Jail Project of Texas

What it reported doing in 2024

1.ADVOCACY, ORGANIZING & MOVEMENT BUILDING (A). Anti-jail expansion Campaign In Harris county, we founded a diverse coalition comprising six organizations, family members of people who died pretrial in custody, formerly incarcerated people, youth and community advocates united in their vision of shrinking the carceral footprint along with increased investments in social services as a means to shrink the carceral footprint. The coalition has 193 members on its listserve, conducted 28 meetings including work parties, two community teach-ins and mobilized over 90 registrations for public comment at Commissioners Court. (B). Casework advocacy (i) Our HelpLine received 470 calls, 1,539 emails and 193 letters from over 35 counties. We responded to over 60% of all calls and emails with 30% of the cases needing multiple responses and interventions. (ii) We filed complaints with the state regulatory agency TX Commission on Jail Standards or supported loved ones in filing complaints to state agencies and law enforcement in over 30 per cent of the cases. (iii) Of the emails and phone calls we received, we handled 414 complaints related to medical issues, 674 complaints related to medications and medical neglect, 440 for people with serious mental illness, 14 for people with intellectual and developmental disability, 27 for people who were pregnant, 23 veterans and approximately 200 related to use of force and injuries. (C). Organizing (i) We multiplied our statewide community base by 3 times and transformed the tone of the quarterly public meetings of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards through intentional organizing, movement building, media outreach and mutual aid. Over four quarterly meetings, we brought over 120 comments in total from community members from 25 different counties but were unable to publish all the videos for lack of resources. We created and published 27 videos of powerful testimonies https://www.youtube.com/@texasjailproject/playlists The energy from these meetings sparked self-led movements in Bexar county, Tarrant county, Harris county and Sabine county. We also mobilized members of the press, legislative staff and both criminal justice advocates and mental health advocates to attend and speak at these meetings. (ii) In January, Tarrant County Commissioner Simmons invited us to participate virtually in a town hall organized in Arlington attended by over a 100 community members, to discuss the alarming rise of custody deaths in Tarrant county jail. Under Sheriff Waybourn, at least 65 community members have reportedly died in the jail since 2017. We joined the Sheriff, allies and advocates from United Fort Worth and Broadway Baptist Justice Network, and criminal court representatives to interrogate the culture and policies that have led to so many deaths. Due to our collective efforts, the Department of Justice is considering an intervention in the jail. (iii) As part of our effort to decriminalize mental illness, we brought 6 public comments from directly impacted families to the board meetings of the Local Mental Health Authorities in 2 counties that are mandated by the state to provide mental health services to the community (D). Litigation & civil rights support (i) Our advocacy, research and technical assistance was essential and instrumental in winning a total of $2.71 million in legal settlements for families of three community members who suffered serious harm in pretrial detention (Chasity Congious https://www.keranews.org/government/2024-05-21/tarrant-county-approves-largest-lawsuit-settlement-to-chasity-congious-whose-baby-died-in-jail and Kelly Masten https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2024-12-02/with-a-775-000-settlement-pending-the-bill-for-tarrant-county-jail-lawsuits-keeps-rising from Tarrant county & Glenn Hayes - one of our bailouts from Smith county. (https://www.texasjailproject.org/2024/08/of-loss-collective-struggle-mid-year-24-newsletter/) Litigation is ongoing in two other cases of o

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 76.5%; rating input score 76
• Fundraising efficiency: $15.75 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -98.6%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.57; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 23.1%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 16.5% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.6% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 21.7% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings