Criminal Law

Rapid cleanup best graffiti antidote

Posted on July 12, 2009
I wanted to point readers to several interesting, recent news stories related to graffiti, particularly regarding the issue of rapid cleanup, which I've long believed is the single most effective strategy a city can undertake to combat graffiti:Rapid cleanup best graffiti antidoteHere's an interesting little profile of a code enforcement employee in Chandler, AZ, a Phoenix suburb, whose full-time job is cleaning up graffiti, which he is usually able to remove within 24 hours of a new report...

Unlikely Voices: Families of sex offender registrants organizing

Posted on July 12, 2009
I was pleased yesterday to get to spend a little time with Mary Sue Molnar and the folks at Texas Voices (a group made up of families of registered sex offenders) at their statewide conference here in Austin. By the time I showed up in the late morning there were perhaps 60-70 folks there; I walked in just in time to hear most of their legislative update...

Geo Group secretly snagged forensic psych hospital contract in budget conference committee

Posted on July 11, 2009
Amazing! Emily Ramshaw at the Dallas News reports that legislators inserted a provision into the state budget in conference committee to pay for a privately-run psych prison in Montgomery County to be run by the Geo Group, even though no state agency requested it and the idea didn't make it through the budget process in either chamber...

'Legislative report says Perry can issue posthumous pardons'

Posted on July 10, 2009
The title of this post is also the headline of a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story in which we learn that the Texas Legislative Council thinks Governor Perry has authority to issue a posthumous pardon to Timothy Cole, who died in prison before DNA testing could finally exonerate him last year, without passing a constitutional amendment...

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Oversight: Why so little MSM coverage after Texas abolished LWOP for juveniles?

Posted on July 10, 2009
Doug Berman at the Sentencing Law & Policy blog made an observation on Wednesday which hadn't occurred to me about the surprising lack of media coverage that resulted after Texas abolished "life without parole" for juveniles convicted of capital murder...

SA jail shrink: Free-world services for mentally ill a must

Posted on July 10, 2009
The San Antonio Express-News ran a lengthy and informative profile this week of Dr. Sally Taylor, head of psychiatric services at the Bexar County Jail ("Doc puts inmates mental health first," July 5). In particular the reporter (whose name I could only guess at pronouncing) highlights Taylor's role in passing new legislation to allow jails to force mentally ill patients to take their psych meds...

Cameras in patrol cars benefit no one if not filming

Posted on July 10, 2009
Austin police have cameras in most patrol cars which have frequently proven to be an invaluable boon, but now the department is struggling to ensure its officers routinely use them. According to an editorial in today's Austin Statesman ("Value of getting it on the record, July 10"):This is a very good time for Austin police officials to review the department's patrol car camera policies to determine whether they need to be strengthened, clarified or revised...

Tracking new federal stimulus money for Texas law enforcement

Posted on July 09, 2009
I was scanning the Texas Register today, which is something I don't do often enough (lots of blog fodder), and ran across an interesting pattern: Several regional COGs (Councils of Government) have been meeting this week, many of them yesterday, to evaluate recommendations for spending the enlarged Byrne grant fund that was part of the federal stimulus package...

Wednesday Morning Link Dump

Posted on July 08, 2009
Here's some good stuff to read on Grits' usual topics while I'm focused elsehwere this a.m.:For starters, check out "Public Intoxication = Police Brutality?," a meditation on the Rainbow Lounge raid and Texas PI statutes from Robert Guest at the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer's Blog...

Steep decline in ex-offenders' probability of re-offending

Posted on July 07, 2009
After about 7.7 years after their last offense, if new Justice Department-funded research is correct, people with robbery convictions not only are much less likely to commit a new offense but thereafter are statistically less likely than the general population to commit new crimes...

