Related Policy Interests
| Law Enforcement | Civic Participation |
| Privacy | Public Health |
| Judicial System | Immigration |
| Women in Prison | Asset Forfeiture |
| Children of the Incarcerated |
- Shift federal Byrne grant funding away from unaccountable drug task forces to pay for proven drug treatment and stronger probation programs.
- Forbid anti-immigrant vigilante groups like the Minutemen from manning our borders. These rogue, pseudo-law enforcement entities threaten to provoke more senseless violence from other fringe groups.
- Oppose the expansion of red light cameras and other government surveillance systems in public spaces.
- Require jailhouse snitch testimony to be corroborated.
- Require an independent prosecutor in all police misconduct claims.
Across Texas, local prosecutors have been accused of a conflict of interest (or the appearance of conflict) for failing to convince grand juries to aggressively prosecute peace officers with whom they regularly work that are accused of committing crimes. In small towns, a good-ole-boy atmosphere may prevent officers from being prosecuted vigorously. In larger cities, powerful police unions aggressively attack any politician who focuses for very long on police misconduct. The result is that officers are rarely indicted for felonies, no matter what crimes they commit.
- Conduct appropriate screening of women charged with drug offenses to identify health issues such as substance addiction, mental illness, and trauma.
- Divert women out of the criminal justice system and into the appropriate treatment system as early as possible.
- Make treatment programs accessible to women with children by enabling them to participate in the program while still caring for their children.
- Regularly collect and track data on women in the criminal justice system – at the state and federal levels – that will inform policymaking, such as: numbers and growth trends; activities underlying specific charges; commonly charged offenses; physical and mental health status; income levels; race; sexual orientation; age; parental status; immigration status; and place of residence.
- Assess proposed legislation and policy changes relating to criminal justice and drug policy to determine their impact on women and their families.
- Allow incarcerated mothers to visit with their children, and maintain or establish critical family ties, with minimal inconvenience and in an appropriate setting.
- Open lines of communication between prison and child welfare officials to increase the likelihood that incarcerated mothers will have an opportunity to parent from behind bars and when they return home.
- Document the impact of women's incarceration on others for whom they care and leave behind (e.g., the chronically ill, disabled or aged adults) and the unique needs of this population.
- Assess proposed child welfare provisions with an eye toward their impact on incarcerated mothers and mothers with criminal convictions.
- Ensure that children are kept safe and informed at the time of their parent’s arrest.
- Allow children to be heard when decisions are made about them, and be considered when decisions are made about their parents.
- Guarantee that children can speak with, see, and touch their parent to best ensure a lifelong relationship with that parent.
- Give the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (Department) the authority to institute a program to house inmate mothers with their infants.
During fiscal year 2004, the Department admitted over two hundred pregnant inmates with a three year or less sentence. Once the babies are born, they are taken from their mother and not reunited until the mother is released from prison. As a result, the baby and the mother cannot bond. The mother is returned to her prison unit without a program to develop the hands-on parenting skills and bonding needed to give the inmate mother and infant the best chance at a productive life.
- Improve and standardize electronic voting equipment.
- Don’t restrict medical marijuana from cancer patients and others in pain.
- Stop the spread of disease by providing safe, clean needles to addicts.
- Create a mandatory HIV testing program at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, so that all prisoners - prior to becoming inmates and prior to being released - undergo testing.
- Permit some immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and eventually obtain permanent status and become eligible for citizenship if they meet certain conditions.
For instance, immigrant students who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, graduated from high school here, and can have no criminal record could initially qualify for “conditional lawful permanent resident" status, which normally would last for six years. During the conditional period, the student would be required to attend a two-year or four-year college or join the military. At the end of the conditional period, those who meet these requirements would be eligible for regular lawful permanent resident status.
This measure would have a life-changing impact on the students who qualify, dramatically increasing their average future earnings – and, consequently, the amount of taxes they would pay – while significantly reducing criminal justice and social services costs to taxpayers.
- Forbid asset forfeiture (removing the proceeds of a crime and other assets relied upon by criminals and their associates) by all law enforcement agencies without an underling criminal conviction.
In Texas, our laws still allow local law enforcement agencies too much leeway to abuse their position when it comes to forfeiture of personal property. Too many times, seizures have been made because an agency needed the money – instead of because credible evidence proved that certain assets were drug-related. It should be presumed that property found in the possession of any citizen is that citizen’s property unless an investigation proves otherwise. - Require asset forfeiture income to be put towards health care and education.