Criminal Law

Point-counterpoint on underage drinking

Posted on August 23, 2008
The Dallas News this morning published an excerpt from this Grits post on the merits of lowering the drinking age, using it as a counterpoint for a longer column reprinted from a Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman, who makes a claim I don't believe stands up to rigorous scrutiny:It's true that in the old days, there was no college culture of clandestine, off-campus binge drinking...

Neat use of mapping software by criminal justice blogger

Posted on August 23, 2008
Not a Texas topic, but I thought I'd point readers to a really cool use by a criminal justice blog of a Google Maps application over at the Chicago Syndicate to create the "Chicago Mob Infamous Locations Map." (See a larger version.)That's a neat use by a blogger of free Google Map software, making me think perhaps I can find uses for the technique on Grits...

Hochberg: Create "warehouse" of publicly accessible criminal justice data

Posted on August 22, 2008
Rep. Scott Hochberg proposed an excellent idea at yesterday's House Corrections Committee as committee members were grilling witnesses trying to get to the bottom of data surrounding which counties sent how many offenders to state jail facilities and the related recidivism rates...

Texas Criminal Justice By the Numbers

Posted on August 22, 2008
Just a few bits of telling data about Texas' criminal justice system compiled from prior Grits posts:Proportion of Texas adults under control of the criminal justice system (in prison, jail, on probation or on parole): 1 in 21Increase in Texas' overall population 1978-2004: 67%Increase in Texas' prison population 1978-2004: 573%Number of felonies on the books in Texas: 2,324Number of Texas felonies involving oysters: 11Percentage of TDCJ inmates convicted of drug offenses: 19...

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Federal judge delays Jeff Wood execution

Posted on August 21, 2008
Greg Moses at the Texas Civil Rights Review and the SaveJeffWood.com website are reporting that a federal judge has issued a stay in the controversial Jeff Wood capital murder case. Wood was scheduled to be executed tonight.UPDATE: CBS News has an initial report declaring that the delay was "so Wood's attorneys could hire a mental health expert to pursue their arguments that he is incompetent to be executed," an issue that nearly kept him from being prosecuted in the first place...

Stories I'd blog about if I had more time

Posted on August 21, 2008
Quite a few news pieces caught Grits' attention recently that could each easily inspire its own blog post, but since I don't have nearly enough time to devote, let me just point readers to these criminal justice stories from the MSM:Experts question dozens of arson convictions, ABC News, Aug...

Highlights from TDCJ chief's testimony at House Corrections

Posted on August 21, 2008
The House Corrections Committee began its hearing this morning with testimony from Brad Livingston, E.D. of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Here are a few highlights:The largest recent contract approved at the board level is telephone contract, said Livingston...

Federal prisoners to get limited email access by 2011

Posted on August 21, 2008
Earlier this month, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice decided to join the other 49 US states in allowing most prison inmates regular access to telephones in the face of rampant cell phone smuggling by TDCJ guards. But the federal system is doing even more to reduce contraband flow and connect inmates with their families and approved contacts in the outside world, reported USA Today (Aug...

House Corrections to discuss technology, reentry and state jails

Posted on August 21, 2008
The Texas House Corrections Committee will meet this morning at 9 a.m. in the capitol to take up three interim charges that should generate a fascinating discussion:The House Committee on Corrections will hear invited and public testimony on the following interim charges:1...

'Round the blogs

Posted on August 20, 2008
While I take care of other business today, let me refer readers to these Texas blogs which all have up interesting and worthy recent posts:The Dallas News Crime Blog was recently upgraded to include regular contributions from beat reporters and will be belatedly added to Grits regular links list...

Should the US lower the drinking age?

Posted on August 20, 2008
Were you 21 (or of legal age) when you took your first sip of alcohol?Not me. Back when I began drinking, the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was still 19. Lawmakers raised it to 21 the year following my 19th birthday, so I could legally drink for a few months, then it became illegal again...

