Engagement about Local Issues
The Texas engagement sessions followed similar formats, with slight variations made to address the different communities, issues of concern, and stakeholders involved.
- Court actors from each community’s respective jurisdictions and the Texas team provided welcome and introductory remarks. The team presented a video about the importance of engaging the community about local justice system issues.
- In consultation with local stakeholders, the Texas team developed summaries of local court system and racial justice issues to help frame discussions in Alpine and Brownsville.
- In Houston, the Texas team partnered with the Harris County District Court Clerk’s Office to develop questions about jury pool members’ transportation choices, motivations to perform jury service, and perceptions of the state’s partisan judicial election structure.
Conversation Starter
The Texas team opened their engagement sessions with this video, providing an overview of the project and the importance of obtaining public input about the court system.
Topics of Discussion
Participants at all four Texas engagements gathered in small groups of five to eight participants to discuss a variety of topics. Team members facilitated the small group discussions. To inform the discussions, the team referenced results from the 2018 Texas Public Trust and Confidence Survey, a scientific survey of Texans’ views of the state’s court system.
Topics of discussion included:
- Awareness of courts, their services, and other legal resources available to the public
- State judicial reform initiatives to decrease court costs and fees for defendants, better address those in the justice system with mental illnesses, and improve the state guardianship system
- Perceptions of fairness and equal treatment in the courts
Small group discussions were followed by large group report-out sessions summarizing major themes and issues raised by community participants. The Texas team audio-recorded all discussions after participants completed forms consenting to being recorded.
Discussion Materials and Agendas
The Texas team developed talking points about a variety of court system issues to help prompt the small group discussions. Many of the issues drew from themes identified in the Texas Public Trust and Confidence Survey. View the documents and the engagement agendas used by the Texas team.
