Cat's out of the bag: I am working at the NY Times investigating rural Texas criminal justice for the next year!

This is the absolute BEST news for the @TexasTribune! Can't wait to see what they do under Matty's great leadership.

Given how much emotion this has generated, I do need to say: Axing criminal justice coverage is an unthinkable disservice. The decision-makers should be held accountable. But don’t punish or disregard the great journalists still at the Tribune. They’re doing amazing work.

Words can’t express how grateful I am for the honestly baffling levels of support/kindness I’ve received the last couple days. I’m overwhelmed, and I will try to respond to as many of you as I can next week, after taking a few days to get my head straight. Thank you. Truly.

I was laid off by The Texas Tribune yesterday after more than 10 years there — most spent centering communities of color in my reporting. This is my last story, which was set to run before I was called in. This is the kind of reporting I was doing:

I have a lot of thoughts about leadership failures that led us here. But I’ll just say I feel for my colleagues who were also laid off, and for the ones left to pick up the pieces. And if you’re looking for this kind of work, please reach out. I suddenly have a lot of free time.

This is just some of the stuff I’ve done recently. It’s terrible to know the Tribune won’t do work like it anymore. I am so sorry to the hundreds of thousands in prison, jail or elsewhere in the system. And for the countless more who love them. Mostly, I’m sorry for all Texans.

5) And for years, I’ve been religiously reporting on the dangerous heat in prisons during Texas’ increasingly hot summers. In a historic move this year, the House pushed to spend $545M to cool the prisons. The Senate cut it.

@TexasTribune 4) I’ve also repeatedly explained the chaos of prosecuting marijuana in a hemp world — most recently by showing how high school kids with vape pens are getting jailed on felony charges, even though police can’t tell if the pen has an illegal substance.

@TexasTribune 3) This year, I revealed that youth prison officials seeking to ease the crisis began pushing more kids into the adult prison system. One boy killed himself shortly after his transfer.

@TexasTribune Last year, I exposed how a staffing crisis in youth prisons trapped kids in cells up to 23 hours a day — without toilets. Nearly half of Texas’ imprisoned children had been on suicide watch. This led to a state hearing and House priority legislation.

@TexasTribune 1) When Texas created a new criminal system for migrants on the fly, I tracked it at every step, reporting on the endless stream of law enforcement errors and illegal detentions. This work led to a DOJ investigation (and several awards for the Tribune)

Yesterday, I was laid off by @TexasTribune after nearly 9 years. New leadership got rid of its longest-tenured reporters and said they’ll no longer cover the criminal justice beat. No one on police, prisons, courts, the death penalty. In Texas. Here’s some of what we’ll lose:

Two of the greatest journalists I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. @alexazura @jsmccullou We were all laid off today as @TexasTribune attempts to reverse financial and leadership tailspin.

A pregnant prison guard says she was forced to stay at work for hours after contraction-like pain began — leading to her stillbirth. Now, Texas is fighting a lawsuit, in part because the “defending the unborn” state says the fetus had no clear rights. https://t.co/NrS1hYHKBS

Sex discrimination lawsuits are piling up against Abbott’s mass trespassing arrests at the border, since police had targeted only migrant men. Now, Texas is putting migrant women in a state prison, too. https://t.co/S6em7ohDUC #txlege

Exclusive: In January, a prominent North Texas GOP lawmaker texted Ken Paxton's advisor with a warning. "Folks are pissed." Paxton's agency had just asked for $3.3M to settle a whistleblower lawsuit. The request would lead to his impeachment. https://t.co/PBMXbPvKeQ #txlege

“Though it may be too late for my son, Jon Anthony Southards, it is not too late for the men and women that are still serving time in these ovens!” — Tona, whose son died in a hot TX prison last month, calling for a special #txlege session on prison AC https://t.co/IvDRgfsQiM

Prison rights advocates and lawmakers urge Gov. Abbott to call a special session to install air conditioning in Texas prisons amid a deadly heatwave.

More than 100 Texas criminal appeals were lost for more than a decade, including a death row prisoner who was “incapable of saying a complete sentence" because of a disability when he was convicted as a teenager in 1998. via @jsmccullou @TexasTribune https://t.co/RrziYNU7mg