Grits for Breakfast: Public defender for appeals would reduce waste, in...

Grits for Breakfast: Public defender for appeals would reduce waste, in...: Lots of appeals in Texas' criminal-court system are filed pro se by people who lack representation, and often they make procedural erro...

Grits for Breakfast: Texas jailhouse-snitch reforms praised

Grits for Breakfast: Texas jailhouse-snitch reforms praised: The New York Times over the weekend (7/15) had a staff editorial praising the latest reforms in Texas  aimed at reining in the use of jailh...

Grits for Breakfast: Cash-register justice, against drug-free zones, an...

Grits for Breakfast: Cash-register justice, against drug-free zones, an...: Here are a few odds and ends which merit Grits readers' attention while I'm focused elsewhere today: Williamson County to allow ci...

Grits for Breakfast: The Playbook: Under budget pressure, TDCJ prophesi...

Grits for Breakfast: The Playbook: Under budget pressure, TDCJ prophesi...: Nota bene, Robert T. Garrett and other journalists covering the state budget process: When the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) c...

Grits for Breakfast: TDCJ must reduce incarceration levels to cut a qua...

Grits for Breakfast: TDCJ must reduce incarceration levels to cut a qua...: Texas state legislative leadership this week told state agencies to submit a baseline budget four percent lower than the last biennium, wi...

Grits for Breakfast: On the need to measure (and limit) prosecutor disc...

Grits for Breakfast: On the need to measure (and limit) prosecutor disc...: Grits has been thinking quite a bit about Prof. John Pfaff's observations that we don't have a lot of data about prosecutors' f...

Grits for Breakfast: Ideas for diverting people with mental illness fro...

Grits for Breakfast: Ideas for diverting people with mental illness fro...: With the 85th Texas legislative session fast approaching, the House Select Committee on Mental Health continues to discuss the challenges of...