Texas officials say it would cost $1 billion to cool prisons – but they’ve grossly overestimated AC costs before
An estimate to put air conditioning into one prison changed from more than $20 million to $4 million last year. Full Story
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Jolie McCullough
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Jolie McCullough was a reporter at The Texas Tribune from 2015 to 2023. She began as a data visualization journalist and then reported on criminal justice policy, ranging from policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She joined the Tribune from the Albuquerque Journal, her hometown newspaper. She previously worked at the Arizona Republic and is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Past Contributions
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![Telford prison in New Boston.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott's influence has shifted Texas bail reform efforts toward a bill that would give him more control
There are now two sets of bail reform bills named after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who was murdered while the suspect was out of jail on a $15,500 bond after allegedly assaulting a sheriff’s deputy. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott. joined by DPS Director Steve McCraw (seated, left) and Kasey Allen, widow of Damon Allen, speaks at a press conference in Waco on August 7, 2018. Abbott announced a proposal to reform the bail system in Texas. The proposal is in honor of State Trooper Damon Allen, who was killed while on duty in 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Texas senator proposes moving all youth in state lockups to shuttered adult jail
After shrinking the population at state-run juvenile lockups, state Sen. John Whitmire wants to move the remaining youth at five facilities to one recently closed adult jail. Full Story
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Texas may soon have to report the temperatures inside its uncooled prisons
The requirement was included in a budget amendment approved by a House subcommittee Wednesday. Full Story
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![Prison staff and inmates move through the Darrington Unit's main hallway on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.]()
Credit: Jolie McCullough/The Texas Tribune -
Prosecutor declares freed Texas death row inmate Alfred Dewayne Brown innocent, paving way for state compensation
Brown was freed from nearly a decade on death row in 2015, but because he was never declared "actually innocent," he couldn't get compensation for wrongful imprisonment — until Friday. Full Story
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![Alfred Dewayne Brown hugs his sister Connie Brown on the day of his release, June 8, 2015.]()
Credit: Karen Warren/ Houston Chronicle -
Texas executes Billie Coble, the oldest man put to death in the state during modern era of the death penalty
As the state put the 70-year-old to death, his son banged on the death chamber window. After an altercation with law enforcement, Coble's son and another relative were removed from the witness room and arrested. Full Story
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![Billie Coble. Feb 27, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
After Texas' second Supreme Court loss in a death penalty case, reform bill lands key GOP support
The chairs of two House committees signed on as joint authors of a bill that would set the method of determining if a capital murder defendant is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. Full Story
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A state report says a Texas inmate died from heat last year. Prison officials contest that finding.
A recent in-custody death report said an inmate died from hyperthermia in July, but Texas prison officials said he was in an air-conditioned cell. Full Story
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![Inmates walk down a hallway at Brazoria County's Darrington prison in July 2017.]()
Credit: Jolie McCullough / The Texas Tribune -
For the second time, U.S. Supreme Court reverses death sentence decision for Texas inmate Bobby Moore
This time, the majority of the justices said Moore has shown he is intellectually disabled. Full Story
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![The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bobby Moore, a man who has been on death row since 1980, in March 2017.]()
Credit: TDCJ/AbbyLivingston -
Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht calls for nonpartisan judicial elections, bail reform
In the wake of a midterm election that saw four major state appeals courts flip on partisan lines, Hecht called on lawmakers to consider changing Texas to a system of merit selection and retention elections. Full Story
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![Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht speaks at the State of the Judiciary at the Capitol. Feb. 5, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr. / The Texas Tribune
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