Mental health spending, TYC 'regionalization' highlight juvie corrections budgets for 2010-11

Posted on August 19, 2008
Let's point out a few highlights in recently issued agency proposals for state juvie corrections budgets that will surely frame legislative discussions in 2009. (For readers who may be interested in this level of detail, see the Texas Youth Commission's legislative appropriation request [LAR] for 2010-2011, and this LAR for the Juvenile Probation Commission...

Ombudsman: Public schools failed many TYC youth

Posted on August 19, 2008
TYC independent ombudsman Will Harrell yesterday presented a copy of his office's recent report on education services (pdf) at the Youth Commission to an interim hearing of the Texas Senate Education Committtee. (See prior Grits coverage.) In his written testimony, Harrell said TYC's education difficulties originated in the public schools:The Texas Youth Commission bears a great burden that can be traced back to failures of local school districts...

For all the hype, few actual abuse cases coming out of the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup

Posted on August 18, 2008
At the height of the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup, the state claimed 466 kids were abuse victims and dozens of fundamentalist Mormon men were suspected of sexual abuse charges. When the rubber met the road, though we've only seen "four removal requests and last month's indictment of six FLDS members on sexual abuse-related charges," reports the San Angelo Standard Times, while 66 child custody cases have been dropped...

Why wouldn?t innocence 'presumed' by criminal courts be 'actual'?

Posted on August 18, 2008
I'm going to be posting some over at the Innocence Project of Texas' blog (regular readers know I began working for them as a policy consultant a couple of months ago), and wanted to point Grits readers to an item I wrote there about a case of first impression pending at the Austin Court of Appeals regarding whether cases overturned on direct appeal qualify for compensation under Texas' wrongful convictions statutes, see "Splitting hairs on innocence compensaton claims: If unconvicted defendants are presumed innocent, why isn?t that innocence 'actual'?"The Austin appellate court declared only habeas appeals qualify for compensation, reversing a district court ruling that a defendant whose conviction was overturned on appeal because of insufficiency of evidence could pursue compensation under Chapter 103 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code...

House Corrections, TCJC focused on re-entry this week

Posted on August 18, 2008
On Thursday Aug. 21, the Texas House Corrections Committee will meet to gather information regarding three of their interim charges, one of which focuses on facilitating re-entry for ex-prisoners. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition sent out an email to supporters today containing links to some of the re-entry related materials they'll be presenting to the committee...

"It's a dog, it's OK. You can get another one"

Posted on August 18, 2008
Sometimes a few casual words accidentally reveal remarkably callous attitudes in the justice system that participants would never admit to in public.The classic example may be Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller refusing a last-minute appeal by a condemned appellant with the spurious bureaucratic excuse, "We close at 5...

TCLEOSE needs more power to investigate police corruption

Posted on August 18, 2008
The Sunset Commission and the Texas Legislature should take to heart two recommendations from the agency staff report (pdf) the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) to improve police accountability and oversight statewide.First, TCLEOSE asked for its investigators' authority to be expanded (p...

Dallas County scrounging for 'loose change' on jail costs but ignores potential savings from jailing fewer people

Posted on August 16, 2008
The Dallas News in a column titled 'Hits and Misses' (Aug. 16) labeled as a miss this suggestion from Dallas County for making ends meet on the backs of jail inmates:It sounded appealing, this idea to charge Dallas County jail inmates $25 a day, room and board, on misdemeanor offenses...

Forensic Science Commission will investigate science behind Cameron Willingham's capital arson conviction

Posted on August 15, 2008
The Texas Forensic Science Commission met in Houston today and voted to take on their first independent investigation involving an alleged wrongful conviction stemming from flawed forensic science - the case of Cameron Willingham, executed for an arson crime in which the arson investigators on the case later admitted they'd relied on flawed science for their conclusions...

