Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Meet Patrick Welsh, the Dallas PD Sergeant Who's Devoted His Career to Solving Rape Cases Gone Cold

It was the middle of the night when the girl, 12, peeked her head around her bedroom door and saw the man coming up the stairs. He was a stranger, tall and with a gap between his teeth. He made her take off her shirt before he tied her up and raped her at knifepoint amongst her stuffed animals. Then ... More >>

Fired Texas Prison Worker's Supposed Scented-Candle Allergy Does Not Count as a Disability

For 17 years, Tina Milton worked as a clerk at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Wynne Unit. Her job was to pore over inmate mail in search of coded gang messages, and she did it just fine until late 2006. That's when she returned from a sinus surgery and found that she could no longer sta ... More >>

Dallas County's Only Halfway House Could Lose its Home, So John Wiley Price Wants the County to Build a New One

The only halfway house in Dallas County occupies the cabana area of the luxury hotel-turned-county lockup on Stemmons Freeway. At any given time, the Bill Decker Detention Center houses 225 former Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates, all sex offenders, trying to make the transition back to ... More >>

Texas Prisons Are Running Out of Toothpaste and Deodorant

Just in case you needed an extra incentive to stay out of prison, the Texas Tribune brings us the news that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is running out of deodorant and toothpaste. "For the roughly 151,000 inmates in the Texas prison system, there are 1,800 units of deodorant and 28,000 ... More >>

Charging Inmates More for Their Health Care Really Not Working Out For Texas

Because of a new law passed in the last legislative session, Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates are now faced with a choice when they need to see a doctor: pay a yearly $100 fee, or don't go in for treatment at all. As the Texas Tribune reports today, many of them are choosing the latter. ... More >>

This Week's Best Reddit AMA Was Not with Obama but a Former Texas Prisoner

On the sprawling "social news" website Reddit, there are pages and pages of user-created discussions and links, ranging from funny to poignant to vile. One of the site's most fascinating sub-sections is r/IAmA , also known as "Ask Me Anything," or AMA. AMAs are question and answer sessions with un ... More >>

Ten Inmates Died From Heat in Texas Prisons Last Summer, and Nothing's Going to Change

Last month, the daughter of Larry Gene McCollum sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. McCollum was serving an 11-month sentence at Hutchins State Jail in Dallas last summer when, after days in a cell where the temperature neared triple digits, he had a seizure. He was taken to the hospital, ... More >>

Today, We Find Out if Texas' Single-Drug Lethal Injection Actually is More Humane

Texas has executed five people so far this year, all using the same procedure. First, a barbiturate, pentobarbital, is administered to induce unconsciousness. Then a dose of pancuronium bromide paralyzes every muscle in the body. Finally, a dose of potassium chloride stops the heart. That wil ... More >>

Texas Executes Prisoners Like Dogs Now. And (If We're Going to Kill Them Anyway) That's A Good Thing

On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced it would use a single drug -- pentobarbital, a barbiturate -- to carry out executions due to a shortage of one component in a three-drug cocktail. Overseas manufacturers of pancuronium bromide, a powerful paralytic, have halted shipment ... More >>

Lawsuit Says There Were Nine Heat-Related Deaths at Texas Prisons in 2011. That's Way Too Many

Every year, when temperatures in Texas inevitably hit triple digits, the inside of the state's prison cells heat up like an ovens. Only 21 of 111 units in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system are fully air conditioned; the rest have some AC but mostly not in the inmates' quarters. Every y ... More >>

In About an Hour, Mark Stroman Will More Than Likely Be Put to Death

​Rais Bhuiyan's attempts to spare the life of Mark Stroman, the white supremacist who shot him in the face and killed two other men he believed to be Muslim in the days following September 11, 2001, have failed: A federal judge down in Austin denied the Dallas man's petition for clemency that woul ... More >>

With One Day Left to Save Attacker, Bhuiyan's Case Goes to the Media ... and Federal Court

Behind the counter at the Pleasant Grove convenience store following the September 2001 shooting of Rais Bhuiyan by Mark Stroman​Tomorrow, the steady stream of stories about Rais Bhuiyan's attempt to save Mark Stroman -- the man who shot Bhuiyan in the face and killed two other men in the days fo ... More >>

Two Days Before He's to Die, Stroman Talks to CBS News About Victim's Fight to Save Him

Courtesy CBS NewsMark Stroman, who is scheduled to die Wednesday, talks to Don Teague about his jailhouse conversion.​As you're no doubt well aware by now, Mark Stroman is scheduled to die down in Huntsville on Wednesday for killing Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani father of four who was gunned down on Se ... More >>

The City Would Love to Get Its Hands On the Dawson State Jail. It'll Have to Keep Waiting.

