Two-year old Tyson Miller was found in his backyard in a Luling, Texas in March 2009 mauled to death by a pit bull chained yard. An autopsy showed that Tyson had died from severe trauma to the head and neck that caused him to bleed to death.

Tyson's mother, Melissa Miller, has been sentenced to two years in state jail. Miller, 24, and several other adults in a house trailer did not notice the missing boy until waking up after noon. She pleaded no contest to charges of criminally negligent homicide last September. The prosecution agreed to drop charges of injury to a child.

During her first sentencing date in November, the judge ordered Miller be submit to a drug test, which she failed. She admitted to having smoked marijuana and was detained for violating terms of her pre-trial release.

The Caldwell County District Attorney had asked the judge for the maximum penalty of two years in jail, saying that the incident was tragic but avoidable.

In a report released by the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC, the number of criminals being given death sentences has declined across the United States over the past decade. This includes the state of Texas, which has a reputation for sentencing the most people to death row.

The Texas trend stems from a law enacted five years ago that allows juries to consider life sentences without parole. Broader factors in the decline of death sentences include closer scrutiny of criminal cases, a growing concern about the methods used to put inmates to death, and the acceptance that mistakes can be made during the judicial process - illustrated by news of individuals once considered guilty being set free. With juries hesitant to apply a death sentence, prosecutors are less likely to seeking it during the penalty phase of a trial.

According to Texas Judicial System data, the state averaged 34 death sentences per year during the 1990's. That dropped into the 20s starting around 2000 and has been in the teens since the 2004-2005 fiscal year. During the 2008-2009 fiscal year that ended August 31, 15 criminals were sentenced to death row.

Number of death sentences handed down in Texas courts:

• Fiscal Year 1995-1996: 40
• Fiscal Year 1998-1999: 36
• Fiscal Year 2003-2004: 23
• Fiscal Year 2006-2007: 13
• Fiscal Year 2008-2009: 15

This is a terrible way for a toddler to try to find his father...

A 4-year old boy in Hamilton County, Texas was found wandering the streets at 1:45 am with a half consumed beer in his hand. Hayden Wright reportedly rang a neighbor's doorbell in the early morning. He evaded the shocked neighbor and proceeded to enter a nearby, unlocked house and steal five Christmas presents. One contained a girl's dress, which Wright was wearing when he was finally apprehended.

Hayden's mother, April Walker, said that she was panicked when she discovered her son was missing. She said that there are child safety devices on the doors, but Hayden had managed to foil them. Ms. Walker when on to say that it was not the first time the toddler had tried to run away. She said that she recently divorced Hayden's father, who is in jail. Walker thinks the 4-year old is trying to find his father or get into trouble so he can join his daddy.

Hayden was taken to a hospital for treatment of alcohol consumption.

The image of tough law enforcement in Texas has been popularized for well over a century. For the past 25 years in particular, the attitude had been to incarcerate those accused of even petty and misdemeanor crimes, leading to a statewide prison population the size of the entire federal prison system. A bi-partisan legislative effort has begun to change that situation. Treatment programs are being implemented that, according to the US Justice Department, has slowed the growth of the Texas prison population.

State Representative Jerry Madden (R) and State Senator John Whitmire (D) collaborated on a 'reinvestment movement' that uses state funds to provide drug, alcohol and mental health treatment and rehabilitation. Texas lawmakers seem to have realized the unwieldy cost of maintaining a huge prison system and the increasingly impractical approach to crime of simply building more prison space.

Texas prison admissions increased by .04% in 2008, well below the annual average of 3% that occurred during each of the previous 8 years. The Texas Department of Corrections adds that cell blocks are being vacated at such a rate that prison population has stopped growing and actually declined by 1,050 inmates. Texas is also showing a significant, 25%, drop in parole violations. This information has led to the scrapping of plans to build three new prisons.

While the number of people in Texas exceeds the national average of 504 per 100,000 in population, the figures have dropped from 669 to 639 per 100,000. In contrast, between 1985 and 2005 the prison population grew 300% and Texas spent $2.3 billion building new facilities.

Research showed that use of alternative treatment programs rather than incarceration for certain offenders allowed the state to focus on more serious criminals. It would cost the state half a billion dollars to house new prisoners, and only half that amount to divert some offenders into treatment programs.

Rep. Madden is facing competition in his re-election bid and the issue of his approach to crime could be pivotal. He states that Texans will hopefully see that

"being tough and smart on crime is a better utilization of the taxpayer dollar."

A sheriff's deputy from Midland Texas has been fired and four other law enforcement officers have been disciplined for photographing a scantily clad waitress holding a police assault rifle while sitting on the trunk of a squad car. The group from the Midland County Sheriff's office were eating at Twin Peaks restaurant north of Austin on August 10 when they asked a waitress named Bambi to pose for them.

Bambi, wearing a plaid school girl skirt, knee high socks and a t-shirt showing lots of cleavage, sat on the trunk of a marked Ford Crown Victoria. To complete the picture, Deputy Daniel Subia handed her an AR-15 assault weapon. It was this action that led to his eventual dismissal from the force.