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