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VA's governor just restored voting rights for more than 60k citizens, a reversal from the previous governor and a reminder of VA's harsh lifetime voting ban for any felony conviction The move comes ahead of a November referendum to end this system and start restoring rights when people exit prison

Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights for Thousands With Past Felony Convictions - BoltsThis is the only state that, absent action by the governor, bans people convicted of any felony from voting for life. Virginians have an opportunity to end that system for good in November.boltsmag.org

TX’s largest jails continue to violate the key reform brought by the Sandra Bland Act, which was meant to prevent jailers from investigating themselves when someone dies in their custody. From Fort Worth to San Antonio, sheriffs continue to violate the mandate for independent investigations

Failures in 17 Bexar County jail death probes demand new investigationsTexas officials say investigations into 17 Bexar County jail deaths must be redone or reassigned after failures in the required independent probes. The cases demand stronger oversight.www.expressnews.com

we've been lucky enough to work w/ @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social for a couple years, and I think he's truly doing some of the best reporting and writing behind bars right now. follow and read his other work boltsmag.org/north-caroli... boltsmag.org/north-caroli... boltsmag.org/north-caroli...

In North Carolina, Juvenile Lifers See a Pathway to Freedom - BoltsAfter North Carolina's previous governor granted clemency to people sentenced to life in prison as minors, others with juvenile life sentences are hoping for a new administration that also believes in...boltsmag.org

The latest from @phillipvancesmith2.bsky.social, a phenomenal journalist incarcerated in North Carolina, is this striking piece about three-strikes laws, how they condemned someone to prison for life, and the man he shot who's trying to get him out "If I can forgive him, why can’t everybody else?"

In North Carolina, a Shooting Victim Pleads for His Shooter’s Release After 30 Years - BoltsRamulus Mason was sentenced to life without parole due to North Carolina’s three-strikes law. The man he shot insists that he shouldn’t still be in prison.boltsmag.org

last week, after Houston’s mayor had already downplayed ICE's killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and acted like the city had little power to investigate, he then decided to chastise angry people who showed up to testify at city council bc they cursed and “took the lord’s name in vain” this week:

ICE protesters disrupt Houston City Council, forcing HPD to detain 2Mayor John Whitmire last week chided Houstonians who had shown up to speak out against this month's fatal ICE shooting for "bad behavior."www.houstonchronicle.com

San Antonio activists have long tried to end the kind of lax discipline policies that absolved this cop who gave a shit sandwich to a homeless person. Yet local coverage of this year’s police contract basically ignores it. This might as well be a press release sanantonioreport.org/san-antonio-...

TX says the Rangers, the detective arm of state police, are investigating the ICE killing in Houston. They often get called to probe police killings and deaths in custody here. Those investigations are also often full of flaws. www.texasobserver.org/locked-up-an... www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/u...

In Texas, Dying In Jail Is 'Par For The Course'As part of a months-long investigation, the Texas Observer reviewed more than 400 Rangers investigations into jail deaths over the past decade.www.texasobserver.org

After years of hunger strikes and litigation, survivors of solitary in California passed the Mandela Act to restrict isolation. But the governor vetoed it and told prison officials to make their own reforms. @psfrench.bsky.social reports how they’re now backtracking on even those minor reforms:

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Solitary Reforms in California - BoltsCalifornia officials dial back the minor reforms they've made to isolation in prison, three years after Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation to rein in solitary confinement.boltsmag.org

The DA in Memphis, who ran on police accountability a few years ago and prosecuted cops for the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols, wrote this column after going to a training seminar that's notorious for justifying police violence: "A DA can’t prevent police killings if the police are trained to kill."

Your local police may be trained for violence. They shouldn't be. | OpinionApparently, the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was justifiable. So was the police killing of Eric Garner in New York City.www.usatoday.com

for ppl just getting acquainted w/ the Houston mayor claiming that local officials can't investigate ICE killings, know that he also spearheaded prison-building in the 90s and then left the TX Senate decades later as a key barrier to reform (blocking raise the age, prison AC, police oversight, etc)

Promises to Scale Up Policing Stir Houston’s Mayoral Race - BoltsJohn Whitmire, a state senator who’s helped steer criminal justice in Texas for decades, is vowing to deploy state troopers in Houston in his run against U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.boltsmag.org

different state but same issue: we recently ran this piece about jails becoming the dumping ground for ppl in mental health crisis, and this dysfunctional system for restoring competency that warehouses people in jail for months or even years in brutal conditions that are especially harmful for them

The Jail That Replaced Boulder’s Mental Health System   - BoltsColorado’s dysfunctional system for restoring competency for defendants with serious mental illness leaves people cycling in and out of jail, where harsh conditions can further erode their mental heal...boltsmag.org

a federal judge in TX ruled that forcing people w/ competency restoration orders to languish in jail for months is unconstitutional, but then gave the state *4 years* to comply w/ a 3-week deadline for putting people in treatment www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/new...

Judge orders Texas to admit all mentally ill jail detainees to state facilities within 21 days | Houston Public MediaThe order came as part of a federal lawsuit over long wait times for Texas detainees who need their mental competency restored in a state hospital before trial.www.houstonpublicmedia.org

very revealing interview here by Houston public radio the DA says that feds have basically blocked them from investigating, not sharing info w/ local law enforcement (says he still doesn’t know the names of the agents involved), and that he’s worried ICE is trying to deport critical witnesses

in this interview, the Harris Co DA says he's committed to investigating ICE's killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. "We are going to investigate the fact that a longtime resident of this community was killed at the hands of police." HTX mayor and state police have already said they won't investigate

Hello Houston Full Episode - July 9, 2026YouTube video by Houston Public Mediawww.youtube.com

the Sandra Bland Act mandated independent investigations when people die in jail custody, but that won’t happen here, not even as even as the county sees multiple jail deaths per week

Another man has died after being in Tarrant County Jail custody — the fourth death in 2 weeksVictor Runnels, 61, was arrested June 11 on a parole violation, according to court records.www.keranews.org

as San Antonio hires a new police chief for the first time in decades, I'd point out how the retiring chief couldn't be trusted to tell the truth, not even when he testified in court www.sacurrent.com/news/chief-s...

Chief Says San Antonio Cops Never Cover Up For Each Other. Disciplinary Records Show OtherwiseIn federal court this week, lawyers for the family of a man shot and killed by an off-duty cop are trying to convince a jury that San Antonio Policewww.sacurrent.com

while this was a rare win for voting access, SCOTUS keeps fanning conspiracies about fraud. even as she wrote the opinion to save grace periods, Barrett still pushes the idea that they could threaten elections bc “results may appear to flip after Election Day” @burness.bsky.social on today's news

Supreme Court Upholds Grace Periods For Mail Ballots Postmarked by Election Day - BoltsSCOTUS allows states to keep accepting ballots that arrive after Election Day, even as conservatives on the court continue to cast doubt on mail voting.boltsmag.org