Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Presumption of Innocence Not Violated by Jail Courtroom by On November 20, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned a lower appellate ruling that found holding a jury trial in a jail courtroom violated a defendant’s right to a presumption of innocence. The Court …
Fifth Circuit Revives Texas Prisoner’s Sleep Deprivation Claim—Again by Texas prisoner Michael Garrett has been fighting the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) for a good night’s sleep since 2013. His case has twice gone before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, after the district court …
News in Brief by Alabama: Clarke County Jail guard Larissa Thompson was arrested on December 5, 2024, for plotting to smuggle drugs into the lockup, the Thomasville Times reported. An investigation by state law enforcement, the office of County Sheriff DeWayne Smith, and Jackson Police uncovered evidence that Thompson planned …
Long Wait List for Texas’ Only College-Level Re-Entry Class for Prisoners by As of November 26, 2024, more than 250 Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisoners were on the wait list for a re-entry class offered at nine state prisons near Huntsville by Lee Community College in Baytown. The …
Lawsuit Over Death or Severe Injury of 29 Houston Jail Detainees Survives Motion to Dismiss by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On October 7, 2024, the federal court for the Southern District of Texas refused a motion by Defendant Harris County Jail officials in Houston to fully dismiss claims made …
Texas Executioners Playing Fast and Furious to Obtain Lethal Drugs by The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has been buying a drug used to execute condemned prisoners from a compounding pharmacy with a history of safety violations, according to an investigation reported by NPR News on July 10, 2024. …
Wellpath Declares Bankruptcy by On November 11, 2024, Wellpath Holdings, Inc., and its affiliated corporate entities filed for bankruptcy protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Wellpath is a private, for-profit medical and mental health care provider at approximately 420 detention facilities in 39 states; …
Suits Filed Over Dehydration Deaths at Two Texas Jails by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On July 9, 2024, the grandmother of a mentally ill detainee who died of dehydration at Texas’ Denton County Jail (DCJ) filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, accusing jail staff of deliberate indifference in allowing …
News in Brief by Alabama: Wiregrass Daily News reported that Mobile Metro Jail guard Timothy Lee Scarbrough, 39, was arrested on September 9, 2024, and charged with first-degree sodomy for the alleged sexual assaulting of a detainee who was still under the effects of anesthesia after eye surgery. Scarbrough had …
Suicidal Texas Prisoners Held in Phone-Booth-Size “Containment Cages” by In an essay published by Slate on October 20, 2024, Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prisoner Jeremy Busby admitted that even after 20 years behind bars, what he found when released from a 23-month solitary confinement in 2022 left him …
MTC Shuts Down Texas Jail by On September 30, 2024, Utah-based Management & Training Corp. (MTC) ended its contract to operate the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility in Garza County, Texas. The lockup is owned by the county, which confirmed that most of some 170 employees were out of work. …
Fifth Circuit Revives Texas Prisoner’s Suit Alleging Interference With His Muslim Religious Practice by David Reutter by David M. Reutter On April 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found error in a lower court’s judgment for Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) officials in a …
SCOTUS Stays Texas Execution With 20 Minutes to Spare by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke After granting a rare stay of execution minutes before a condemned Texas prisoner’s date with death, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed on October 4, 2024, to hear his challenge to a …
Houston Detainees Shipped to Private Jails in Mississippi and Louisiana by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso With the Harris County Jail (HCJ) short 139 guards, minimum staffing ratios set by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS) have mathematically capped the number of beds that can be filled at …
News in Brief by Arizona: State prisoner Brigido Montoya made the briefest of escapes from the State Prison Complex in Eyman on August 10, 2024, before he was recaptured 48 minutes later by Florence Police, the Florence Reminder & Blade-Tribune reported. The state Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry (DCRR) …
Texas Holds 1 in 41 Prisoners in Solitary Confinement by As of March 2024, Texas state prisoner Ricky Smith, 56, had spent over 30 years in solitary confinement. Though the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) calls it “security detention,” he is one of 3,141 state prisoners held alone in …
News in Brief by Alabama: Mobile Metro Jail guard Robert Aaron Small was fired and arrested for assault on June 27, 2024, one day after he allegedly used excessive force against an unnamed detainee. WKRG in Mobile said that the guard had worked at the lockup since 2019. Mobile County …
Turn Key Health Clinics: Another Private Jail Medical Provider Leaving a Trail of Death and Misery by David Reutter by David M. Reutter Jails face a monumental task in the provision of medical care. Those who’ve just been arrested are often experiencing withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. Other pre-existing medical …
Texas Appeals Court Tosses Former Prisoner’s Illegal Voting Conviction by On March 28, 2024, Texas’ Second District Court of Appeals (COA2D) overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction, ruling that the state failed to present any evidence of criminal intent by the Black grandmother from Fort Worth to vote illegally in …
Fifth Circuit Calls Denial of Texas Prisoner’s In Forma Pauperis Request “Arbitrary or Erroneous” by When Texas prisoner Larry Donnell Gibbs filed suit in federal court in 2021 against officials with the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), he paid the filing fee and did not ask to proceed in …