Accidents mount in face of Dallas constables', sheriff's outdated pursuit policies

Posted on July 07, 2009
Tanya Eiserer at the Dallas News is arguably the best crime-beat reporter in the Lone Star State, and a well-researched article last week about pursuit policies at the Dallas Sheriff and constables' offices is a good example why I say that.After "Dallas County constables [were] involved in two of three police pursuits that occurred in the span of two days, including Monday's 90-minute chase that ended in a T-bone crash in Garland," Eiserer followed up with a story comparing pursuit policies acquired under the open records act for all the other constables' offices and large law enforcement agencies ("In Dallas County, sheriff's department and constables have wide latitude for pursing suspects," July 2)...

Would Wii graffiti app promote or reduce real-world graff?

Posted on July 07, 2009
I've been advocating on Grits for mainstreaming graffiti as much as possible, and this idea - a proposed-but-not-yet-marketed graffiti app for the Nintendo Wii - might take graffiti about as mainstream as it could get.The idea immediately made me think of the exhibition by the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey that drew criticism for a popular museum installation that let young kids do graffiti on an electronic, erasable tableau, a concept also being explored in a variety of environments by Graffiti Research Labs...

Praise for PEP

Posted on July 07, 2009
There's a nice column in the Houston Chronicle about a visit by a group of businesspeople to Catherine Rohr's much acclaimed Prison Entrepreneurship Program ("What can we learn from prisoners?," June 7), which apparently made quite an impression:In five years, 440 prisoners have graduated from the four-month Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)...

Lack of AC chilling for TDCJ staffing efforts

Posted on July 06, 2009
The Dallas News published a story yesterday titled "Most Texas state prisons deal with summer heat without air conditioning," which reviews an issue that's all too familiar for most inmates and prison employees: Only 19 of 112 Texas state prisons are air-conditioned, leaving most of the state's 155,000 prisoners and those who guard them to face the summer heat with fans and primitive air-circulating systems...

Does a receptive climate toward immigrants reduce crime?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Radley Balko at Reason thinks he has an answer for why El Paso ranks among the safest large cities in America:"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts...

Their next plan is to beat up a rabbi on Yom Kippur

Posted on July 06, 2009
I hadn't mentioned the case sooner because I really have nothing insightful or thought provoking to add, but the fallout from a recent TABC/police raid in Fort Worth of a gay bar on the anniversary of New York's Stonewall riot has begun to snowball, receiving a lot of national press attention...

Tagging and community pride

Posted on July 05, 2009
It's always important to take pride in your work, which was the subject of an hysterical sketch about gang graffiti that aired on MAD-TV last night. Given the frequent policy discussions on the topic usually presented on this blog, I thought readers might enjoy a lighter take...

Too many Texas bribery cases to ignore

Posted on July 04, 2009
"The wicked accept secret bribes to pervert justice." Proverbs 17:23Maybe it's really the case that bribery and public corruption are becoming more commonplace, or maybe I'm just paying closer attention, but here's yet another instance of drug-war related corruption, this time involving an El Paso-based DEA Agent:A former DEA agent who pleaded guilty to bribery charges was sentenced to a year in federal prison on Thursday, acting U...

DPS must change rules to give life to Driver Responsibility indigency program

Posted on July 03, 2009
One of the under-recognized achievements of the 81st Texas Legislature was the addition of two amendments by state Rep. Sylvester Turner to the Department of Public Safety's Sunset bill requiring the agency to implement an indigence program for its Orwellian-named Driver Responsibility surcharge...

3 false convictions linked to dog-based scent lineups in Florida

Posted on July 03, 2009
Since I first wrote about "scent lineups" conducted by dogs, this questionable forensic tactic has garnered a lot more attention with another civil suit filed in Victoria and critical national news coverage (in USA Today), all focused on Texas' chief proponent and practitioner of scent lineups, Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett...

Clean urinalysis results allegedly exchanged for bribes in Houston

Posted on July 03, 2009
I wrote last week that Texas has enough ongoing corruption cases to support a single-issue Texas Bribery Blog, and two recent examples provide a case in point. Somehow I missed the story about a "urine monitor" at the Harris County probation department who was "charged with bribery in May for allegedly taking $200 to submit a fake drug test form...

