What Can I Do to Help the Texas Jail Project?

Tip Sheets – We can use your help in creating tip sheets with information on each jail. When people try to visit a loved one in jail, they run into rules and restrictions they did not expect. And many county jails don’t give out that much information on the phone or on their website. And each jail is different.We hear of elderly parents and mothers with small children driving for hours to visit or bring medicine to a loved one in a jail, only to find out they aren’t allowed to do that after they get there…..

So we need tip sheets on each jail, like the ones on the Comal, Dallas, Houston, and Montgomery County Jails on our front page. See these examples:

People sent in those tips just to help out their fellow Texans. We especially welcome the help of ex-offenders. 

There are 245 county jails at present and we only have tip sheets on 4 of them. To get the information, call the jail and examine the website and/or go during the visitating hours and talk to people outside who are visiting inmates: Ask them:

  • “Did you have trouble finding out information you needed?  What was that information?”
  • “What tips would you give somebody visiting the first time?”
  • “What are problem areas nobody tells you about?”

And please email me: diana@texasjailproject.org about which jail you are working on.

Are you a careful researcher?

We need someone to verify contact info for our list of Texas Contacts on the website. Basically call the people on that list and make sure the list is right. Then send me all that info for the website! Email diana@texasjailproject.org if you can help.

We also need someone to find news stories online about county jails and email those to us. Then we can put those on the website, so people can understand what the problems are.

Monitor the news –

In a state with some 250 local lockups scattered over a huge area, we need people who report what’s going on. Please help us by becoming a TJP monitor and remember, we are watching county and city jails, NOT prisons or state jails. People can collect clippings and local stories on their jail and send to us.

Other ways to help –

  • contact the chaplain at their local jail (we have some questions we’d like you to ask him or her)
  • interview former inmates or write stories about your county jail.

Other ideas to consider

  • visiting inmates
  • teaching classes
  • finding out how to donate books or newspaper subscriptions and donating them to a library or to inmates
    making contributions to commissary funds for those with no friends or families to contribute funds
  • Spread the word: tell people who have contact with former inmates of a local jail to look at this website and write to us, either on email or in a letter.
  • Stand outside the jail at visiting time and tell visitors to contact the Texas Jail Project about abuses they see or concerns they have. You might hand out cards with our URL and contact info on them. (until we have cards, just make your own on paper, please!)

Other ways you can volunteer

  • We need a list of church and civic groups in each region who might be interested in visiting jails or starting programs so please make up a list of local groups and send us their contact information.
  • Email us with your ideas!