Locked Out: A Texas Legal Guide to Reentry, 4th Edition

Project of Beacon Law, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and Texas C-Bar (Community Building with Attorney Resources)

KFT 9747 .L63

Originally published by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and Texas C-Bar (Community Building with Attorney Resources), Locked Out: A Texas Legal Guide to Reentry addresses some of the most common barriers previously incarcerated individuals face upon their release from prison. The guide is intended to smooth the transition from living in confinement to surviving in mainstream society. The authors address issues that many take for granted, including obtaining identification documents, finding access to transportation, paying offense-related debt, mitigating criminal records through expunction or nondisclosure, finding employment, qualifying for public benefits, locating housing, and regaining the eligibility to vote. Another topic to consider is the collateral consequences of conviction, such as the possession of a firearm and eligibility for benefits. Incarceration also creates barriers in the parent-child relationship. As a result of the incarceration, the newly released parent may have difficulty locating a child or may be responsible for any accrued, unpaid child support. Locked Out: A Texas Legal Guide to Reentry is intended to help in this regard. The appendices are especially helpful, consisting of handy tables, the steps needed to obtain certain records and documents, and sample court forms. The guide doesn’t provide all of the answers, but it does offer much information and many resources to find those answers. An online version of this guide is available on TexasLawHelp.org.

In addition to the Texas Legal Guide to Reentry, there are some additional resources that can be found online:

Federal Trade Commission’s Reentry and Corrections Education page - Helpful information designed to assist reentering and formerly incarcerated consumers learn about managing money, meeting educational goals, earning a living, and knowing what to expect from a background check.

City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Education - Re-Entry Programs - List of community partners that may be able to provide some assistance, including Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Houston Food Bank, and Goodwill Houston.

Houston Health Department - Community Re-Entry Network Program - Program components include anger management, life skills course, and peer support groups.

Friday Fun with Facts and Figures

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay.

Even those that do not consider themselves to be “math people” can get excited by statistics and data. They check the standings to see where their favorite sports team falls in the hierarchy of those eligible for the playoffs or scour the box scores to see how many points their fantasy team players garnered for them. When it comes to facts and figures, though, the United States Census Bureau reigns supreme. The Bureau’s raison d’etre is to gather information and synthesize that information into data points that provide a glimpse of who we, as Americans, are.

Despite its early temporary iteration in the 1790s, authorized under various Census Acts and Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, the current Census Bureau as a permanent office did not take shape until 1902 with An Act to Provide for a Permanent Census Office. The Census Office originally operated within and under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, but oversight was transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. The Bureau continues today under the Department of Commerce.

The stated mission of the Bureau is “to serve as the nation’s leading provider of quality data about its people and economy.” To accomplish its mission, the Bureau conducts not only a decennial census but also other surveys, such as the American Community Survey, the Census of Governments, and the Economic Census. The data gathered from these surveys are important tools in determining how to distribute Congressional seats; planning where community services are needed; providing necessary funding to local, state, and tribal governments; and providing Age Search information for genealogical purposes.

Census.gov, the Bureau’s website, is the hub for all sorts of facts and figures compiled by the Bureau as the result of all of its surveys and censuses. Visitors to the site have access to data, news, and updates about various demographic-related topics, such as age and sex, education, families and living arrangements, income and poverty, and race. There is an interesting feature, America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers, that more fully discusses and explains some of the data collected. A recent article talked about the declining marriage and divorce rate in the United States and how the numbers in individual states compared to the national figure. New to the website is a COVID-19 Interactive Data Hub and Other Resources where users can find community resilience estimates, business formation statistics, demographic and economic analyses, and COVID-19 impact planning reports for each individual state and its counties. On the landing page, there is also a USA and World Population Clock that keeps track of population changes based on short-term projections. Under the About Us tab, there is a link to History. There, users can find information about the history of the agency as well as information about its programs. Of particular interest is the Through the Decades tab where users are treated to pop culture and fast facts for each decade in which the census was taken as well as an index of questions asked in that census period.

Amid the pandemic, it’s easy to forget that 2020 was a census year. If you are interested in checking out data and statistics about our nation, visit Census.gov. Through its data-collection efforts, the Bureau helps to put a face on those statistics and shows that our country is so much more than just numbers.

