The Core Blog

In Texas, money means freedom. Release from a Texas jail before trial depends on your ability to pay a cash bond or hire a bail bondsman. If you don’t have enough money, you’ll stay in jail until your trial or until you plead guilty. Personal bonds (meaning release without any money payment) are rare in Texas. This means that many of the people in Texas jails are not detained because they are public safety risks

Ms. Jones, a 71 year-old widow and great grandmother who fell on hard financial times, took out a payday loan in a desperate moment.When she could not repay the loan, she asked the business to work with her: “What I thought was going to happen was they would have some kind of sympathy for a senior who was living on a fixed income of Social Security and that they would allow me to make some

Over the past six months, the juvenile justice headlines dominating the news have focused on scandals and dysfunction within the system, prompting changes in Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) leadership and revitalizing calls for reform of the entire system.With this renewed focus on whether TJJD’s programming, services, and structure are truly rehabilitating youth, we must also take a hard look at how youth are faring in adult facilities, particularly given suggestions that TJJD may transfer

Texas Appleseed is pleased to honor Carrin Patman, chair of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, at our upcoming Visionary Society reception on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Carrin has long ties to Texas Appleseed. She served on our board for nine years, rolling up her sleeves to help us change unjust laws and policies that were keeping Texans from recognizing their full potential. Today, she is leading Houston’s efforts to improve transportation options and

Federal dollars for long-term disaster recovery are starting to flow to Texas. Some of the most critical of those dollars, particularly for rebuilding and repairing homes, comes through the Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. For each allocation of CDBG-DR dollars, the State of Texas must publish an Action Plantelling Texans what it will do with the funds. Texas’ first Action Plan, covering the first $58 million of CDBG-DR funds is out

To the outside world, it must look as though Texas’ juvenile justice system is imploding. Not only are media articles appearing on a regular basis about sexual and physical abuse of young people in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s secure facilities, we are also reading about overcrowding in Harris County’s juvenile detention facility, and kids being refused time outside at the Dallas County juvenile post-adjudication facility. What should we make of this? How do all

February is the month that municipal and justice courts across Texas traditionally begin their “Great Warrant Roundup” — an attempt to enforce warrants for unpaid fines in low-level misdemeanor cases by showing up at people’s home or workplaces to arrest them. People who cannot pay fines have not historically been offered meaningful alternatives, like community service, in most Texas municipal and justice courts so the warrant roundup has been an unnecessary exercise that harms and

Importance of Federal School Discipline Guidance Package Video of Importance of Federal School Discipline Guidance Package The Federal School Discipline Guidance Package, issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice in 2014, is being threatened. Recent media reports show that the U.S. Department of Education is receiving input from a few select groups that may lead the Department to rescind these important guidelines that help us to protect Texas students from harmful and discriminatory

What Will It Mean for Texas? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released the final payday and auto title lending rule on October 5, after spending the past five years studying the market and its impacts on borrowers. The final rule was posted in the Federal Register on November 17, which officially starts the 21-month period to full implementation. Texas Appleseed, along with our partners in the Texas Fair Lending Alliance and Texas Faith Leaders

The City of Austin ordinance designed to address harmful practices by payday and auto title loan businesses has overcome an important legal hurdle. A Travis County Court found, in two separate opinions, that the ordinance is not preempted by state law. In March, a municipal court ruled that an important provision of the Austin ordinance, one that limits payday and auto title loans to four payments and requires 25% principal pay down with every payment

Homeowner’s insurance plays a vital role in disaster recovery, not only helping families and businesses to rebuild, but also providing coverage for temporary housing and replacing personal possessions. However, homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood or windstorm damage for certain homeowners. Flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program and windstorm insurance through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association are separate insurance policies with different coverage. We wanted to take a moment to answer some questions

Yesterday, the Texas Tribune ran a story about a six-year-old girl named Karla. She and her father fled Houston’s rising flood waters through a second-story window in their apartment, with Karla’s father lowering her into the waiting arms of a Houston police officer before he climbed out himself. While the story’s primary focus is on the city’s neglect of the neighborhood in which they live, it also describes the way that the trauma of the