Our top story: Operation Lone Star has turbocharged DPS’ surveillance capabilities. Lawmakers say they want to prevent Texas from becoming a police state but have filed only modest legislation to regulate use of #AI.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/

“The history of Lawrence represents LGBTQ+ people’s struggle to be fully seen as human rather than as criminals and deviants ...”

I'm gradually crossposting my @TexasObserver stories onto my website. This article illuminates how decades of queer activism in #Texas ushered in a landmark #SCOTUS ruling. https://kitoconnell.com/2023/02/09/lawrence-v-texas-phelps-review/

#LGBTQIA+ #history #law #HumanRights #CriminalJustice #activism #Dallas #books #bookstodon

I've been gradually crossposting my @TexasObserver stories onto my website. Using a history book as a jumping off point, this article illuminates how decades of queer activism in #Texas ushered in a landmark #SCOTUS ruling that changed people's lives. https://kitoconnell.com/2023/02/09/lawrence-v-texas-phelps-review/

#LGBTQIA+ #history #law #HumanRights #CriminalJustice #activism #Dallas #books #bookstodon

German climate activist faces expulsion from Austria after ban | National https://www.byteseu.com/918877/ #Austria #CommonLaw #Crime #CriminalJustice #CriminalLaw #Government #HumanRights #IssuesInEthics #justice #LastGeneration(climateMovement) #LAW #LawEnforcement #partners/afp #Politics #PublicLaw #PublicSphere #SocialIssues

“We’ve kind of forgotten about how big a behemoth the government has become as a surveiller of its populace.”

Our top story: Unpacking the millions spent on #AI-based surveillance of the border ... and how the state's gaze has expanded well beyond the edges of our nation. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/

I got an HD on my latest assignment.. but the comments the marker left don't make sense.

He made 3 comments - the first one was that I needed to "outline what [I] know about Indigenous people and the criminal justice system", the second comment says "reads well with explicit focus on the cjs", the third says "strong professional focus upon nature of Indigenous Australian over-representation in cjs also applying cultural competency learning. Reads very well indeed."

I don't understand how I can both NOT outline the experience of Indigenous people in the cjs and also have outlined it enough to get those positive responses...?

Then in the overall feedback for the assessment he told me I have to "conceptualise settler colonialism".

He's a non-Indigenous academic.

It's a paper about cultural competency in professional practice, and the first sentence I've written positions me as a Kamilaroi person.

But he's going to tell me to "conceptualise settler colonialism".

Right.

Earlier: While “restoring the rule of law” to the U.S.-Mexico border has been a resonant and repeated talking point for successive administrations, it is the border walls that they have built, not the border itself, that are lawless. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-lawless-border-wall/

The Harris County District Attorney's Office is receiving a $7.6 million boost to bolster domestic violence resources and continue a reduction in the county jail population.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/criminal-justice/2025/04/11/518677/harris-county-das-office-receives-7-6-million-boost-for-jail-issues-domestic-violence-resources/

If you said that police were stupid, lazy, ignorant, malicious, arrogant and capricious nothing in this story could be brought in evidence to refute such claims.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1910311937851654345.html

Featured story: In February, the Observer identified the operator of “GlomarResponder,” an overtly racist social media account, as #ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation. https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecutor-dallas-white-supremacist-x-account/

The three-drug protocol first used by states was intended to make sure the person on the gurney died. Extremely high doses of three drugs—each lethal in its own right—would ensure that if one drug failed, one of the other two would surely work. But this three-drug plan wasn’t reviewed by anyone before #Oklahoma adopted it, followed the next day by #Texas. https://www.texasobserver.org/sordid-story-behind-lethal-injection/

#DeathPenalty #politics #history #books #prison #CriminalJustice #law #medicine #USpol #bookstodon

“We’re trying to straddle a recreational use versus a medicinal use. Drawing the lines will be difficult, because we’ve been doing this for almost three hours, and I’m still not sure what we’re talking about.” https://www.texasobserver.org/advocates-speak-against-lege-thc-hemp-restrictions/

An Algorithm Deemed This Nearly Blind 70-Year-Old Prisoner a “Moderate Risk.” Now He’s No Longer Eligible for Parole.
—

A Louisiana law cedes much of the power of the parole board to an algorithm that bars thousands of prisoners from a shot at early release. Civil rights attorneys say it could disproportionately harm Black people — and may even be unconstitutional.
https://www.propublica.org/article/tiger-algorithm-louisiana-parole-calvin-alexander?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

In an attempt to address overcrowding in the Montgomery County Jail, the county will begin doling out thousands of dollars each day to relocate some prisoners.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/criminal-justice/2025/04/09/518400/montgomery-county-to-spend-thousands-to-outsource-inmates-amid-overcrowding/

Our top story: “Many of these technologies are eroding that reasonable expectation of privacy that people have, and [are] kind of leading to this police #surveillance state, where the government ends up having … information about people without having to get a warrant.” https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/

Read an excerpt from the new book by the Observer's Lise Olsen: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer/

See Lise tonight at 7pm at BookPeople in Austin! RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bookpeople-presents-lise-olsen-the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer-tickets-1207891188059?aff=bp

In explaining the legal and clinical aspects of lethal injections, “Secrets of the Killing State” is far from sterile. Corinna Barrett Lain lays out her fact-based narratives in stomach-churning detail, while also plainly sharing her analysis of the facts with readers, often bordering on righteous indignation. https://www.texasobserver.org/sordid-story-behind-lethal-injection/

Our top story: Over the past several years, the #Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has quietly built out an expansive #surveillance apparatus—one that’s increasingly powered by artificial intelligence. Can the legislature pass new protections for our privacy? https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/

Tomorrow (Wednesday April 9): Join Texas Observer's Lise Olsen in conversation with Michelle Pitcher, to celebrate the release of Lise's new book The Scientist and the Serial Killer.

FREE! 7pm BookPeople, #Austin, Texas
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bookpeople-presents-lise-olsen-the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer-tickets-1207891188059?aff=bp

In #books, from Michelle Pitcher: Law professor, former prosecutor, and death penalty expert Corinna Barrett Lain brings readers into the death chamber to bear disturbing witness to the reality of lethal injection. A look behind the curtain at our state's grim legacy in criminal justice ...
https://www.texasobserver.org/sordid-story-behind-lethal-injection/