Yesterday, in honor of National Public Defense Day, January Advisors hosted a webinar about judicial campaign donations and how they affect the appointment of indigent defense counsel. Building on pre-pandemic work of Jay Jenkins and Georgetown Law, we partnered with the Texas Center for Justice and Equity to analyze whether campaign donations are associated with … Read more
Last month, I saw something that I can’t shake. It happened during a criminal record clearing conference in Philadelphia, in one of those law firm conference rooms with giant windows that make you feel like you’re floating above the city. We were discussing the technical aspects of record clearing. A group of about one hundred … Read more
Beginning April 21, 2023, the Harris County District Attorney’s office now requires mandatory lab testing for low level fentanyl cases of less than four grams. This policy is in place to speed up evidence processing and move cases through the system faster. Harris County is notorious for its backlog of criminal cases since Hurricane Harvey. … Read more
In 2018, Houston City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to regulate reentry housing for people on parole, despite significant opposition. Five years later, the ordinance not only regulates existing facilities, but it also effectively prevents new housing. Just like activists said it would. The ordinance addresses alternate housing facilities (AHFs), which are for-profit entities that … Read more
In Texas, every criminal conviction has collateral consequences. For example, if you’re convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote during incarceration, probation, or parole. Texas has over 1,400 collateral consequences. You can explore them for yourself at the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction database. But these consequences aren’t just for … Read more
In the United States, incarcerated people are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 and three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the general population. In response to the pandemic, activists are calling for officials to reduce the jail population in order to keep everyone safe. With a cash bail system, many people … Read more
Last year, the City of Houston passed an ordinance that regulated certain types of housing for people on parole. This ordinance includes regulations to promote safety, but it also includes a distance requirement that effectively prohibits new housing. Houston already lacks enough housing for people on parole, and this distance requirement only compounds the problem. … Read more
In 48 states, a felony conviction means that you lose the right to vote. This can be temporary or permanent, depending on your state. During the 2018 election, Florida pushed this issue into the national spotlight with a state constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to felons. It passed with two-thirds of the vote. Texas, … Read more
We recently did a webinar with Jamey Caruthers, senior staff attorney at Children At Risk, about how to use data to fight human trafficking. Human trafficking is a huge problem in Texas, especially in Houston, and Children At Risk is leading the charge in helping to write and pass laws that increase penalties for perpetrators while … Read more
Last year, we partnered with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition to develop the first version of the TCJC Dashboard. Since then, we’ve been working behind the scenes to push the limits of what we can learn from these data. Thanks to generous funding from Microsoft, we developed a new version of the dashboard and a … Read more