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
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.
21
Non-Compliant Jail Reports
Texas jails are inspected by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards annually and as needed. Currently, 62% 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
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Fort Worth PD doesn’t investigate jail deaths. So how did it end up on sheriff’s list?
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas jail commission hasn’t complied with custody death investigation law for 7 years
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.
Freedom Stories
Texas Freedom Stories is the result of a two year collaborative effort with Zealous to demonstrate the life-changing outcomes of misdemeanor bail reform – the ODonnell Consent Decree. This film and story collection is a part of our narrative shift as we continue to highlight non-punitive solutions that improve public safety.
ExploreShedding 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.