The Lab Report Dallas

In December, we profiled Janie’s Angels, a Dallas nonprofit that shuttles children to visit their incarcerated mothers every month. We wanted to go further — to visually capture the moment of reunification and its impact on the mothers and children alike.⁠
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In partnership with The Lab Report, photographer Jeffrey McWhorter spent a day in August following Janie’s Angels as it journeyed to Gatesville, a town 35 miles west of Waco that is home to five of Texas’ nine female-only jails and prisons. He documented the early morning bus ride, the trip from Dallas to the Gatesville complex, the flurry of hugs and affection when the prison gates opened, and the emotional goodbyes at the end of the visit.

Find his photo essay here: https://labreportdallas.com/criminal-justice/janies-angels-gatesville-prison-photo-essay/

Every few months, we flip the mirror and ask questions of our publication that inform each of our stories: What’s working, what’s not, and why?

Recently, we’ve also been discussing ways to share more of what we’re learning about the subjects we cover. Above the Fray, a new monthly column authored by our co-founder Matt Goodman, is our effort to bring you further reporting about the community.

Above the Fray publishes the last Wednesday of each month, with our next on Sept. 30. Find our first edition here: https://labreportdallas.com/above-the-fray/above-the-fray-monthly-dallas-rundown/

Dallas pioneered drug courts in Texas in 1998, paving the way for similar diversion programs to spread statewide. The county now operates 14 specialty courts, which aim to steer adults away from incarceration and toward supervision and treatment.

Participants adhere to drug tests and regular counseling and can be connected to services like healthcare and job training. Studies show these courts can reduce crime and guide people to self-sufficiency. Participants can get their charges dismissed and others have their punishments reduced. But an investigation by The Lab Report found that, in Dallas, problems abound.

We obtained state and local records and interviewed nine people enrolled or involved in operating Dallas' programs. We also spent time in STAR Court, a program for people with felony prostitution charges that began in 2008. State adjudicators subjected STAR and six other Dallas courts to rigorous peer reviews in 2025, which are requested if officials spot inconsistencies in court paperwork or have questions about how the courts are operating.

While participants say the programs have helped improve their lives, the reviews show that work remains.

Read the full investigation (for free) on our website: https://labreportdallas.com/criminal-justice/dallas-specialty-criminal-courts-state-review/

🖋️: Kelli Smith

Parents have grown accustomed to dodging sidewalk sales of s*x and drugs as they walk their kids to and from the school bus stop in Independence Triangle, one of the Dallas neighborhoods where violent crime is most common.

But beginning this month, this southwest Oak Cliff community has a fighting chance to become safer — thanks to a coalition of community champions whose efforts could have a powerful payoff for all of the Red Bird area.

Read the full story here: https://labreportdallas.com/neighborhoods/red-bird-oak-cliff-redevelopment/

🖋️: Sharon Grigsby | 📸: Allison V. Smith

In July, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services determined Empower, the contractor the state put in charge of foster care in nine North Texas counties in March 2024, was unfit for the job. The decision to terminate its contract came after the company failed to remedy serious safety concerns, and two infants died under its watch.

As the state begins to transition Child Protective Services cases in the Dallas area from Empower’s management to two new private contractors, foster parents are speaking out about the impact the company’s actions had on the children in its care.

Read the full story here: https://labreportdallas.com/child-welfare/dallas-foster-care-system-parents/

🖋️: Claire Ballor | 📷️: Courtney Nale

The Forest Theater’s famous green tower will shine again in South Dallas on Nov. 1 — a moment Forest Forward CEO Elizabeth Wattley and her team have been working toward for nearly a decade. Its opening will also mark the first time Starbucks will have a presence in this part of Dallas.

Last November, we examined why Wattley's nonprofit decided to bring the global coffee chain into the fold. While a Starbucks coming to South Dallas was itself significant news, the journey leading up to this moment is perhaps just as important—and a reminder of how complicated, difficult, and emotional the business of neighborhood revitalization can be.

Read more about the yearslong redevelopment and what it means for South Dallas: https://labreportdallas.com/neighborhoods/why-starbucks-is-coming-to-south-dallas/

🖊: Sharon Grigsby | 📸: Jason Janik

Many people know Elizabeth Henneke’s Lone Star Justice Alliance as the nonprofit that helped expose the 2023 revelation that some kids incarcerated in Dallas’ juvenile justice system were isolated in their cells 23 hours a day and denied showers, exercise, and education. Less known is the criminal justice system is, quite literally, in Henneke’s blood.⁠
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Henneke was raised in Huntsville, a notorious prison town in southeast Texas, and seven members of her family worked in law enforcement or in the penitentiaries. She grew up noticing disparities in the state’s criminal justice system, which later inspired her to launch an organization that strives to divert young Texans from incarceration.⁠
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Read more about Henneke and her plans for LSJA: https://labreportdallas.com/criminal-justice/elizabeth-henneke-lone-star-justice-alliance
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🖋️: Kelli Smith | 📷️: Bret Redman

Barbara and Donald Johnson say the city didn’t ensure contractors finished work on their Oak Cliff home as part of a government repair program for the Tenth Street Historic District. Two years after work stopped on their house, windows are still boarded up, the foundation slumps, the wood in the attic is rotting, and rodents sneak in through cracks in the siding. The Lab Report highlighted the Johnsons’ plight in May as part of an investigation into the federally-funded program.

Last month, the city announced that additional funds will be allocated to fix the Johnsons' house and others like it. Read about what went wrong with the home repair program and what the neighborhood hopes is achieved: https://labreportdallas.com/neighborhoods/tenth-street-dallas-home-repair-investments/

🖊️: Matt Goodman | 📸: Bret Redman

Community-builder and civil rights icon Diane Ragsdale handpicked Billy Lane, a pastor and social justice activist, to lead the nonprofit she founded in South Dallas 40 years ago. Now the South Dallas Fair Park Innercity Community Development Corporation is about to break ground on its biggest housing initiative in more than a decade.⁠
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But even amid this good news, Lane worries that the glut of market-rate builders descending on Mill City and adjacent neighborhoods will push the price of every new house beyond the reach of the residents ICDC wants to help.⁠
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Learn more about the nonprofit's plans: https://labreportdallas.com/housing/diane-ragsdale-billy-lane-south-dallas-fair-park-nonprofit/
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🖋️: Sharon Grigsby | 📸: Allison V. Smith

The city of Dallas is on track for a sixth annual reduction in violence this year, although its murder tally is close to 2025 levels. But the criminologists who have helped the Dallas Police Department create and implement its violent crime plan are turning their sights to Fort Worth. And data show that violence in a few small pockets of the city has remained consistently elevated in recent years.

Police say they’re prepared to sustain the citywide declines in violence even without their partners.

To learn more about how Dallas plans to address violent crime, read the free story and analysis through the link in our comments.

🖊: Kelli Smith