Texas’ Justice System: What you need to know

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Setting the Record Straight on Justice in TX ⚖️

Explore our latest efforts to improve Texas’ justice system, one of our newest policy areas.

Justice & Safety 101: From living in safe neighborhoods to fair treatment in courts and correctional facilities, public safety and justice are foundational to flourishing communities.

• Deep Dive: Justice includes everything from interactions with the police to what happens in our court system and afterwards.
• Investing early in basic oversight and institutions can reduce social and fiscal costs later, but requires increased state and local collaboration, transparency and accountability.

Gaps in the System: Critical information is sorely lacking in the conversations to improve our systems of justice and public safety. Data is not just a byproduct of the justice system, but an asset and a tool to improve it.

• We need more information collected from every point of justice-involved interactions, including law enforcement, state courts and correctional settings.

Did You Know: The state oversees more than 2,700 law enforcement agencies across Texas.

• The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement licenses peace officers and enforces training and continuing education, among other things.

Texas 2036 To Do: Our efforts are centered on improving four key intersections in the criminal justice system that:

1. Enhance how the state regulates police and law enforcement
2. Find ways to clear Texas’ backlog of criminal cases
3. Improve basic conditions in state prisons, particularly climate control for inmates and staff
4. Support smooth reentry back into society once ex-offenders pay their debt