Interview by Kayla Bennett, TJP volunteer
Al Miller, an inmate at the Montgomery County Jail for four months, describes his experience in an interview with Texas Jail Project.

TXJP: How were general conditions in the tanks?
Al: I was in tank C4H. This place was dingy...and pretty gross. They have the best-dressed sheriffs office in the state and actually won an award for it,* yet this place is just a shambles. Example: the sink was stopped up for almost two months.Read more

Daniel Novick-KFOX News Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Posted: 4:51 pm MDT July 26, 2010, http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/24400476/detail.html

EL PASO, Texas -- Four out of ten inmates in the El Paso County jails have some sort of a mental health issue, according to the county.
Jesus Guiroga handles all of the intake and crisis services at El Paso Mental Health And Mental Retardation. He's seen the mental health problem in the jails on a daily basis, but he said much of it can be prevented.
"By diverting these individuals to the appropriate care," they don't end up in jails, Guiroga told KFOX.Read more

By Peter J. Holley - Express-News, Web Posted: 07/25/2010 12:00 CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/punishment_for_families_too_...

Some days Sylvia Gomez thinks it is harder for her to get inside the Bexar County Jail to visit her son than it would be for him to break out and come to her. It's not the strict dress code, invasive security measures or even the agitated and sometimes unruly residents of the imposing red-brick fortress.Read more

If you check out the rules for county jails*, you'll see the following statement:
[County jails] shall provide for the firm, fair, and consistent application of rules and regulations.

Texas Jail Project received the following accounty of the Amarillo lockup that shows a jail doing just the opposite. After conversations with the author, we feel his complaints deserve an airing and we hope to have a response from the Potter County Jail.

Dear Captain Haney:Read more

Express-News Editorial Board , Web Posted: 06/11/2010 12:00 CDT

Recent findings by two separate review panels revealed that the Bexar County jail staff was not following state rules on inmate medical screenings, signaling troubling problems that must be addressed quickly.
Obtaining accurate medical information when a prisoner is jailed is vital to the efficient and safe operation of a detention facility.Read more

By Melinda Hieber, Complaints Investigator, in the newsletter of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. (Be aware that the article is aimed at jail administrators and sheriffs, not the general public.)Read more

Picture yourself dropped on the other side of the Texas-Mexican border, in the midst of a bloody drug war. You can’t find work and your only income is contributions from friends, church groups and teenagers donating lunch money.
The only house you can afford to rent has a dirt floor and no air conditioning, in the midst of a slum where bodies are found on the street in the morning. You only know a couple of people, your kids don’t want to come across to visit, and your mom can’t take the heat.Read more

Spread the word to families: here is a summer camp that is a wonderful opportunity for children and is free, including transportation to and from the conference center. Promise Camp is similar to Camp Good News in Navasota, but is held at the Quarterman Ranch Conference Center in Amarillo, July 12 - 16.

They will have a chartered bus that will stop in San Angelo, Big Spring, and Lubbock. They will make arrangements for children from the Midland, Abilene & Amarillo areas.

Check out their web site: www.promisecamp.org
Or you can contact Katy Hoskins, director, Promise CampRead more

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122725771&sc=emaf
January 21, 2010 By Laura Sullivan (THIS GREAT STORY AIRED ON NPR RADIO)

Leslie Chew spent his childhood working long days next to his father on the oil rigs of southern Texas. No school meant he never learned to read or write. Now in his early 40s, he's a handyman, often finding a place to sleep in the back of his old station wagon.
But he got by — until one night in December 2008 when the station wagon got cold, and he changed the course of his life.Read more

By EMMA PEREZ-TREVINO, The Brownsville Herald

Her I.D. # was 60920-279, but after serving more than four years behind bars — with most of the time awaiting trial [in a county jail] — the end of Carla Ramos’ legal troubles came to a quiet end late Thursday when she was deported to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, friends say.

Ramos, 28, was released Thursday from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, agency data confirms.

She arrived by bus in Matamoros early Friday.

Ramos called Valley Christian High School Principal Paul Hanson and his wife Gail Hanson from Matamoros at about 7 a.m.Read more