Service Dogs Only - Not Snakes - on Planes: Dept. of Transportation Issues New Rule

On December 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a final rule which, among other things, defines a service animal as “a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.” This is a revision of the DOT’s Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) regulation “on the transportation of service animals by air to ensure a safe and accessible air transportation system.” The effective date is 30 days after it was published in the Federal Register, which was December 10, 2020.

The Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, codified at 49 U.S.C. §41705, prohibits air carriers from discriminating against individuals with “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” The DOT issued implementing regulations at 49 C.F.R. Part 382, and 14 C.F.R. 382.117 is titled, “Must carriers permit passengers with a disability to travel with service animals?” This new final rule “removes 14 C.F.R. 382.117 and adds a new subpart, Subpart EE, on service animals.” The new rule explains in footnote 1 that:

“The Department’s ACAA definition of a service animal in this final rule is similar to the definition of a service animal in the Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 28 CFR 35.104 and 28 CFR 36.104. Although DOT has chosen to closely align its ACAA service animal definition with DOJ’s service animal definition under the ADA, the substantive requirements in this final rule differ from DOJ’s requirements for service animals under the ADA in various areas, e.g., allowing airlines to require service animal documentation and prohibiting the use of voice control over a service animal.”

According to the DOT briefing, also issued on December 2, emotional support animals are specifically no longer recognized as service animals. It is important to note that, according to the DOT FAQs on this rule, “Although emotional support animals and other pets are not service animals, the rule does not prohibit their transport. An airline may choose to transport them as pets pursuant to its established policy.”

In addition, the DOT briefing explains that airlines are required “treat psychiatric service animals the same as other service animals,” but airlines are also allowed “to limit the number of service animals traveling with a single passenger with a disability to two service animals.” There are other provisions as well, which are summarized in the DOT brief and detailed in the final rule.

For additional information on federal and Texas state laws regarding service animals, please refer to the Texas State Law Library’s Guide on Service Animals.

Free Online CLE Tomorrow! - Westlaw Vendor "Visit"

Tomorrow, we will be hosting a webinar by our wonderful Westlaw rep to help you hone your Westlaw skills while banking some free end of year CLE! She will offer a thorough, live overview of everything new on the Westlaw platform.

Click here to register. We look forward to “seeing” you!

COVID Vaccine Roll-Out in Harris County, Texas, and the United States

This morning, the first COVID vaccine dose was administered in the United States, on live television, to a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center named Sandra Lindsay. Around the same time, doses of the vaccine began arriving in Texas by air freight. MD Anderson was the first hospital in Houston to receive a shipment and will start administering the vaccine to its frontline employees on Wednesday.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the vaccine will be free for the vast majority of recipients. Almost 20,000 doses are already here in Houston, and 75,000 more will arrive in town tomorrow. Since each vaccine requires two doses, that is enough to vaccinate roughly 47,000 of the more than 4 million people living in Harris County. While that number seems small, it is over 42% of the 224,250 doses arriving in all of Texas this week.

Of course, more doses will be coming, but the roll out will be too slow to allow even more immediate inoculation of all hospital workers who risk exposure on a daily basis. The limited number of doses in Harris County will be prioritized for certain healthcare workers, and residents of the sorts of long-term care facilities that have been ravaged by the virus nationwide.

This tracks with the statewide plan for Texas, which is to prioritize the vaccination of healthcare workers.

On the national level, the FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine, which is the one currently being distributed and administered, and is the agency is expected to approve the Moderna vaccine by the end of this week. Though there are some differences, both vaccines require two doses to reach full efficacy, and both vaccines work through the use of messenger RNA, which you may remember from high school biology.

It is impossible to contract the coronavirus from either vaccine, though some patients will experience side effects.

Some confusion may stem from the fact that social distancing, mask-wearing, good hand hygiene, and limited contact with others will have to continue until a large enough swath of the nation is vaccinated. Dr. Anthony Fauci anticipates this will take until next fall, though some epidemiologists have estimated it could even take through early 2022. There are a few reasons for this.

One reason is that the vaccine will protect vaccinated people from becoming gravely ill with Covid, but may not entirely stop vaccinated people from becoming sick.

Another reason is that even if an infected person has been vaccinated and does not become ill, they will probably still be contagious.

Additionally, it is still unclear how long immunity from the vaccine will last.

As they say, every journey begins with a single step. Today, the United States took a giant step towards a return to a world where we can once again hug our families and friends.