Indigent defense is broken in Texas-and throughout the United States-and it has been broken for decades. Excessive caseloads and conflicts of interest are two of the most significant problems behind the notoriously poor quality of indigent defense services. Texas can address these problems through at least five changes to the state criminal justice system: reclassifying several offenses so that they do not trigger the right to counsel, increasing diversion to problem-solving courts, expanding the use of victim-offender conferencing, encouraging “open file” discovery systems, and providing vouchers to indigents for the selection of counsel.”
Criminal Justice
When an abuser’s sentence ends, the victim’s life sentence begins
Nearly every woman carries the fear of becoming a victim of a violent crime. She may not always say it, but every time she walks to the office, takes her children on an errand run, or double-checks the lock on her front door at night, there is an underlying calculation of what she needs to do to keep herself safe....
September 19, 2026