Contact:
Robert Elder, Communications Director, TRLA | relder@trla.org (512) 374-2764

Hannah Allison, Director of Events and Special Development, TRLA | hallison@trla.org (512) 374-2704

Bexar County DA, Public Defender to Discuss Justice Reform 

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, Chief Public Defender Michael Young, and state Rep. Ina Minjarez of San Antonio will discuss justice reform as part of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid’s (TRLA) Finding the Way Forward series. 

Jessica S. Henry will moderate. She is a former public defender in New York City, a member of the Department of Justice Studies faculty at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and the author of “Smoke But No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes That Never Happened.” 

The Bexar County discussion is Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. via Zoom Webinar. Attendees must register in advance. 

Gonzales, Young, and Minjarez will address topics including: indigent defense in Bexar County and the role of the public defender’s office, bail reform, the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on the poor, and weigh in on the national conversation about cutting police budgets and ensuring police accountability. 

Gonzales took office as Bexar County DA in 2019. He is a former prosecutor, former criminal defense attorney, and has served as a magistrate and municipal judge for the City of San Antonio. 

The county hired Young in 2015 to head the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office, which was created in 2005. Young has been a prosecutor in the Rio Grande Valley and served as a federal public defender. 

Rep. Minjarez was elected to the Texas Legislature in 2015 in a special election. She is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and a member of the House’s first Criminal Justice Reform Caucus. 

The first conversation in Finding the Way Forward took place on Sept. 30 in Travis County. 

Local leaders in other parts of the 68-county TRLA service area will hold conversations as follows: 

Oct. 28: Coastal counties 

Nov. 18: El Paso County 

Dec. 9: Rio Grande Valley 

TBD: Webb County 

Tickets for each conversation are $25 or $250 for the entire series. Ticket sales support TRLA’s ability to address the significant increase in the need for legal services across Southwest Texas. 

Complimentary access is available to the press. Contact Hannah Allison at hallison@trla.org for a virtual press pass. 

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid provides free legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney in 68 southwestern counties, including the entire Texas-Mexico border. TRLA attorneys specialize in more than 45 areas of the law, including disaster assistance, family, employment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant, housing, education, immigration, farmworker, and civil rights. Our hotline is open from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday – Friday: (956) 996-8752.