Texas Jail Project Through News Stories in 2026

February 6, 2026

Here's a comprehensive round-up of 2026 news featuring stories, interviews, op-eds, and essays from Texas Jail Project community members and staff.

Topics: Cash Bail, Covid-19, Custody Death, Forensic Waitlist, Jail Conditions, Mental Health, Overcrowding, Pretrial Policy

Here’s a comprehensive round-up of 2026 news featuring stories, interviews, op-eds, and essays from Texas Jail Project community members and staff.

1/3/26	Houston Public Media	Texas’ new bail laws could increase Harris County’s jail population, court case backlog “With high bonds remaining effective detention orders, Prop 3 will only increase the leverage prosecutors have over defendants who cannot afford their bail and incentivize coercive plea deals,” Krish Gundu said. “Worse yet, the likely increase in bond amounts set by magistrates will create a tremendous amount of revenue for the bail bond industry while still doing nothing to prevent the release of any defendant who can afford to pay.”
1/13/26	KLTV	Smith County commissioners vote 4-1 to seek immigration enforcement grant funding “Dalila Reynoso with the Texas Jail Project, an outspoken critic of the county’s work with ICE, addressed commissioners during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting. ‘What grants are the commissioners and the judge looking for all these children that have been impacted by this policy?'”
2/3/26	Texas Tribune	Texas jails have more than 400 pregnant inmates monthly. The state is trying to understand what happens to them. “We’re hoping lawmakers will see that there is nothing to be gained by locking up this population and causing generational trauma,” said Krish Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, a key advocacy organization pushing for this work.”
2/9/26	Texas Standard	Texas is studying its pregnant jail inmates Texas Standard interview with Krish Gundu about the Texas Commission on Jail Standards’ mandate to produce a report on pregnant people in jail
2/10/26	CBS Texas	Former inmates win $1.5 million settlement after being held past their release dates in Smith County The Texas Jail Project first identified the Smith County issue through direct contact with incarcerated people and families. “We’re visiting people inside,” said Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project. “We’re hearing from people inside. We’re hearing from their families,” and added that it feels like, “no one’s really keeping track of anything.” Read more about TJP’s role in the lawsuit here.
2/13/26	Hoodline	Harris County Signs Off On $1.2M Jail Study As Deaths, Lawsuits Pile Up
2/19/26	KERA News	Texas jail commission can enforce rule to investigate all jail deaths, Paxton says “Krish Gundu, co-founder and executive director of Texas Jail Project, said in a statement Tuesday that Paxton’s opinion means the jail commission’s authority to call for investigations remains untouched.”
2/25/26	ABC13 Houston	Audit says Harris County Sheriff’s Office not following state law, thousands owed to former inmates “You’re talking about people who don’t have (many) resources to begin with,” Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, said.
2/27/26	Courthouse News	Arrested in Texas, dead in Louisiana: Private-prison transfers raise accountability concerns “This idea that a jail feasibility study will somehow help us build a ‘humane’ jail is not only naive but grossly misleading,” Krish Gundu said. “The walls and floors of the jail are not killing and harming people. It’s the inherent culture of a punitive system whose sole purpose is to dehumanize people. And that cannot be fixed by building a new jail.”
3/5/26	KSAT	Texas Rangers investigating after Bexar County jail death ruled homicide “Here we are again every year‚” Lydia Leos, one of the creators of San Antonio Grieving Mothers Fight for Justice [and one of the community member TJP have supported for years through the custody death of her son] said. “Almost every month, something is happening.”
3/6/26	Fort Worth Star-Telegram	Families rally for accountability after Tarrant jail deaths Texas Jail Project joined Families United for Accountability and Transparency at Tarrant County Jail to demand justice for community members and loved ones who died while in custody in the Tarrant County jail. “We came together … because Tarrant County has made it clear that without pressure, there will be no truth, no transparency and no accountability,” said the mother of Anthony Johnson Jr., Jacqualyne Johnson. Read more about the rally here.
3/11/26	Fort Worth Star Telegram	He has the mind of a child. His mom fears he’s dying in the Tarrant County Jail Texas Jail Project, with Tarrant County community members, are supporting Christy Bridgman in advocating for her son who is locked up in the Tarrant County Jail.
3/12/26	KERA News	Tarrant County’s jail deaths last year were at its lowest since 2020, sheriff says KERA News highlights the work of Texas Jail Project in advocating for families with loved ones who died in Tarrant County Jail.
3/19/26	Dallas Morning News	Deaths are rising at the Dallas County jail. Many were likely preventable. “More people are dying in the Dallas County jail now than in recent history, and many were likely preventable deaths that raise questions about patterns of delayed care, according to an analysis of 16 years of records by The Dallas Morning News.”
3/19/26	Texas Tribune	Texas jails’ failure to free inmates on time costing counties “We have to start reckoning with this monster that we have created, this machinery that we have created, which routinely steals people’s lives because that’s what it did,” Gundu said. “That’s what over-detention does: you’re just basically stealing time from their life.”
3/20/26	Houston Public Media	Harris County commissioners approve $38 million contract renewal to keep outsourcing jail inmates “I beg, beg this court under no circumstances, please do not renew the contract with LaSalle,” [Kim Carlson, mother of Erik Carlson] said. “I don’t want a single dollar of my money to go to the people that killed our sons.”
3/23/26	Houston Press	Even With a Stamp of Approval How Safe Can Harris County Jail Be? “It means nothing,” says Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, a Houston-based nonprofit that advocates for the incarcerated and their families. “It means they fixed a fire alarm. There were several issues with timely medical care and getting people to medical appointments. We still get complaints. We’ll have to wait and see how long that compliance lasts. Passing inspection is meaningless to families.”
3/24/26	Austin American-Statesman	The Texas jail commission lacks one key perspective: lived experience \| Opinion “If they are serious about the safety of incarcerated people, they would ensure at least one voice on their board to represent the more than 76,000 people, largely pretrial, who are detained in jails every day, and their families,” Krish Gundu said.
3/25/26	KERA News	People kept in East Texas jail past release date settle lawsuit for $1.5 million “This is a story about a county prioritizing its own convenience over the rights and interests of the people it’s supposed to be serving,” Nathan Fennell [of Texas Fair Defense Project] said in a statement. “Smith County is legally obligated to handle this better and faster, but nobody cared enough to try.”
4/2/26	Austin American Statesmen	Texas jails need reform. These are practical places to start \| Opinion Cody Copeland interviews several TJP community members and Dr. Mark Robinson, Texas Jail Project board member, and offers recommendations for jail reform.
4/8/26	KERA News	Claims of neglect, a harassment scandal, jail births: Controversies surround a North Texas sheriff “We always get complaints about the different ways in which people get treated in the jail,” Krish Gundu said. “We’ve been getting a lot of complaints about withholding medical care, denial of medical care, using that as a punitive measure.”
4/8/26	Fort Worth Star Telegram	Inmate with the mind of a child to be moved from Tarrant County Jail Community win: Texas Jail Project and Tarrant County community members’ advocacy leads to a transfer to a mental health facility for Shawn Fraraccio, who is currently locked up in Tarrant County Jail.