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.

1/3/2026	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.”
1/13/2026	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?'”
2/3/2026	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
2/10/2026	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.”
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
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.”