Jan 29, 2016
Charles and Matt are joined by Jay Jenkins, Staff Attorney with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, to look at how criminal justice reform occurs by looking at how individuals end up in jail, how the bail system works, and what options exist to divert them back to their communities. Jay has served as an attorney in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York City, and has a wealth of experience working on major reform efforts. He is on the planning committee working with Harris County for the major MacArthur Foundation reform effort. More information about the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition is here: http://www.texascjc.org/ More information about LEAD, the Seattle prebooking diversion program that Jay mentions is here: http://leadkingcounty.org/ An editorial on how this Seattle program relates to Harris County is here: http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Jenkins-Neill-Harris-County-should-stop-jailing-6538426.php Pulitzer Prize winning Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg has written about bail reform in a series of columns here: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/falkenberg/article/Falkenberg-Bread-and-jails-A-deadline-a-promise-6733285.php and here: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/falkenberg/article/For-those-accused-in-Harris-County-it-s-time-to-6748263.php Houston Press writer Megan Flynn has written about bail reform here: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/bail-hearings-where-prosecutors-and-magistrates-ensure-defenseless-people-stay-in-jail-8058308