TBCJ finally approves expanded prisoner phone access

Posted on August 15, 2008
AP brings word that the Texas Board of Criminal Justice yesterday finally passed new rules, discussed earlier on Grits here, allowing most TDCJ inmates more liberal access to telephones in prison. Now the contractor just has to install phone infrastructure in Texas' 106 prisons, no small task but one which should be completed within the year...

Smith County voters ask commissioners, "What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

Posted on August 15, 2008
In East Texas, the "What part of 'No' don't you understand?" Committee formed this week to oppose Smith County jail bonds for the third year in a row. Tyler attorney Jeff Weinstein is the PAC treasurer and another lawyer, Ken Good, produced much of the research on the group's new website...

NPR Profiles Dallas DIVERT Court

Posted on August 15, 2008
Dallas County's DIVERT Court - one of the oldest drug courts in Texas led by Judge John Creuzot- was the subject of a flattering feature on NPR this morning by Wade Goodwyn that's well worth a listen. Goodwyn described the case of a young woman who failed a drug test while on probation, reporting that in response:This is where the differences between the philosophy of DIVERT Court and the rest of the Texas criminal justice system become particularly apparent...

DOJ: Research shows trying juveniles as adults increases recidivism

Posted on August 15, 2008
A couple of readers pointed me to this week to a New York Times editorial making "The Case for Juvenile Courts" (Aug. 13), which argued against state laws allowing juveniles to be tried as adults for serious crime:This country made a terrible mistake when it began routinely trying youthful offenders as adults...

Prison privatization ginning up local controversies

Posted on August 15, 2008
It's surprising how many acrimonious local debates are going on right now in Texas over jail and prison privatization. Yesterday I mentioned that McLennan County is lurching toward building a private local jail in Waco in the face of strident opposition, and now I find news of a group in Nacogdoches gearing up to oppose a private prison there that's also backed by local leadership...

Texas prison guards may get 20% pay hike - TDCJ requests 10.5% overall budget increase

Posted on August 14, 2008
Texas prison guards would get a 20% pay hike if TDCJ officials have their way, reports the Austin American Statesman ("Big raises sought for prison workers," Aug. 14):Brad Livingston, the prison system's executive director, said the proposal would raise starting pay for correctional officers from $26,016 to $30,179 and the maximum salaries from $34,624 to $42,242...

Judge Updates Tyler Jail Vote History

Posted on August 14, 2008
Today the Smith County Commissioners Court is scheduled to set yet another jail bond vote for the November election, making the third such request to the voters in just three years. The last two proposals failed ignominiously at the ballot box, but commissioners hope a scaled down version billed as "Phase One" will pass muster, even though $125 million school bonds will appear on the same ballot...

McLennan Commissioners back on private jail track after raucous debate

Posted on August 14, 2008
In Waco, McLennan County's on-again, off-again private jail plan is back on after a contentious, 3-2 commissioners court vote yesterday, reports the Waco Tribune Herald ("McLennan County Commissioners approve hiring company to build additional jail," Aug...

Unlikely Allies: Victim's daugher, convicted murderer, team up to challenge Williamson DA in DNA testing request

Posted on August 13, 2008
I meant to mention this last week when the story came out, but a Williamson County case shows how the vicissitudes of DNA testing can make for some awfully strange allies. Reported the Houston Chronicle ("Lawsuit seeks DNA test in two murders," Aug. 6):The daughter of a 1980 murder victim and a man convicted of killing his wife in 1987 have asked a federal court to force Williamson County to release evidence from both crimes for DNA testing...

Feds: Dallas jail healthcare still not up to snuff

Posted on August 13, 2008
I'm not sure how I missed a new report (pdf) from the feds last month about improvements and deficiencies at the Dallas County jail, but the story by Kevin Krause at the Dallas News ("New report finds Dallas jail improved but still falling short on health care," July 22) contains a good analysis of what's been accomplished at the jail and the mainly healthcare related shortcomings USDOJ says they still need to address...

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