Sunday, July 15, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: "Isolated incident" at TDCJ means things that happ...

Grits for Breakfast: "Isolated incident" at TDCJ means things that happ...: Not long ago, Grits parsed statements from Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman and concluded that his consistent pattern of resp...

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: #MeToo among Texas women prison guards

Grits for Breakfast: #MeToo among Texas women prison guards: Go read Keri Blakinger's new Houston Chronicle story on the topic . Keri writes that, "female officers also have to contend with ha...

Grits for Breakfast: Now in a dwindling minority, failure to "Raise the...

Grits for Breakfast: Now in a dwindling minority, failure to "Raise the...: The Missouri Legislature recently voted to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility from 17 to 18 years old, beginning January 1, 202...

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: Zero tolerance makes zero sense, and other stories...

Grits for Breakfast: Zero tolerance makes zero sense, and other stories...: Here are a few odds and ends that merit readers' attention: Learning the ropes Politico ran a nice feature on Nueces County DA Mark G...

Grits for Breakfast: Meditating on misdemeanors, the human toll of pris...

Grits for Breakfast: Meditating on misdemeanors, the human toll of pris...: Here are a few odds and ends that will simultaneously clear my browser tabs and point readers to a few interesting items about which I don&#...

Grits for Breakfast: Reasonably Suspicious: The conservative case for r...

Grits for Breakfast: Reasonably Suspicious: The conservative case for r...: Does God have a Texas accent? Mandy Marzullo and I address this and other pressing questions on the latest edition (May 2018) of Just Libert...

Grits for Breakfast: On recidivism, abolitionism, diversion, zoning, an...

Grits for Breakfast: On recidivism, abolitionism, diversion, zoning, an...: Here are a few odds and ends that merit Grits readers' attention while mine is focused elsewhere: Pam Colloff kicks ass Pam Colloff&#...

Grits for Breakfast: Lies, damn lies, and claims by counties about unfu...

Grits for Breakfast: Lies, damn lies, and claims by counties about unfu...: Officials in Tom Green County are telling the press and the public that the state owes counties some $2.6 billion for indigent defense costs...

Grits for Breakfast: Remembering Texas' now-defunct drug-task-force sys...

Grits for Breakfast: Remembering Texas' now-defunct drug-task-force sys...: On Twitter, a reader came up with a blast from the past, asking whatever happened to Texas' multi-jurisdictional drug task forces, whic...

Friday, April 20, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: Appointed counsel in Austin radically increases ch...

Grits for Breakfast: Appointed counsel in Austin radically increases ch...: Defendants in Travis County were far more likely to be convicted of state-jail felony drug charges if they were indigent with an appointed a...

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: Don't make excuses for bad choices by Harris Count...

Grits for Breakfast: Don't make excuses for bad choices by Harris Count...: The truth about Harris County judges misleading the courts and intentionally violating the constitutional rights of defendants before them ...

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: TJJD Ombudsman Firing: Shooting the Messenger

Grits for Breakfast: TJJD Ombudsman Firing: Shooting the Messenger: When one reads the press accounts which broke the recent scandals at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department or talk to the reporters who cove...

Monday, January 15, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: Texas should replicate OK approach on drug felonie...

Grits for Breakfast: Texas should replicate OK approach on drug felonie...: Your correspondent has maintained for years that, after Jim Thorpe left, the best thing ever to come out of Oklahoma was I-35. Grits has lon...

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Grits for Breakfast: Texas getting better at identifying problems at ju...

Grits for Breakfast: Texas getting better at identifying problems at ju...: In reaction to revelations of dysfunctional youth prisons, advocates  including your correspondent  have been calling to  dismantle them and...