Texas juvenile prison sentences to be reviewed after misconduct allegations News
Texas juvenile prison sentences to be reviewed after misconduct allegations

[JURIST] The individual records of approximately 90 percent of juvenile inmates in Texas will be examined following allegations by families and community activists that prison officials arbitrarily extended sentences or in retaliation for inmates filing grievances. Commission Special Master Jay Kimbrough, appointed [press release] early this month by Texas Gov. Rick Perry [official profile] to investigate the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) [official website], announced Friday that "[he] had no confidence in the integrity of [the] entire system," and that the comprehensive review will be conducted by a panel composed of community activists, prosecutors and juvenile prison officials. The investigations, which began when allegations of sexual abuse of juvenile inmates by prison officials emerged, found that TYC commission officials failed to intervene despite being aware of the abuse. All members of the commission have since resigned.

On March 16, the TYC approved a Rehabilitation Plan [backgrounder], which includes 24 specific recommendations by Acting Executive Director Ed Owens [official profile], who was voted on by the TYC Board on March 1 following the emergence of the allegations. The TYC currently holds approximately 4,700 inmates from ages 10 to 21. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.