The latest Texas Department Of Criminal Justice news from The Texas Tribune.
With one major legal battle seemingly behind them, Sandra Bland's survivors and advocates are gearing up for the next phase of their quest to wrest change from the 28-year-old black woman's death. Full Story
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The family of Sandra Bland — the woman who died last year in a Waller County Jail cell — has reached a settlement with Texas officials in a wrongful death lawsuit, a lawyer for the family said Thursday. Full Story
On Thursday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice presented a legislative appropriations request to its governing board that offered $28 million in cuts. Officials added that they would seek an exemption from further cuts. Full Story
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Robert Lynn Pruett, convicted in the 1999 stabbing death of a state correctional officer, has won another stay of execution from a Court of Criminal Appeals judge. His lethal injection was set for August 23. Full Story
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Almost 7,000 individuals in Texas have died in police custody or behind bars over the past 10 years, according to an online report released Wednesday by a University of Texas at Austin research institute. Nearly 2,000 of them had not been convicted of a crime. Full Story
Inmate Dillion Gage Compton, 21, who worked in the prison's kitchen area, attacked and killed correctional officer Mari Johnson, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice alleged in a statement Monday. Full Story
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Gov. Greg Abbott's proposal comes after weeks of targeted killings of police officers and growing tension over disproportionate encounters between black Americans and law enforcement. Full Story
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A Texas execution set for next week has been delayed indefinitely because the state wasn't able to retest the purity of the lethal drugs in time. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his Alabama counterpart have dropped their legal bid to squelch a U.S. Virgin Islands investigation of Exxon Mobil after the U.S. territory agreed to with draw a subpoena for company documents. Full Story
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More than 2,500 Texas inmates will participate in a national experiment starting next month so that the federal government can study whether reinstating Pell Grants for prisoners might boost their chances of finding employment. Full Story
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Second-in-command Bryan Collier will be the next executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the agency's governing board announced Friday. Full Story
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The next executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will lead nearly 40,000 employees, manage a $3 billion annual budget, direct more than 100 prisons and oversee the nation's busiest execution chamber. Full Story
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A man who sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County will no longer face execution after he has been determined to be intellectually disabled. Full Story
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A prisoner rights advocate thinks lawmakers should loosen restrictions on medical parole eligibility for sex offenders. A top state lawmaker on criminal justice issues agrees with her but says the issue is just too politically toxic. Full Story
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As the Great Depression was winding down, a variety show broadcast from the state prison in Huntsville began airing on the radio and collecting a devoted audience. A new book collects the stories of the men and women who performed on the show and at the annual Texas Prison Rodeo. Full Story
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Revealing Texas' supplier of execution drugs could have a harmful effect on the provider and as a result leave the state empty-handed, a lawyer for the state suggested Wednesday during an appeals court hearing. Full Story
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Our Faces of Death Row app has some new features. Now, you can search for inmates by the county where the crime was committed and see who has an execution date scheduled. Full Story
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A New Orleans-based appeals court says the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's restrictions on beard lengths and religious head garments for inmates violate federal law. Full Story
The Texas prison inmates database has been updated with the latest data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Use the app to learn more about the most common crimes and look up any of the more than 144,000 inmates housed in Texas prisons. Full Story
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Lori Williams was searching online last year when she found a plea apparently written by a Texas prison inmate looking for pen pals to write him in prison. The accompanying photo was of the man who assaulted her at knifepoint. Full Story
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