Good Stuff in Austin

Grits for Breakfast has an update on some of the good criminal justice bills moving forward at the Texas Legislature. I am happy to see that they are moving on a bill to allow juries to give probation to people convicted of state jail felonies. Right now, a jury can give probation for virtually every first, second, or third degree felony (including murder, rape, robbery, drug dealing, and child molestation) to a defendant with no prior felony conviction. But, a jury cannot give probation for state jail felonies (the lowest level felonies in Texas) like theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and possession of less than a gram of a controlled substance. This has never made any sense to anyone that I know, and it's about time the legislature got around to fixing it.