Texas Center for Justice and Equity
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Mission Statement
The Texas Center for Justice & Equity advances solutions and builds coalitions to reduce mass incarceration and foster safer Texas communities. In our vision, all Texans live in safe, thriving communities where incarceration is rare and every person has the opportunity to succeed. Since 2000, TCJE has advocated to end mass incarceration, shift funding toward community supports, and reduce deep racial inequities in the criminal justice system. Our work is guided by the needs of those most impacted by the system: people of color, people in poverty, and people with substance use disorder, mental health issues, and trauma.
About This Cause
• Origins: TCJE is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. We launched in 2000, following a decade of massive spikes in the number of people incarcerated; advocates and funders inside and outside Texas recognized the critical need for reform and took action, establishing TCJE in Austin to promote safe, just, cost-effective alternatives to Texas’ failed approach to crime. In 2011, TCJE expanded services to Harris County (Houston), Texas’ largest county and largest driver of people into adult and juvenile incarceration, by addressing the needs of underserved communities related to youth justice, bail and defense, safe and rehabilitative alternatives to incarceration, and assistance upon reentry. As we anticipate our Silver Jubilee year in 2025, we recommit to making Texas safer by countering mass incarceration, especially of Black and Brown people. Our new course for the next 20 years focuses on efficacy and accountability to the communities and funders we serve. To respect funders and advocates who’ve supported our work, we will now focus on ambitious, but achievable goals strategically pursued with accountability. TCJE will leverage Texas’ economic realities, including labor shortages and state budget pressures, to make the case for new investments. We will advance initiatives to skill-up both youth exiting our high schools and people of all ages returning to our communities from prison or jail. So, here are the new goals and objectives we’re embracing in 2025 and beyond: Goal 1: Disrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline • Pilot and expand programming in Dallas County that equips Black and Brown students to succeed academically and lead in civic life. • Pursue new career-connected learning options for students • Pursue restorative discipline policies to keep youth in school. Goal 2: Expand and Support Local Advocacy Networks • Quadruple our contacts in local advocacy networks in the next two years, focusing on youth, families, partners, and formerly incarcerated individuals. • Update constituent databases to strengthen grassroots mobilization. • Expand outreach to support new policies and elevate more voices. Goal 3: Pursue Decriminalization of Marijuana • Collaborate with advocates to decriminalize recreational marijuana, reducing racial inequities in policing and mass incarceration. • Direct marijuana revenue to career-connected learning for youth exiting high school and people of all ages exiting prisons and jails. Goal 4: Generate Results for Communities and Funders • Set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound goals. • Use technology, shoe leather, and diligence to broaden our network. • Sustain our network to cultivate policy makers and broaden debate. • Pursue breakthroughs on policy as political realities shift over time. Our Pillars Moving Forward Action Over Words: TCJE will focus on actionable, bold policies rather than crafting more complex reports. People Over Data: Energizing and mobilizing people, not just generating data, will drive change. TCJE will restructure operations to reflect this approach. Economic Justice: TCJE seeks to end the costly confinement of people committing nonviolent crimes, especially those imprisoned for low-level drug offenses, and redirect resources to communities. Leveraging our Uniqueness: We will leverage our history and connections in Texas to push for statewide reforms. These pillars build on our 25-year history with practical, people-driven advocacy focused on creating a more just and equitable Texas. • Geographic Focus: Our work serves to benefit all people of Texas, without geographic restriction. • Target Population or Beneficiaries: TCJE works on behalf of people who are currently or were previously entangled in Texas’ youth or adult justice system; their family members and loved ones; and system practitioners seeking improved policies and practices. This, in turn, benefits all Texans, leading to safer, healthier communities and taxpayer savings. • Key Accomplishments: In fighting for better outcomes for Texas families and communities, TCJE has persuaded lawmakers to walk back from many of the state’s failed tough-on-crime policies, marshaling support for more than 180 policies and budget riders during state legislative sessions, while watching the state’s crime rate fall to its lowest level since the late 1960’s. Our victories include the following efforts: » When the state was forecasting an increase in the prison population of 17,000 people, we bolstered the efforts of a small group of legislators seeking to stop the flow of people into prison – educating members of appropriations committees about smarter alternatives and partnering with probation leaders seeking more funding for community-based services. Ultimately, the Legislature chose to invest $241 million in treatment and diversion programs rather than fund facility construction, saving nearly $2 billion and averting a projected prison population increase. » We fought to reduce the number of people receiving felonies for minor theft offenses – resulting in over 3,000 fewer people entering state-level incarceration since 2015. » We pushed for the closure of eight adult corrections facilities since 2011 as 11,000 fewer people have entered prison. » After we helped uncover rampant sexual and physical abuse in the state’s juvenile corrections facilities, we fought to ensure that all young people convicted of misdemeanors were removed from state secure confinement. Nine youth facilities have been shuttered since 2007 as populations have dropped, and we continue to push for state funding to be redirected to local rehabilitation programs. » To ensure that Harris County reform recommendations are data-driven, we worked with January Advisors to develop a web-based dashboard that visually represents more than 800,000 criminal court dispositions in the county. It displays trends and outcome disparities, allowing users to see the degree to which arrests are skewed in low-income and neighborhoods of color; users also have access to bail trends and individual judges’ sentencing decisions. This dashboard is a game-changer in our advocacy work, sparking reform conversations by providing the data to show where change is most needed. -Also, when people accused of crimes cannot afford an attorney, the court appoints one for them—a process known as indigent defense. The Harris County public defender's office is a relatively new organization, and they can only serve a fraction of the defendants who need it. The remaining cases have defense attorneys who are appointed by the judge. While this system is meant to ensure fair representation, research shows that campaign donations often influence how judges assign cases. On March 18, 2025, National Public Defense Day, we showcased our Harris County Indigent Defense Dashboard built in partnership with January Advisors, Microsoft and the Urban Institute at the request of Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner. This interactive tool uses information from the Texas Ethics Commission and Harris County District Courts (HCDC) to provide a judge-level view of how judicial campaign donations are related to case assignments and outcomes. Our successes over the past 25 years have earned TCJE a reputation as the go-to justice advocacy organization in Texas, a reputation we will continue to leverage in our work for the next 25 years. • Key Revenue Sources: TCJE is primarily grant funded, with our largest funders including Heising-Simons Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Public Welfare Foundation, Houston Endowment, Alliance for Safety and Justice, Microsoft and the Urban Institute. • Key Partners: TCJE seeks to engage people who have insight into the youth and adult justice systems, whose experiences can inform change, and who are positioned to implement that change. Our comprehensive, coordinated outreach and education extends to currently and previously incarcerated individuals and their families; agency and department heads; and system and community practitioners (including law enforcement, pretrial practitioners, attorneys, judges, probation and parole professionals, treatment providers, and reentry specialists). Separately, we seek to engage national, state- and county-level leadership, as well as other advocates and reformers (including religious groups, academics, and data specialists) in our advocacy efforts. Finally, we are in constant communication with the media about reform needs or new policies.