STAR Resources
We bring together data-driven solutions and STAR communities to address the unique challenges they face. Our STAR Resource Materials is a rich source for STAR justice research and innovation for stakeholders, policymakers, and the public.
Resource: STAR Criminal Justice Bibliography
Access to data-based research and solutions is a critical step implementing policy changes in STAR criminal justice reform. Our STAR Resource Bibliography is a rich source for STAR justice research and innovation for stakeholders, policymakers, and the public.
September 2020
Report: Greening the Desert
In Greening the Desert, the Deason Center brings a criminal justice lens to the phenomenon of legal deserts in STAR communities—vast areas with few, if any, practicing attorneys. The publication explores STAR criminal justice communities and describes strategies and initiatives to green these criminal law deserts.
September 16, 2020
Webinar: Greening the Desert
In Greening the Desert, the Deason Center brings a criminal justice lens to the phenomenon of legal deserts in STAR communities—vast areas with few, if any, practicing attorneys. The webinar explored STAR criminal justice communities and discussed strategies and initiatives with legal desert experts and practitioners.
September 16, 2020
Podcast: Dr. Andrew Davies on Rural Access to Counsel
On the Ipse Dixit podcast, Dr. Andrew Davies, Director of Research at the Deason Center, discusses his article, Gideon in the Desert: An Empirical Study of Providing Counsel to Criminal Defendants in Rural Places. Dr. Davies walks through the struggle to provide adequate indigent defense counsel in rural areas and identified traits of rural counties who were better can providing lawyers to their indigent defendants.
May 5, 2020
Article: Gideon in the Desert: An Empirical Study of Providing Counsel to Criminal Defendants in Rural Places
Access to counsel for criminal defendants is a continuing challenge in rural localities in the face of the Sixth Amendment. The study found that Texas counties appointed counsel to on average 29% of misdemeanor defendants in 2016-17, but rates were significantly lower in rural than urban counties. Yet, having a public defender office was associated with significantly higher rates of access to counsel.
June 2019