News & Politics
May 4, 2020
Prisons Are Coronavirus Hot Spots. Palestine’s Got Five of Them.
A COVID-19 outbreak in a maximum-security unit has created rifts between the local government and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Prison
Politics & Policy
April 16, 2015
The Department of Criminal Justice Moved a Transgender Inmate to a Safekeeping Unit
Following a string of complaints about alleged harassment, assault, and rape, a transgender inmate in Texas was moved to a special “safekeeping” unit in what LGBT activists consider a significant victory. …
Art
February 13, 2014
How Prison Art From Texas Captured the Art World’s Attention
Paños, small cloth swatches decorated with detailed illustrations by inmates, now hang in New York museums and are snapped up by worldly collectors.
Web Exclusive
January 21, 2013
Sex, Lies, and Videotapes
The Texas attorney general takes a second look at the Mineola child sex ring cases.
Feature
January 20, 2013
The Exonerated
Thirty-seven men, 525 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Thanks to DNA testing, their claims of innocence have finally been proved—but what happens to them now?…
Web Exclusive
February 1, 2008
The Gritty Truth
A criminal justice reform activist in Texas on overcrowded prisons, Tulia, the Texas Youth Commission, and the criminalization of mental illness.
Feature
February 1, 1999
The Getaway
There’s something romantic about a jailbreak, even when the escapee is a cold-blooded killer on death row. That’s why our feelings about Martin Gurule were more than a little complicated.
Health
May 31, 1998
Rx for Scandal
The poor quality of health care in the state’s penal system is enough to make you sick. Plus: Inside Tex Moncrief’s IRS mess; a River Oaks bookie is tried for murder; UT’s writing program achieves Texas-size success; and things get woolly for thestate’s mohair producers.
Politics & Policy
June 30, 1997
The Comandante
What does McAllen’s Guillermo González Calderoni know about Mexican political corruption—and when will he start talking?…
Behind the Lines
September 30, 1996
Tough Love Story
How tough should our response to juvenile crime be? No less tough than it is now—but no tougher either.
Profile
January 1, 1996
Rush to Justice
Kim Wozencraft meant to spend her life putting drug pushers behind bars—until she became an addict. Now, more than a decade later, she’s fighting against the justice system she once embraced.