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Good Article on the Private Prison Industry / Racket

Although we usually focus on issues involving Texas prison life or Texas parole or, even more often, Texas parole packets, we do keep an eye on anything to do with the Texas prison system. Politico magazine/website carries an article today about the way the private prison industry is run and the problems with it. The article discusses several state and, while it doesn't name the prison, does talk about the situation at the Dawson facility where the allegations are CCA allowed a young woman to bleed to death by denying medicalRead More


Texas Prison Lockdowns

No, they're not all on lockdown right now so don't worry. I just noticed people asking about this issue on another site and while it doesn't strictly deal with Texas Parole or Texas Parole Packets it is still an issue with which the families and friends, not to mention the prisoners themselves, are concerned. A lockdown is where prisoners are confined to their cells or rooms, in some cases they aren't even allowed to leave their bunks, for a period of time. Every unit in the Texas Prison System, whetherRead More


Life Without Parole for Juveniles in Texas

In a move that surprised no one, the Texas Court if Criminal Appeals upheld the life without parole sentence for a juvenile convicted of murdering to San Antonio friends in 2006. The vote was split 7-2 , which in itself is at least a glimmer of hope, and was made despite the fact that Texas no longer allows the sentencing of juveniles to life without parole. As usual, the Court of Criminal Appeals held to its belief there are only two types of error in criminal convictions, harmless and none,Read More


Parole as it Relates to State Jail

As the news has had stories about legislators and others debating whether or not the State Jail system unique to Texas should be shut down, several people have asked about what State Jail is and how parole works if you are sentenced to State Jail, so I thought we'd take a few lines to give a brief explanation. A number of years ago lawmakers were reclassifying crimes and decided to take some felonies and move them down in class, creating a new system called "State Jail Felonies". These carry mandatoryRead More


U.S. Supreme Court Bans Life Without Parole for Juveniles

For once, Texas was ahead of the trends in the criminal justice system since last session Governor Perry signed SB 839, a bill authored by Senator Juan Hinojosa, which allowed juveniles to be considered for parole after 40 years. Not a huge difference from life in prison, but at least something. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 split vote, held that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment did not allow a sentence of life without parole for juveniles. Although in this case the juvenile was sentencedRead More