Criminal Law

Sunset: TYC, county probation, don't gather, share enough information

Posted on November 23, 2008
Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series analyzing highlights from the Texas Youth Commission/Juvenile Probation Comission "Sunset" staff report released earlier this month.Whether or not the Legislature agrees to merge the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission as proposed in the Sunset Advisory Commission staff report (pdf), Sunset staff raise a number of significant concerns that need to get resolved one way or another, regardless of what bureaucratic structure governs the activity...

Has TDCJ learned the right lessons from death row cell phone scandal?

Posted on November 23, 2008
An article by Mike Ward in the Austin Statesman today ("Cell phones hard to find on death row," Nov. 23) makes me fear Texas prison administrators haven't learned the right lessons from the recent rash of contraband discoveries (particularly cell phones) on death row:"A year ago, we were amazed to find an inmate with both a cell phone and a charger up there," John Moriarty, the state prison system's inspector general, said Thursday...

Graft alleged in Bexar bond referrals

Posted on November 23, 2008
John MacCormack at the San Antonio Express News has a superb article ("Bail bond king spreads his favors," Nov. 23) describing the recent rise of a local bail bondsman. The story opens thusly:As a new operator in the rough-and-tumble Bexar County bail bond business, Albert Saenz quickly climbed to the top after opening his first modest office in 2003 on South Pan Am Expressway...

DPS forays into immigration enforcement sacrifice public safety

Posted on November 22, 2008
I'm a little late to the game in mentioning it (despite prodding from a couple of readers), but the Department of Public Safety retracted its request to the Texas Attorney General (discussed on Grits here) for permission to launch a program of roadblocks without legislative approval to check drivers' licenses and liability insurance...

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Would juvie probation be de-prioritized if merged with TYC?

Posted on November 21, 2008
While I remain agnostic about its core suggestion of merging the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission, the Sunset Advisory Commission staff report (pdf) provides a unique overview of the juvenile justice system across agencies and jurisdictions and supplies what will inevitably be the framework for debate over what happens at the Lege next spring...

R.I.P. Jim Mattox, 1943-2008

Posted on November 21, 2008
James Albon "Jim" Mattox held many jobs in politics over the years dating all the way back to his election to the Texas House in 1972 as one of the "Dirty Thirty." But most folks remember him as Texas' last, honest-to-God liberal Attorney General, a post in which he served from 1982-1990...

TYC sex abuse case stalled for lack of defense counsel

Posted on November 20, 2008
According to AP:The state's sexual abuse case against a former youth prison administrator has stalled since his attorney was arrested and stopped appearing at hearings, court records show. Scott M. Dolin, an Austin attorney who had been hired to defend Ray Brookins in the ongoing probe of sexual abuses at a Texas Youth Commission jail, stopped appearing in court after being arrested, according to records filed by the Texas Attorney General's Office...

Corrupt guards still smuggling phones onto death row

Posted on November 20, 2008
Two more cell phones were found on Texas death row Tuesday. Can their be any doubt the Polunsky Unit has a serious, continuing problem with corrupt guards on its staff?

A look at Obama's AG pick: Eric Holder

Posted on November 20, 2008
I've been searching around this morning trying to learn more about President-elect Barack Obama's reported choice for US Attorney General, Eric Holder, a former deputy AG from the Clinton Administration who briefly became acting head of DOJ at the end of Clinton's term...

High interest rates delay McLennan jail construction

Posted on November 20, 2008
In Waco, McLennan County Commissioners are temporarily postponing jail construction because of high interest rates resulting from Wall Street's credit crunch, the Waco Tribune Herald reports ("Rough financial markets delaying construction of McLennan County jail," Nov...

Human trafficking is fallout from failed immigration policies

Posted on November 19, 2008
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and State Senator Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) held a press conference this week (see the video) to unveil a new AG office report on the subject of "human trafficking" (link here - pdf).In Texas' context, human trafficking is mostly an unintended consequence of pointlessly restrictive immigration policies that forbid workers from entering the United States legally to work...

Study: 88% of Texas police and sheriffs have no written policy on eyewitness ID procedures, even fewer follow best practices

Posted on November 19, 2008
This morning at a 10:30 press conference up at the Texas state capitol, the Justice Project will unveil its new public policy report analyzing eyewitness ID procedures from Texas police departments. (UPDATE: Here's the link [pdf] to the full report including a matrix analyzing policies from 750 departments...

Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales indicted in South Texas

Posted on November 19, 2008
TChris at Talk Left beat me to this one so I'll let him explain the details and why we shouldn't "expect Cheney or Gonzeles to do the perp walk any time soon."

Keeping drunks dry through technocorrections?

Posted on November 19, 2008
One of the criminal justice trends I've failed to track as closely on Grits as the subject probably merits is the rise of so-called technocorrections, using technology instead of jails and prisons to monitor offenders in the community. The two most successful technocorrections monitoring solutions so far have arguably been GPS tracking (usually with an ankle monitor) and ignitition interlock devices that require DWI recidivists to blow into a breathalyzer before their car will start...

Will TYC-TJPC merger improve youth corrections?

Posted on November 18, 2008
One thing that was missing from the TYC-TJPC Sunset report (pdf) advocating a merger between the two agencies was any mention of shifting to a more progressive system with smaller facilities as pioneered in the Missouri model, which many experts including the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel have urged Texas to follow...

