Senator Ellis and criminal justice reform advocates had a press conference today to push the House and Senate to link any judicial pay raise to an increase in indigent criminal defense funding. Texas currently ranks 43rd in the nation in per capita spending on indigent defense ($6.71/per capita).

Criminal defense for indigents? Personally, we're for more spending on the poor maligned CEO's charged with defrauding investors out of millions of dollars. We think that's really where the state ought to spend money. Indigents are already used to getting the shaft by the government, let's concentrate on helping those that really need our support.