We insist on safer jails, a fair approach to justice and an end to unnecessary pretrial detention.
Join us. Support the Texas Jail Project and other organizations working for change.

Texas Jail Project
www.texasjailproject.org

The Jailhouse Stories program and this site are an initiative of Texas Jail Project, a nonprofit organization in Austin, TX. We focus on three areas:

we respond to those seeking help for loved ones held in local county jails in Texas, offering guidance and resources;
we research, document and publicize persistent issues and problems;
we advocate to improve state and local policies and practices regarding county jails.

Current jail procedures are devastating the lives and health of individuals and communities. We believe that we can–and must–both transform the punitive culture inside jails and end the criminalization of poverty.

Pretrial Justice Institute
www.pretrial.org

The Pretrial Justice Institute’s core purpose is to advance safe, fair, and effective juvenile and adult pretrial justice practices and policies that honor and protect all people. Read their 8 Recommended Solutions for Pretrial Justice Reform.

Justice Policy Institute
www.justicepolicy.org

Through research and analysis, JPI informs advocates, policymakers, and the media about effective programs and policies that reduce the use of incarceration and promote fair and healthy communities.

National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies
www.napsa.org

NAPSA aims to promote pretrial justice and public safety through rational pretrial decision making and practices informed by data. Throughout the United States, NAPSA is using the value of evidence based standards to challenge the unjust operations of pretrial detention.

Texas Association of Pretrial Services
www.texaspretrial.org

TAPS was established in 2014 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of pretrial services within Texas. By supporting and advocating for pretrial release and diversion practices, TAPS is striving to expand the use of pretrial services to an increasing number of counties across the Lone Star State.

Texas Mental Health & Criminal Justice Coalition
www.grassrootsleadership.org/programs/mental-health-and-criminal-justice-coalition

The Texas Mental Health and Criminal Justice Coalition formed in 2014 to address the many concerns of inmates in need of mental health care within the criminal justice system. Member organizations include Grassroots Leadership, the Texas Jail Project, the ACLU of Texas, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Texas, Mental Health America of Texas, and the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.

Texas Civil Rights Project
www.texascivilrightsproject.org

TCRP has brought over 2,300 cases, challenging institutional discrimination, reforming systems of criminal justice, ensuring equal access to government services and vindicating the civil rights of countless marginalized Texans. Today, TCRP has become the largest and most influential civil rights organization in the Lone Star State.

Texas Fair Defense Project
www.fairdefense.org

TFDP seeks to improve the fairness of Texas’s criminal courts and ensure that all Texans have access to justice. Their Pretrial Justice initiative specifically works to change detention policies that keep low-income people in jail prior to trial just because they don’t have money to pay commercial bond fees.

National Advocates for Pregnant Women
www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org

NAPW seeks to protect the rights and human dignity of all women, particularly pregnant and parenting women and those who are most vulnerable including incarcerated women, low income women, women of color, and drug-using women. NAPW uses the lessons learned from the experiences of these women to find more effective ways of advancing reproductive and human rights for all women and families.

Who Is Working to Reform Pretrial Detention in Texas? Learn more about expert recommendations on a wide range of issues, from how to improve police practices and jail safety to bail reform and diversion policies for the mentally ill. The Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin held a groundbreaking symposium on the subject, and offer videos and a report focused on pretrial issues from arrest to trial.

“Far more people in the United States spend time in jail than in prison. And while the impacts of prison have been the subject of study for some time, only recently have jails come under closer scrutiny.... [J]ails can be as destructive to people’s lives as prisons [....]The difference is that when a person is in jail rather than prison, all of these impacts can occur while people are awaiting their day in court for an offense for which they have not yet been judged.”
– Justice Policy Institute

Texas Jail Project dba Jail Project of Texas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.