By Kevin Krause, The Dallas Morning News Dallas County commissioners voted Tuesday to settle two federal jail neglect lawsuits for close to a half-million dollars. County officials say the lawsuits are the last major legal claims related to prior conditions in the jail system, which were described a few years ago by federal investigators as

by Jerry Daniel Reed, ReporterNews.com Leaders of the Texas Jail Project on Tuesday delivered a harsh indictment of the Taylor County Jail, including a mock “Texas Hellhole Award.” The organization announced the designation at a news conference and rally at the war memorial north of the Taylor County Courthouse that attracted roughly two dozen people.

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

ATHENS — An investigation into the death of a Henderson County Jail inmate was turned over to the Texas Rangers following allegations of medical neglect and mistreatment at the hands of jail officials.
The sheriff’s office denies any wrongdoing.

By Julia Preston, New York Times It started when Juana Villegas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was nine months pregnant, was pulled over by a police officer in a Nashville suburb for a routine traffic violation. By the time Mrs. Villegas was released from the county jail six days later, she had gone through

By Carol Cavazos, CBS 11 Ten days into serving her sentence at the Tarrant County Jail, a Fort Worth woman died. Police say Adrienne Lemons was serving time for unpaid traffic tickets. The 35-year-old was rushed to John Peter Smith Hospital on June 13, where she later died. Lemons leaves behind a 3-year-old child. Lemons’

Houston Chronicle Staff, Houston Chronicle For more than two years, news stories by Chronicle reporters have raised troubling questions concerning the mortality rate among prisoners held at the Harris County Jail. At least 138 deaths occurred between 2001 and the end of 2007. In January, three more county jail inmates died. Now that the Department

Inside a stark, gray waiting room in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center a sign reads, “Thank you for visiting the inmates.”
About 5 p.m. Feb. 11, 31 children, many dressed up for the occasion, slowly arrived with moms, grandparents and other caretakers. They ranged from infants to age 15, though most were preschoolers or kindergartners.
A women bent down and asked her toddler son, “Are you ready to see daddy?”

By Gardiner Harris, New York Times Dr. Carmona said drafts of surgeon general reports on global health and prison health were still being debated by the administration. The global health report was never approved, Dr. Carmona said, because he refused to sprinkle the report with glowing references to the efforts of the Bush administration. “The

By Carol Muske-Dukes, New York Times THEY called it “falling off the calendar.” It was the kind of phrase that I came to understand while teaching a creative writing workshop at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in the 1970s. I learned, for example, that a “pelican” lawyer — black suit, large scoop