On Friday, as President Donald Trump was hurriedly producing proof of life videos before being transported via helicopter from the White House to Walter Reed Medical Center, he was likely unaware that a full-blown insurrection was underway in the offices of the...
Criminal Justice
back to archiveTexas lawmakers pressure GOP Senate to pass police reform
Lawmakers with the Congressional Black Caucus held a press call on Monday to pressure Senate Republicans to pass a House bill on police reform. Democrats in the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in June. The legislation includes a ban on...
Progressive reformers won big in Travis County. What’s next for the criminal justice system?
“On day one, we’re going to end the prosecution of low-level drug offenses in Travis County,” said José Garza, the Democratic nominee for Travis County District Attorney (DA), at a virtual briefing with The Appeal and NowThis News. In committing to end the prosecution...
The complicity of Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Michael McCaul in the mass arrests of Black people in Tulia, Texas
On the early morning of July 23, 1999, in Tulia, Texas, nearly 33 percent of the city’s Black male residents were arrested. Tulia, a sleepy town of 5,000 in the Texas panhandle, was shocked awake before dawn when 46 residents were roused without warning and dragged to...
Eddie Lucio’s shady ties with the private prison industry
A recently resurfaced transcript shows State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. admitting to making money from the prison industry. Lucio, a Democrat who has represented Brownsville for nearly 30 years has frequently come under fire from progressives for his right-wing stances on a...
What it means to ‘Defund the Police’
The phrase “defund the police” has been thrown around a lot in recent days — but what does it mean? It's a call to refocus law enforcement resources toward professionals trained to handle those social issues instead of the police. From left to right, elected officials...
Criminal Justice is broken in Texas’ most progressive county: José Garza wants to fix it
Reimagining justice and safety José Garza thinks a lot about the criminal justice system — how it can best keep the public safe using evidence and data; how it, as currently designed, weighs most heavily on working people and people of color; how it can be too often...
A note to our readers
George Floyd, a proud son of Third Ward in Houston, Texas, was murdered in broad daylight and on camera by a police officer seven days ago. We, like you, were mortified to see yet another Black man have their life senselessly deprived of them. We, like you, were...
As coronavirus spreads among inmates, advocates call for release
Some Texans spent Memorial Day weekend tanning at the beach; others, namely dozens of family members of Texas prisoners, spent it protesting outside of Gov. Greg Abbott’s mansion in Austin. Carrying signs with phrases like “Inmates’ Lives Matter,” the family...