Texas 2036 Policy Advisor Luis Soberon told House members on Wednesday that both urban and rural areas of the state stand to benefit from an improved, case-level data collection system to understand better court case backlogs. Soberon testified before the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee for HB 841, authored by state Rep. Claudia Ordaz,…
Update (Feb. 28, 2023): After the publication of this blog, Uvalde CISD filed for a rehearing last week in an attempt to overturn the default upgrade in Arredondo’s discharge status. The first motion was filed on Feb. 24, and a second motion was filed Feb. 27. For Texas to be the best place to live…
Texas 2036 Policy Advisor Luis Soberon applauded budget writers for including “significant pay raises” in their base budgets for Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff in Thursday testimony before the Senate Finance Committee. “The correctional officers and parole officers are at historic turnover rates,” Soberon said. “Retention, as you’ve heard again and again, is an…
On Wednesday, the Sunset Commission met to finalize the Sunset staff’s report on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE. Adopting 16 out of the 17 recommendations before them, much of what happened represents progress on a few key issues, such as improved licensing and hiring background checks, data transparency, and minimum standards for…
As we close out the year and look toward the 88th Legislature’s first few weeks, Texas’ court backlogs are top of mind. Lawmakers recently examined the issue again in an important committee hearing. On Dec. 9, the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice took up its interim charge on the backlogs of criminal cases in our…