Houston Sheriff Garcia and other Harris County officials showed up at the quarterly meeting of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards in early November to ask for more than 700 variance beds– beds that allow them to keep more inmates because of special needs and circumstances. Problem is, this situation has been going on for years. Tina Tran, chief of staff for Senator Rodney Ellis, read a letter from the Senator and Representative Garnet Coleman. Read that letter and another from the renowned criminal justice expert Michele Deitch explore the issue of the state granting variances to the Harris County Jail. More importantly, both letters demanded that the Jail Commission stop the practice now. But on Thursday, TCJS commissioners voted to once more grant those beds to Harris County for another 6 months. Read the letters below.

The Gomez family joined demonstrators at Occupy E Paso because they said that their father, a a U.S. citizen, is not receiving necessary treatment for his kidney condition and has lost some 100 pounds while in the Otero County Jail. According to he U.S. Marshals, Samuel Gomez is getting all the care he needs. Texas Jail Project asks the Gomez family to email diana@texasjailproject.org . . . . .

Texas Criminal Justice Coalition has an important new report on county jails in our state!
Costly Confinement & Sensible Solutions: Jail Overcrowding in Texas

Here is their description of it:

Most Texans do not realize that an average of 49% of the people held in a county lockup are pre-trial—not yet convicted. The system moves exceedingly slow unless you have money or connections. Now imagine what happens to those with a serious medical problem, like asthma or a heart condition. Timothy Cole had asthma and
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by Angela K. Brown, AP wire story At the Taylor County Jail in Abilene, some inmates say they’ve been strapped to chairs and left outside all day in the sun or rain. Others say guards sometimes sprayed pepper spray directly into their eyes. Another staffer allegedly asked a mentally ill inmate: “Why don’t you do
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By Matt Pulle, Dallas Observer In February 2005, Alice Lynch-Fullen visited her brother, Christopher Lynch, at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center after he was arrested on rape charges in Grand Prairie. A large, imposing man, Lynch had ligature marks around his neck, alerting his distraught sister that he had tried to hang himself. “Don’t let
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