This just has to stop…. how can 7000 citizens die inside our jails and prisons in 15 years? Think how many people that is — a small town! And get this — 2000 of those people had not even had a trial. They were technically innocent! Yet they died.
The University of Texas Institute for Public Policy has now collected those deaths — and stories — and has them up on the web so we can study them. We also need to involve the policy makers in this staggering discovery; why did it take so long for someone to research these deaths? Why weren’t the statistics available before a graduate student started digging?
We are a rich, media-savvy country. Now we have the statistics and now we cannot hide our heads in the sand. We must step up and change the way our criminal justice has been run.
online interactive database<http://www.texasjus=
ticeinitiative.org> documenting 6,913 deaths in custody in Texas from 2005-=
2015 and have released a report on the data findings, attached to this emai=
l. The 11-year dataset which forms the basis for the website and report i=
ncludes deaths in police interactions, jails and prisons, along with the de=
ceased’s name, demographic information, time and place of death, cause of d=
eath, length of time in custody and a narrative submitted by the custodian.=
The website is accessible at http://www.