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

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

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