​This morning, a reader wondered: Has the state decided if it's going to renew its contract with Corrections Corporation of America regarding operations of the Jesse R. Dawson State Jail on the Trinity River? When last we looked at the issue, the contract was set to expire January 15,  only ... More >>

So, How Hard Is City Pulling for State Not to Renew Contract for Jail on Trinity?

​A couple of weeks back, Nicole Porter at Texas Prison Bid'ness took note of the state's impending budget shortfall and concluded that, more than likely, it'll result in the closing of some private prisons and jails. Sure, but which ones? Well, writes our old pal Scott Henson today over at Grits f ... More >>

Dallas DA, DPD Reopen 1997 Murder Case, and Discover They Convicted the Wrong Men

Dallas County District AttorneyClaude Simmons is one of two men being exonerated for a 1997 murder he did not commit.​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office sends word this morning that two men convicted of murder in October 1997 -- 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year- ... More >>

In Deep Doo-Doo: A Texas Prisoner's "Vulgar Pen" Is Not Protected From Penalty

Four years ago, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice guest by the name of George Morgan filed for a habeas corpus proceeding, which the state asked the court to dismiss. Morgan didn't take kindly to that, and in response to the state of Texas's request, Morgan sent to Assistant Attorney General Su ... More >>

Mayor Tom and Texas's Other Big-City Mayors Ask Governor for Help Handling Homeless

Gabriel Metsu's Man Writing a LetterNever had time to make it to the Texas Big Cities Mayors shindig at City Hall today. But no matter: Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall this evening forwards along a copy of the mayors' letter to Governor Rick Perry, in which Tom Leppert, Bill White (Houston), Mike M ... More >>

Since When Did the Trinity River Project Come to Mean "Ferris Wheel"?

I actually love the way news pops up in The Dallas Morning News. I pick up the paper every single morning and feel as though I'm visiting a foreign city for the first time. Every story, even the most mundane, is a forehead-slapper, because I have no idea what they're talking about.Today, for exampl ... More >>

Tomorrow, One of Dallas's "Meanest Criminals" Is Set to Die

Still an Aryan Blood Brother

Two murders and two life sentences won't alter one convict's allegiance to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

Happy Birthday, Lethal Injection!

Being a Jailer Sounds Like a Bad Gig

Prisoner, Save Thy Self?

Prison Gang Members Heading Back to Prison

Going Down in Downtown

Losing Faith in Faith-Based Prison

Life After Death

Andre Lewis was eight hours from being executed, until the courts realized they had made a big mistake

Writer's Block

Texas prisons start barring book authors from inmate interviews

Cell-bloc Voting

A new effort tries to unlock former felons' votes

Last Call

The career of Dallas sportswriter Jim Dent was skyrocketing, then booze and bad behavior caused a hard landing

Bellies of the Beast

Food cuts have inmates and guards grumbling

The Ex-Con Game

How do we deal with the staggering number of prisoners re-entering society? Ned Rollo thinks he knows. He should. He's been there.

Prison, Sweet Prison

Bill Everett thanks Jesus he's behind bars, for real.

12-year-old Killer

The story of Edwin Debrow Jr., one of the youngest Texans ever convicted of murder, in his own words

Pay for Play

Seventy-three DMNers get sent packing

The Superpredator

Think it's brutal to send a 14-year-old boy to prison for decades? Meet Billy Ray Dennis, and think again.

Make 'em Pay

Spurred by a horrifying wave of teen violence in the '90s, Texas today spends more money than ever to lock up young criminals. Are we getting our money's worth?

Pass the Plate

God and Texas taxpayers answer the prayers of a prison-based ministry

Prisoners of Love

The InnerChange Freedom Initiative says it can rehabilitate Texas prison inmates through God--a conservative evangelical Christian God, to be more precise

Bad Girls

Looking for love in the wrong places? Try Meet-An-Inmate.com.

Software and hard time

Texas prisons take a byte out of crime with a computer rehab program

Killing machine

It is 6:07 p.m. John Albert Burks salutes the Oakland Raiders and says goodbye to his friends. Minutes later, he is a dead man. This year's 21st execution.

Buzz

Image is everything; Death watch; Miracle cure

Huntsville Houdini

Federal prosecutors get tough with an escape artist

Closing death's door

Will proposed media rules stifle coverage of convicts facing execution?

Cruel and Unusual

Mentally ill Texans used to go to hospitals. Now, increasing numbers of them go to prison instead.

Walter Waldhauserwired

A convicted killer gets placed on an electric leash

Fly away, little jailbird

Reports of Steven Russell's death were greatly exaggerated, but they were enough to spring him from a Texas prison

Mouse

Paul "Mouse" Millender is in hiding after being stabbed 24 times. He says his old skinhead running buddies did it. But he swears he's not a rat.