request, and other stories

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The Harris County District Attorney can't hire more prosecutors, the Houston PD can't find the informant behind a botched SWAT-style...
3 comments:
Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Bill aims to close 'dead suspect loophole' to TX Public Information Act

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For 25 years in Texas, from 1971 to 1996, police files on closed criminal cases were open records, whether or not anyone was ultimately con...
Sunday, February 24, 2019

Bill limiting suspensions a start at untangling worst-in-nation driver-license mess

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Texas revokes more drivers licenses, by far, than any other state, The Washington Post reported last year . But House Corrections Committee ...
5 comments:
Thursday, February 21, 2019

Decarceration, police accountability, transparency: Little bills worth watching

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Much attention at the Texas Legislature gets paid to a handful of Big Bills in the criminal-justice world like bail reform, driver-surcharge...
24 comments:

Legislation filed to abolish driver surcharges

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Yesterday, Texas Senate State Affairs Committee Chairwoman Joan Huffman and House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Zerwas filed compan...
1 comment:
Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Turmoil at Lubbock ME, Texas' failing state jails, implications of youth-prison riot for raise-the-age bill, and other stories

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Here are a few browser-clearing odds and ends that merit Grits readers' attention: Lubbock ME's office a Grade A clusterf#@k The ...
3 comments:
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

TX bail-reform momentum growing amidst supportive press

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Source: SA Express-News In San Antonio, bail companies openly advertise to defendants that they should reject "personal bonds"...

Houston PD will end most no-knock warrants after botched drug raid

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"The no-knock warrants are going to go away like leaded gasoline in this city," declared Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo at a tow...
6 comments:
Sunday, February 17, 2019

Travis judges reject public defender, DA discretion the solution to budget constraints, crime deterrent from traffic stops minimal, and other stories

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Here are a few browser clearing odds and ends that merit Grits readers' attention: Travis County judges refuse state money for public ...
11 comments: