Texas Justice Initiative is a nonprofit organization that collects, analyzes, publishes and provides oversight for criminal justice data throughout Texas.

What We're Reading

News that caught our attention or cited the Texas Justice Initiative from across the Lone Star State and beyond.
  • HPD's use of force incidents that cause major injuries disproportionately affect Black residents

    Published on June 12, 2023

    Data from the Houston Police Department's transparency hub: Black individuals made up 72 percent of those seriously injured and 63 percent of those killed by police since 2020, according to reporting by Matt deGrood.

  • Seven Texas prison employees face dismissal over 16-year-old inmate’s suicide

    Seven Texas prison employees face dismissal over 16-year-old inmate’s suicide

    Published on April 25, 2023

    Jolie McCullough reports for the Texas Tribune that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has moved to fire seven employees for failing to check on a 16-year-old boy who died by suicide in a Fort Bend County prison in March.

  • Fatal police shootings are still going up, and nobody knows why

    Fatal police shootings are still going up, and nobody knows why

    Published on February 21, 2023

    Reporters at The Washington Post, which tracks deadly shootings by law enforcement, found that 2022 saw the most incidents since they started tracking the fatalities in 2015.

  • FBI launches 2 investigations into Harris County Jail in-custody deaths

    FBI launches 2 investigations into Harris County Jail in-custody deaths

    Published on February 14, 2023

    The Houston Chronicle reports on the FBI's announcement that it "has open investigations into allegations of federal civil rights violations surrounding the deaths of Jaquaree Simmons and Jacoby Pillow in the Harris County Jail. These investigations will be fair, thorough, and impartial, and will proceed independently of any state investigations involving incidents at the jail. To preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigations, no details of the ongoing process will be publicly shared."

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State of the Data

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