The Harris County Jail (“Jail”) houses more than 9,000 inmates and is the third largest jail in the country. We have previously stated the human shortcomings of this facility. In particular, we have discussed the prospect of those dying from…
Category: Criminal Law
2016
Category: Criminal Law
The Houston Chronicle carried a recent report that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office had dismissed 90 misdemeanor and felony drug cases because a local Constable’s Office “improperly destroyed evidence.”
The evidence destruction was brought to light when attorney…
2016
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law
The Harris County Jail (HCJ)is the third largest jail in the United States, and the largest in the State of Texas. It houses roughly 9,000 inmates, nearly 7,000 of whom are pretrial detainees, of which close to 80 percent are…
2016
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law | Murder
Let us start by stating that most police officers are decent, hardworking people who make good faith efforts to fulfill their sworn duty to protect and serve. On a daily basis, they face dangerous, and often fatal, risks as they…
2016
Category: Criminal Law | Sexual Abuse
In 2012, a judge in Sacramento placed a 17-year-old rape victim in juvenile detention because she failed to appear in court on two occasions to testify against the suspected 37-year-old serial rapist who abducted and raped her.
Incarcerating Victims…
2016
America’s penal incarceration statistics are shocking to say the least.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that there were 2.2 million people in the nation’s jails and prisons at the end of 2014.
BJS figures showed that another…
2016
There has always been something fundamentally flawed about the relationship between the police and black people in this country. This troubled relationship actually pre-dates the establishment of organized policing. It stems from the Southern Slave Patrols (first established in South…
2016
The National Institute of Justice has found that a police officer’s “demeanor and actions are crucial to perceptions of police legitimacy. If officers communicate well, listen and treat citizens with respect, citizens will respond in kind.” In fact, research shows…
2016
Category: Criminal Law | Prosecutorial Misconduct
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) monitors lawless local police departments and state prisons across the country – and there are plenty of them in need of oversight.
In a June 6, 2016 opinion piece, To Stop Bad Prosecutors Call…
2016
Category: Criminal Law
While there are no statistics readily available, police K-9 apprehensions number in the tens of thousands each year. Excessive police force claims tend to focus on firearms or Tasers but the unlawful use of police dogs to attack suspects has…