Texas Jail Project
Organizing with and advocating for people in county jails to build a world where healthy communities make jails obsolete.
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Events and Announcements
Houston Public Media: Two more Harris County prisoners die in custody, marking first reported jail deaths of 2025
When They Jail Us, They Fail Us
244
County Jails
Confine more than 70,000 people per day, the highest pretrial jail population in history.
153
Deaths
Number of reported deaths while in custody of a Texas county jail in 2023. As per the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, county jails have reported 134 in-custody deaths in 2024, including at least 13 suicides. Majority of them were pretrial, legally innocent.
2.3K
People with Disabilities*
Wait in jail up to 600 days for a psychiatric hospital bed. Meanwhile, Texas leads the nation in rural hospital closures.
15
Non-Compliant Jail Reports
Texas jails are inspected by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards annually and as needed. Currently, 53% of active reports have at least one violation that is mental health related.
What We Fight For
An end to mass incarceration
catalyzed by
an organized, loving resistance to pretrial detention.
Latest Press
KPRC2: Family part of push for OAG to force compliance after another detainee dies in HCSO custody
Abc13: Texas Attorney General’s Office to help get Harris County Jail back into compliance
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Federal judge dismisses Tarrant County from lawsuit in jail death of Anthony Johnson Jr.
Storytelling Archives
Though published years apart, Texas Jail Project’s two standalone story projects each illustrate the boundless perseverance of community in the face of relentless cruelty.
Shedding Light
Produced in collaboration with Zealous and Civil Rights Corps, “Shedding Light’ is an intimate digital archive of over 100 interviews, essays, letters, poems, and accounts of people trapped in jail during the Covid-19 pandemic.
ExploreJailhouse Stories
With the support of Public Welfare Foundation and Nation Inside, “Jailhouse Stories,” launched in 2015. The project, collected and published over two years, carved space for families from 34 counties across Texas to memorialize, grieve, and process the loss of their loved ones in jail.
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Keep up with Texas Jail Project’s work in the community, courthouses, the Capitol, and everywhere in between.