Texas lawmakers are pushing harsher criminal penalties while prison and jail populations soar

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Texas lawmakers are pushing more than 100 bills to clamp down on crime, threatening to overcrowd the state’s jails and prisons whose populations have continued to grow after dipping significantly during the pandemic. Lawmakers have proposed at least 121 bills that seek to increase criminal penalties by either creating mandatory minimum sentences or by elevating punishment, according to the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.