Today's Date: December 6, 2023
Army Scholarship Foundation Enables Educational Dreams, Creates Future Leaders, Honors Families’ Sacrifices   •   New Study Unveils Breakthroughs into Hispanic Financial Preferences and Behaviors   •   Ingram Micro Again Earns Top Score in Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index   •   MAX Solutions and Walker SCM Enter Joint Venture to Increase Customer Value   •   Anahita Norouzi receives the 2023 MNBAQ Contemporary Art Award   •   Avangrid Completes Installation of First Five Turbines, Prepares to Deliver First Power from Nation-Leading Vineyard Wind 1 Proj   •   Brazil's Pix Revolutionizes Digital Payments Landscape and Inspires LatAm Growth   •   Frito Lay Canada is calling on Canadians to start a new holiday tradition: Leave chips out for Santa   •   UKG Earns 100% on Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for the Third Consecutive Year   •   700 LATINO LEADERS GATHER AT THE UNITED NATIONS TO AGREE ON THEIR COMMON AGENDA FOR A CRITICAL YEAR TO COME   •   Home Improvement Company Leaf Home™ Donates In-Home Stair Lifts to Veterans in Need   •   Timken Recognized by Newsweek as One of America's Most Responsible Companies for Fourth Year in a Row   •   Green Home Loans from PrimeLending Finance Energy Efficient Upgrades for Homeowners   •   Locally-Owned Adult-Use Craft Cannabis Cultivator Commences Operations in New Jersey   •   VNA Health Care President and CEO Linnea Windel Receives Silver Stevie® Award for Women in Business   •   Start Saving for College with ScholarShare 529 and Get a $50 Target Gift Card*   •   Moskinto's Original Itch-Relief Patch, Recognized as a Good Housekeeping 2024 Family Travel Awards Winner   •   Sun Life receives Equality 100 Award from Human Rights Campaign for 100% score on Corporate Equality Index for 15th consecutive   •   Scope3 Expands Carbon Measurement Capabilities to Include DOOH Advertising   •   Vonage CMO Joy Corso Wins 2023 Aragon Research Women in Technology Award for Marketing
Bookmark and Share

TX Policy Strengthens "School To Prison Pipeline"

 AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas has filed a federal class action lawsuit against Hidalgo County. The lawsuit asks a judge to enjoin practices that have improperly sent dozens – possibly hundreds – of the county’s low-income teens to jail for weeks at a time for fines related to school attendance violations they were unable to pay.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, McAllen Division, alleges that Hidalgo County magistrates fail to make indigency determinations before giving teens two options: pay or go to jail.  This practice is contrary to Texas law and violates constitutional protections against being jailed because of one’s inability to pay court-assessed fines.

“Locking up low-income kids in what is functionally a debtor’s prison doesn’t just violate the law, it compounds the very problem that truancy laws are supposed to address,” said Gouri Bhat, Senior Staff Attorney.  Hidalgo County is pushing students who need help into the criminal justice system instead of back into school.”

Over the course of a months-long investigation during which dozens of records were reviewed, the ACLU of Texas found that teens who landed in jail for unpaid truancy fines were often first subjected to unnecessary ticketing by school police, and then deficient processing by the justice of the peace handling the vast majority of truancy prosecutions in Hidalgo County, Judge Mary Alice Palacios. 

 

One of the Plaintiffs, Elizabeth Diaz, was jailed for 18 days in early 2010 because she and her mother could not afford to pay over $1,600 in outstanding fines related to truancy tickets dating back to 2006.  While she was in jail, Elizabeth missed taking her TAKS test and the charter school she was attending revoked her enrollment for being absent more than five days, thereby preventing her from graduating this August as she had hoped. 

 

“The County’s unconstitutionally flawed practice of jailing defendants who are unable to pay fines is the final failure that sends teens like these Plaintiffs to jail,” noted Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas.  “This is a civil rights issue that extends far beyond the truancy context in Texas.”

 

For a copy of the lawsuit, go to http://aclutx.org/hidalgotruancy

For more background on this case, go to http://aclutx.org/truancycasebackground



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News