I'm not the best at blogging so I'm just going to shamelessly copy some information from another news source.

Here's my snarky comment though - lovely counterbalance, Houston Chronicle, just lovely - Violent juveniles often serve fraction of terms - perhaps if there were more resources for mental health care for the poor and our public school teachers didn't draw some of the lowest salaries in the nation, the children wouldn't have wound up in TYC in the first place.

Justice Department didn't act, citing lack of evidence; critics say politics played a part

08:13 AM CDT on Sunday, August 5, 2007

By STEVE McGONIGLE and DOUG J. SWANSON / The Dallas Morning News
smcgonigle@dallasnews.com ; dswanson@dallasnews.com

For four years, U.S. Justice Department attorneys heard the horror stories: Inmates in Texas juvenile prisons were being beaten and molested by the people who were supposed to protect them.


Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski detailed abuses at the West Texas State School in a 229-page report and worked with the federal attorneys who ultimately dropped the case.

Federal watchdogs discreetly collected information and discussed fine legal points as the assaults piled up. More than 2,000 allegations of staff abusing inmates were confirmed by the Texas Youth Commission from January 2003 to December 2006.

Don't Suppress the Vote in Texas
by Sonia Santana

Texas is one of several states subject to the Voter Rights Act Section 5 pre-clearance whereby election practices or procedures are frozen until the new proposed procedures have been subjected to review by the US Department of Justice. You wouldn't be too surprised by our state neighbors in the Section 5 pool. You also wouldn't be too surprised that under the Bush administration DOJ pre-clearance has been relatively easy.

LA Times 3/25/2007
Justice Department tugged to the right
Under Bush, the department has been tainted by politics, many say.
snip) The Civil Rights Division veterans focused their criticism on major voting case decisions over the last six years that they say have generally benefited the GOP.

The most recent case concerned a 2005 Georgia law that required voters to provide photo identification. Staff attorneys raised concerns about the law after the Georgia secretary of state supplied data showing that tens of thousands of voters might not have driver's licenses or other prescribed forms of identification. They said the plan could effectively disenfranchise large numbers of black voters.(/snip)