Texas Tribune: Texas’ overcrowded and understaffed jails send people awaiting trial to other counties and states

Texas Jail Project is featured in another article about overcrowding and the practice of sending people who are pretrial – legally innocent, out of state, where there is often far less oversight and support systems are inaccessible.

Sorcha Costigan, wife of a decorated Veteran has been fighting for better conditions and oversight after her husband was transferred from Sabine county to a private prison company in Louisiana while awaiting trial on a high bond amount.

“We are addicted to carceral solutions,” said Krish Gundu, co-founder of Texas Jail Project, which advocates for people in Texas county jails.

But Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature is unlikely to follow their advice. The state has a long history of relying heavily on incarceration to control crime and to maintain law and order. Texas locks up 751 per 100,000 of its residents, one of the higher rates in the United States, according to a recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Since 2022, at least eight counties — Sabine, Harris, Wilbarger, Newton, Chambers, Tyler, Loving and Liberty — have sent their overflow jail population out of state to Louisiana, Oklahoma, Colorado and Mississippi, through contracts costing taxpayers millions of dollars.