Texas
Vera works with government and community partners across the country to advance research, analyze policy, pilot programs, and implement solutions on the ground. Working on nearly 60 projects in 40 states, Vera is committed to developing solutions to the most pressing injustices of our day. This page encompasses all of Vera’s work in Texas, and any related news coverage.
Related Work
SAFE Network Profiles
Profiles of the Foreign-Born Population, by Jurisdiction & Nationwide
Compiled from publicly-available data, these infographics present a “Profile of the foreign-born population” for each of the jurisdictions in the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network—a diverse group of localities dedicated to providing publicly-funded representation for people facing deportation. The data presented here reveals the criti ...
Examining Organizational Change and Procedural Justice
An International Cross-Site Evaluation of Two Police Departments
Recent attempts at police reform have embraced theories of procedural or organizational justice. Organizational justice is the notion that how employees view their employers—as well as employees’ positions in the organization—will affect the way people behave in work-related contexts. In this way, if police employees view their organization as trea ...
Project
Jim Parsons
People in Jail in 2019
See our updated report, "People in Jail and Prison in 2020," here. Researchers from the Vera Institute of Justice, with support from Google.org Fellows, collected data on the number of people in local jails at midyear in both 2018 and 2019 to provide timely information on how incarceration is changing in the United States. This report fills a gap u ...
A Piece of the Puzzle
State Financial Aid for Incarcerated Students
Postsecondary education in prison puts people on a path toward a brighter future by disrupting the cycle of poverty and incarceration. But it has not been offered at scale due to the numerous barriers—including the 1994 ban on Pell Grants to people in prison—that prevent students and postsecondary institutions from accessing state and federal fundi ...
Local Government on the Right Side of History
The SAFE Network is a diverse group of local jurisdictions dedicated to providing publicly funded representation for people facing deportation. This short video describes the need for and impact of SAFE from the perspective of network members and those directly impacted—local government leaders, attorneys, and clients.
The Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration
The end of girls’ incarceration in the United States is within reach, and Vera is leading a national initiative to make it happen in 10 years. The number of youth in the girls’ side of the juvenile justice system is small, most girls are unjustly locked up to protect their safety or to address unmet needs, and jurisdictions across the country are f ...
Project
Lindsay Rosenthal
Immigration Court Helpdesk
The Immigration Court Helpdesk (ICH) program educates non-detained respondents in removal (deportation) proceedings about the court process. The goal of ICH is to help individuals make informed decisions about their legal cases and, in doing so, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of immigration court proceedings. Vera works with five nonprofi ...
Project
Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel
Equal Access for People with Disabilities
People with disabilities experience violence at much higher rates than people without disabilities. In 2013 alone, 1.3 million violent crimes were committed against people with disabilities. Yet, people with disabilities face significant barriers to reporting their victimization—their accounts are often dismissed or not taken seriously—as well as u ...
Project
Nancy Smith
Safety and Justice Challenge
Reducing the Overuse of Jails
The Safety and Justice Challenge is an initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce mass incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. As part of the initiative, a network of competitively selected local jurisdictions are developing and modeling effective ways to reduce the misuse of jail. Vera ...
Project
Elizabeth Swavola
College in Prison
Postsecondary education opportunities for incarcerated people
Research suggests that education is key to improving many long-term outcomes for incarcerated people, their families, and their communities—including reducing recidivism and increasing employability and earnings after release. To improve the lives of incarcerated people and decrease the collateral consequences of incarceration, Vera works nationwid ...
Project
Margaret diZerega
National Qualified Representative Program
Providing zealous, independent, person-centered representation to immigrants with mental health conditions
The National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) provides appointed legal representation for immigrants who are detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), unrepresented by counsel, and who have been found by an Immigration Judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to be incompetent to represent themselves in their immigration ...
Project
Michael Corradini
Supervised Visitation Initiative
The Supervised Visitation Initiative (SVI) works with supervised visitation programs funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women to enhance their capacity to effectively and safely serve families who have experienced domestic violence. The initiative provides these programs with training, tailored consultation, and a ...
Project
Sandra Harrell