🧵 Today, every sheriff who was asked to appear before @TxCommJailStand for being non-compliant with minimum standards, blamed SB 6 for directly contributing to their exploding county jail population and inability to comply. While overcrowding is not an excuse for abdicating basic custodial responsibilities such as keeping folkx alive, it's important to apportion some blame where it's due.

"Senate Bill 6 may be contributing to a record number of deaths at Harris County Jail" houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/…

🧵 It was an honor to share space with @NathanLHecht @MarcALevin & Insha Rahman @verainstitute on this urgent conversation. My 13 yr old's feedback was that I spent too much time criticizing & not enough on solutions.

So here we go:

https://twitter.com/TexasTribune/status/1573693740878684160

1) Demand that your county governments use this once in a lifetime opportunity to robustly invest ARPA funds in stable housing, crisis respite units, community based mental healthcare & substance use treatment, instead of wasting it on expanding punitive solutions. #CareNotCages

In prepping for this panel today, I did some math on the lesser known impacts of our #CashBail system.
Per @TxCommJailStand as of yesterday, a total of 121 people have died in TX county jails this year. For perspective, the state of TX has executed 98 people since 2012.

https://twitter.com/TxJailProject/status/1573037795408748544

Of the 20 souls who lost their lives in Harris county jail this year, 12 were detained on #CashBail and 4 died even before their bond could be set. Legally innocent people were allowed to die because they were too poor to buy their freedom.