Racial Ineqality in Texas Courts - The Daher Report is Released
- Aaron Spolin
- Dec 16, 2025
- 2 min read
For Immediate Release:
CAA announces the publication of a comprehensive research report examining racial disparities throughout the Texas criminal justice system. The report, titled "Inequality in the Texas Criminal Justice System," draws on data from government agencies, academic research, and advocacy organizations to document patterns of unequal treatment at every stage of criminal justice involvement. In the report, appeals attorney Matthew Daher discusses current legal methods to assist victimized Texas prison inmates and suggests larger policy reforms.
Key Findings
The report reveals significant disparities across multiple areas:
Incarceration: Black Texans are incarcerated at substantially higher rates than white Texans, comprising a disproportionate share of the prison population relative to their share of state residents.
Policing: Black drivers face higher arrest rates following traffic stops. Data on vehicle searches suggests that lower thresholds of suspicion are applied to people of color.
Drug Enforcement: Black Texans are far more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession despite similar usage rates across racial groups.
Pretrial Detention: The cash bail system produces wealth-based detention that falls disproportionately on Black defendants, who receive higher bail amounts than white defendants charged with similar offenses.
Death Penalty: Black individuals are significantly overrepresented on Texas death row relative to their share of the population, and recent death sentences have been imposed overwhelmingly on people of color.
Juvenile Justice: Black youth are placed in juvenile facilities at dramatically higher rates than white youth, a disparity that has widened in recent years.
Voting Rights: Hundreds of thousands of Texans cannot vote due to felony convictions, with Black Texans substantially more likely to lose voting rights.
Evidence-Based Analysis
The report relies on data from official sources including the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Houston Police Department, U.S. Sentencing Commission, and peer-reviewed academic research. All statistics are cited to original sources with URLs provided for verification.
A Call for Reform
Beyond documenting disparities, the Daher Report examines legal tools available to challenge discriminatory practices under the Constitution and federal civil rights statutes. It proposes specific policy reforms drawn from successful models in other states, including bail reform measures that reduced pretrial jail populations in New Jersey without increasing crime, and juvenile diversion programs that have reduced youth incarceration while maintaining public safety.
"The numbers in this report represent more than statistics," Daher writes. "Behind every data point is a person, a family, a community bearing the weight of a system that does not treat all Texans equally."
The full report is available for download and includes detailed analysis of each disparity, legal remedies under current law, proposed legislative reforms, and a comprehensive glossary of criminal justice terminology.
Download a copy of the full Daher Report here:
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