Pretrial hearing set on TYC sex abuse cases

Posted on July 02, 2009
Hopefully there will be some MSM reporters heading out to Ward County to cover the trials of two former TYC employees accused of sexually abusing inmates when the case finally gets underway July 23, as reported by AP. This news confirms my sense that it was a recalcitrant judge, not some hesitance to prosecute on the part of the Attorney General, that was holding up prosecutions in these high-profile cases.

Inmate families viewed as revenue source instead of anti-recidivism partners

Posted on July 02, 2009
Inmate families offer the best and most frequently cited source of assistance for offenders who want to turn their lives around, but too often the state treats them as criminals, too, instead of as partners in promoting their loved ones' rehabilitation...

Presser urges Perry to add Tim Cole pardon authorization to call

Posted on July 01, 2009
Today is Timothy Cole's birthday, and the Texas Legislature opens its special session I'm headed up to the capitol soon to attend a: Press conference commemorating Tim Cole's birthday and requesting the Governor add a posthumous pardons constitutional amendment to the call for the special session ( AUSTIN )// Senator Ellis, Ruby and Cory Session, Tim Cole's mother and brother, will hold a press conference on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 2pm on the South Steps of the Capitol, to commemorate Tim Cole's birthday and urge Governor Perry to add a posthumous pardons constitutional amendment to the call for the special session...

SCOTUS to review Miranda, civil commitments

Posted on July 01, 2009
Via SCOTUSBlog, I notice the Supreme Court this week agreed to hear two interesting looking criminal cases:Docket: 08-1175 Title: Florida v. PowellIssue: Must a suspect be expressly advised to his right to counsel during questioning and if so, does the failure to provide this express advice vitiate Miranda v...

TDCJ prisoner decline could bust privatization scheme for Grayson County Jail

Posted on June 30, 2009
In Grayson County last year, officials were enamored of the idea that they could expand their local jail without taxpayers "footing the bill" if they built it out much larger than necessary, allowed a private company to operate it, and leased out empty space to the Department of Criminal Justice...

Survey: Family best ally for successful post-prison reentry

Posted on June 30, 2009
Results from three new surveys by the Urban Institute provide a lot of new detail and analysis regarding barriers to successful reentry for prisoners returning from TDCJ to Houston. See their recent reports:One Year Out: The Experiences of Male Returning Prisoners in Houston, Texas Women on the Outside: Understanding the Experiences of Female Prisoners Returning to Houston, Texas When Relatives Return: Interviews with Family Members of Returning Prisoners in Houston, Texas To point out just a handful of notable survey-based findings from the longitudinal study of returning male prisoners:In terms of supporting themselves financially, men left prison with thousands of dollars of debt, and many faced challenges in seeking employment due to lack of photo identification and the existence of a criminal record...

Lion prides operate like street gangs

Posted on June 30, 2009
I thought this was an interesting anthropological observation:"The most important way to think about this is that lion prides are like street gangs," says [lion researcher Craig] Packer. "They compete for turf. The bigger the gang, the more successful it is at controlling the best areas...

Will Melendez-Diaz compel confrontation for parole revocation certificates?

Posted on June 30, 2009
R.J. MacReady over at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blog analyzes possible implications for Texas from last week's Melendez-Diaz ruling by SCOTUS. Though Scalia expressly cited Texas' statute on confrontation of lab experts as an example of state law that already complied with the new ruling, MacReady thinks Melendez-Diaz could result in a change to how Texas courts view confrontation in cases involving business records and parole revocation certificates:Scalia also goes into talk about business records, and this portion of he opinion may be a little more than cosmetic...

'Scent lineups stink to critics'

Posted on June 30, 2009
The title of this post is the headline over a USA Today article published today voicing criticisms of Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett's use of bloodhounds to conduct "scent lineups," which have led to false accusations in two recent cases including one that resulted in a DNA exoneration...

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