Over One-Third of Older Texas Prisoners Suffering Cognitive Impairment by Matthew Clarke A recently published study of cognitive impairment (CI) among older prisoners held by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) showed that over 35%—more than 1 in 3—suffered from some form of CI. The study used a random …
News in Brief by Alabama: Kadarius Shermaine Todd, 28, a new guard still on probationary status at the Madison County Jail, was fired on April 4, 2025, after allegedly attempting to smuggle contraband into the lockup. He was apprehended upon arrival to meet a contact with a package containing Suboxone, …
$2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail by David Reutter Texas’ Bexar County agreed on April 22, 2024, to pay $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Curtis Raymond Smith, 66, who was killed just hours after his …
Seven TDCJ Prison Guards Arrested in Alleged Smuggling Ring by The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) announced on April 9, 2025, that arrest warrants were issued for seven guards at the Telford Unit who are accused of running a contraband smuggling ring at the prison. Seven search warrants were …
Fifth Circuit Reinstates Baha’i Texas Prisoner’s Dietary Claim by Matthew Clarke On September 11, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a summary judgment dismissing a prisoner’s claim that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) refused to provide him a diet that conformed to …
Two Guards Arrested in Two Weeks at Texas Jail by Two jailers were arrested in two weeks at Texas’ Hays County Jail, beginning on April 25, 2025, when guard John Duran, 45, was accused of sending a detainee to shower and watching her bathe on surveillance video. An investigation was …
Texas Prison Heat Declared Unconstitutional by In a ruling on March 26, 2025, the federal court for the Western District of Texas agreed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) was likely violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by holding most state prisoners in cells …
Texas Courts, Legislature at Odds over Executing Potentially Innocent Death Row Prisoner by Robert L. Roberson III was sentenced to death in Texas in 2003 for killing his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, whose death the previous year was attributed to “shaken baby syndrome.” Since then research has found symptoms attributed to …
News in Brief by Alabama: A Jefferson County Jail guard was briefly abducted and assaulted by detainee Reontay Harley, 33, on January 13, 2025. WBMA in Birmingham said that after Harley took the unnamed guard hostage inside a cell, responding jail Extraction Unit guards rescued their fellow guard and restrained …
News in Brief by Alabama: State Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Arianna Kimberly Slater faces life in prison after she was arrested while attempting to smuggle contraband into Ventress Correctional Facility on February 24, 2025. According to the Birmingham News, a routine employee screening of Slater’s food container found unspecified …
TDCJ to Run Out of Beds in 2025 by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke The Sunset Advisory Commission, an oversight body for Texas government agencies, published a 189-page report in September 2024 that found persistent critical staffing shortages are making Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisons unsafe for staff …
Little-Known Law Allows Some Texas Prisoners to Vote by Texas has an estimated 455,000 current and former felons. But no one knows if any of them voted in the November 2024 elections, nor even if any knew that they could. That is thanks to a little-known provision of state law …
CoreCivic Will Cage Migrant Families in Texas Lockup by On March 5, 2025, private prison operator CoreCivic, Inc. announced a new contract with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to reopen its South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. The massive 2,400-bed prison was used to detain migrant families …
Houston Jail Cited for State-Law Violations Twice in a Month by For the second time in less than a month, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) cited the Harris County Jail in Houston on January 13, 2025, this time for failing to conduct state-mandated “face to face observations” before …
Tiede v. Collier, TX, Order, Conditions of Confinement, 2025 Case 1:23-cv-01004-RP Document 202 Filed 03/26/25 Page 1 of 91 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS AUSTIN DIVISION BERNHARDT TIEDE, II; TEXAS PRISONS COMMUNITY ADVOCATES; BUILD UP, INC. a/k/a JUSTICE IMPACTED WOMEN’S ALLIANCE; TEXAS CITIZENS …
HRDC v. Grayson County, TX, Stipulated Oder for Permanent Injunction, Censorship, 2025 Case 4:24-cv-00828-ALM Document 31 Filed 03/13/25 Page 1 of 4 PageID #: 503 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS SHERMAN DIVISION HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, Plaintiff, v. CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:24-cv-00828-ALM GRAYSON …
HRDC v. Grayson County, TX, Stipulated Oder for Permanent Injunction, Censorship, 2025 Case 4:24-cv-00828-ALM Document 31 Filed 03/13/25 Page 1 of 4 PageID #: 503 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS SHERMAN DIVISION HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, Plaintiff, v. CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:24-cv-00828-ALM GRAYSON …
Houston Police Fire Former Jail Guard Filmed Brutalizing Detainees, Charges Against Three Other Guards Dropped by The Houston Police Department (HPD) fired Off. Deven Ortiz on January 7, 2025, following an investigation into multiple alleged uses of excessive force while he worked as a guard at the Harris County Jail …
“Lady al-Qaeda” Sues BOP for Guards’ Sexual Assaults by In a suit filed in federal court for the Northern District of Texas against the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on September 19, 2024, Aafia Siddiqui, 52, a Pakistani national serving an 86-year sentence for a terrorism-related conviction at the Federal …
Number of Texas Detainees Jailed Out-of-County Doubled in Five Years by A June 2024 Texas Tribune analysis found that the number of detainees shipped to jails outside the county of their arrest had more than doubled in five years to a total of 4,358, up from 2,078 in June 2019. …
