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District B
Council Member Tarsha Jackson
Tarsha Jackson was born and raised in Houston. She spent her formative years in Acres Homes, Greenspoint and North Forest. She raised her children here, went to school here, and has been fighting for the people of District B since the early 2000s.
While raising two young boys and working as a mortgage lender, Tarsha’s life changed when her oldest special-needs son Marquieth was arrested at his elementary school for a classroom disruption. Just ten years old at the time of his arrest, Marquieth was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for an offense that should’ve been resolved with detention.
Tarsha and her family lived the painful injustices of a system that criminalizes children instead of helping and supporting them. She became a parent-advocate and community leader, organizing other parents to fight for - and win - juvenile detention reform. In 2004, she co-founded Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth with two other mothers. And in 2007, Tarsha’s testimony and advocacy helped win passage of Texas Senate Bill 103, which bans the criminal justice system from jailing children for minor misdemeanors, preventing the injustice that happened to her son from happening to others. Read more ...