Author

Jolie McCullough

Jolie McCullough

Jolie McCullough reports on criminal justice issues and policy for The Texas Tribune, ranging from coverage on policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She came to the Tribune in early 2015 from the Albuquerque Journal, and has previously worked at the Arizona Republic. She is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

an incarcerated person stands behind bars in a prison corridor

Chronically understaffed Texas prisons set stage for escape, family massacre
By: - December 9, 2022

Seven months after Texas saw one of the nation’s deadliest prison escapes, investigations into what went wrong have come back to one factor: The state’s lockups are dangerously short-staffed. On May 12, convicted murderer Gonzalo Lopez was on a prison transport bus in central Texas when he managed to escape his handcuffs, cut into the […]

In Texas youth prisons, children trapped in their cells use water bottles, lunch trays for toilets
By: - September 12, 2022

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Throughout this summer, children in Texas’ youth prison system have repeatedly been trapped in their cells, forced to urinate in water bottles and defecate on the floor. For months, children in at least two of […]

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