Pondering the economics of TYC abolition

Posted on November 18, 2008
Last week's Sunset report (pdf) recommending a merger between the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission is a detailed 120+ page document, so rather than write one long analysis, I'm going to pull out some highlights into shorter posts which hopefully will be a bit more reader friendly...

'Round the bend with Leo Berman on immigration

Posted on November 18, 2008
The Texas Legislature can be a lot more fun (or at least, a little less frustrating) if you step back every once in a while to enjoy the process purely for its entertainment value.I spent some time this morning going through additional pre-filed bills in the House and Senate as we approach the 81st Texas Legislature, and discovered that the state rep from my hometown - Leo Berman, R-Tyler - filed an hysterically funny piece of legislation in HB 254, "relating to restricting illegal immigrants to certain geographic regions...

ICE ignoring crooks to target immigrant workers

Posted on November 18, 2008
The Houston Chronicle ran a three part series by Susan Carroll this week on immigrants in the local justice system, focusing on the fact that 3/4 of illegal immigrants processed through the Harris County Jail are not flagged for deportation by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents (see here, here, and here)...

Brady violation may lead to next Dallas exoneration

Posted on November 17, 2008
One of the worst examples I've seen of a so-called Brady violation - where prosecutors withhold exculpatory evidence in their possession from the defense - may be found in a story by Jennifer Emily in today's Dallas Morning News, which brings word of what may be Dallas' next exoneration of a convicted defendant in a sex crime, but this time not because of DNA testing...

Dallas DA needs to develop thicker skin

Posted on November 16, 2008
While most District Attorneys around the state are green with envy at the positive press Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins has received - from his appearance on 60 Minutes, the Dallas News naming him a finalist for 2007 Texan of the Year, and up to his recent feature on the cover of Governing magazine - a few negative stories about him (mostly by a single local TV station) have got the DA's dander up...

Back Gate poll finds prison staff fear retaliation for reporting misconduct

Posted on November 15, 2008
Over at The Back Gate, a prison staff-run website, a reader poll asks this question: "As a TDCJ employee, have you witnessed incidents on your unit that you were afraid to report to your warden(s) due to fears of career suicide and or retaliation? (be honest)"The result: 76% (338 out of 445 at the time of this writing)...

Honestly, I have no idea how that got there

Posted on November 15, 2008
TDCJ's statewide lockdown searching for cell phones has met with some success, but now that it's mostly over and new procedures are in place, they're still finding contraband, most recently again on death row, the Houston Chronicle reports, where "Prison staff conducting a shakedown of the row Friday found a cell phone secreted in the rectum of convicted murderer Henry Skinner at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston" using the X-ray machine in the infirmary.

Prison healthcare in disarray after Hurricane Ike

Posted on November 14, 2008
TDCJ officials yesterday updated the Legislature publicly for the first time (to my knowledge) on the status of health care services provided by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) after the prison hospital located on the island was closed because of Hurricane Ike...

Dozens of guards caught smuggling contraband during TDCJ lockdown

Posted on November 14, 2008
Yesterday's Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing began with Chairman John Whitmire questioning Department of Criminal Justice executive director Brad Livingston regarding the recent lockdown targeting cell phones and other contraband.Livingston said TDCJ has found 132 cell phones so far on 22 units, including another one on death row, with 46 of those found patting down guards on the front end...

Sunset's Plan to Abolish TYC

Posted on November 13, 2008
I probably won't have a chance to fully read their report until the weekend, but the papers this morning are full of news that Texas' Sunset Advisory Commission proposed merging the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission into a single juvenile justice agency...

DA lauded for Conviction Integrity Unit

Posted on November 13, 2008
Via the Dallas News Crime Blog, we discover that Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins is featured on the cover of the current Governing magazine, which honored him as one of its "Public Officials of the Year" for the work of his office's Conviction Integrity Unit...

Juries need more, better information to prevent false convictions

Posted on November 13, 2008
Find below the text of written testimony I submitted this morning on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas to the House Judiciary Committee in response to their interim charge on juries, also cross-posted on the Innocence Project of Texas' blog: Testimony on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas to the House Judiciary Committee regarding its Interim Charge related to Juries By Scott Henson, Innocence Project of Texas Policy Director, 11-13-08 First, thank you to the House Judiciary Committee for examining possible systemic changes to enhance the jury experience and increase citizen participation on juries...

New Harris DA should re-examine charging decisions on petty drug cases

Posted on November 12, 2008
Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey previews a Pat Lykos administration at the Harris County District Attorney's Office:here comes Lykos, who has not only never prosecuted but who also has never headed a large organization, to lead one of the largest law firms in town, with about 250 prosecutors and hundreds of support staff...

Federal litigation seeks individualized review of sex offender cases by parole board

Posted on November 12, 2008
The Dallas News has excellent coverage ("Criminals, advocates target Texas parole restrictions as unfair to sex offenders," Nov. 12) of litigation regarding assignment of sex offender restrictions (dubbed "Condition X") by the parole board, aiming to force the board to evaluate each case individually...

New Sunset Reports Out

Posted on November 12, 2008
I've not had time to read them yet, but three new "Sunset" evaluations of Texas criminal justice agencies were released today, including:Texas Youth CommissionTexas Juvenile Probation CommissionTexas Commission on Jail StandardsSee also Sunset reports for:Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationDepartment of Public Safety

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