{"id":453161,"date":"2026-10-01T12:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453161\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:50:15","slug":"prisons-and-punishment-oct-1-2026-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453161\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisons and punishment (Oct. 1, 2026) \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-530383 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HMCC-Featured-Image-Dark-Blue-2025-1000x563.jpg\" alt=\"A mint green skyline against a dark blue background with the words Houston Matters with Craig Cohen in white\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Houston Matters begins at 9 a.m. CT on 88.7FM. You can also <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/app1.kuhf.org\/player\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">listen online<\/a> or <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@HoustonPublicMedia\/streams\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">watch live on YouTube<\/a>. Join the discussion. Call or text 713-440-8870. Email <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/shows\/houston-matters\/2026\/10\/01\/563167\/prisons-and-punishment-oct-1-2026\/mailto:talk@houstonmatters.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talk@houstonmatters.org<\/a> or tag us <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HoustonMatters\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> @HoustonMatters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday\u2019s show: Chris Brown, who serves as Mayor John Whitmire&#8217;s financial integrity director, has admitted to working 15-hour weeks for a $127,000 salary but defended his work at a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/city-of-houston\/2026\/09\/30\/563189\/whitmires-financial-integrity-director-admits-to-15-hour-workweeks-for-127000-salary-defends-his-work\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">tense city council meeting<\/a>. Houston Public Media\u2019s Dominic Anthony Walsh tells us what happened and updates us on the latest developments from City Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Also this hour: A federal judge has ruled that Texas has to accelerate its timeline to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/09\/22\/texas-prison-air-conditioning-lawsuit-ruling\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">install air conditioning<\/a> in all state prisons by the end of 2029. The judge seemed to suggest the state was slow-playing the installation, which may fit an attitude about prison conditions built around the notion that people in prison are being punished not by doing time, but how they do that time. We discuss that and other observations about the ethics surrounding Texas prisons.<\/p>\n<p>Then, since we Houstonians tend to do a lot of driving and gas prices are so high these days, keeping our cars in peak condition is more important than ever. In that spirit, we welcome your long-term car care questions for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christianbrothersautomotivefranchising\/photos\/jeremy-robertson-owner-of-our-fairfield-south-tomball-and-west-road-shops-in-tex\/947248814072026\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jeremy Robertson<\/a> of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbac.com\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Christian Brothers Automotive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And we talk with <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Kenny\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tom Kenny<\/a>, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, who&#8217;s also a musician. He and his band The Hi-Seas will <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/continentalclub.com\/houston#event=78446887;instance=20261002190000?popup=1&amp;lang=en-US\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">perform Friday night<\/a> at the Continental Club.<\/p>\n<p>Audio from today\u2019s show will be available after 11 a.m. CT. We also offer a free podcast <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/podcasts\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/houston-matters-podcast\/id642557771?mt=2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">on iTunes<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/app.stitcher.com\/browse\/feed\/37496\/details\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Stitcher<\/a> and other apps.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Matters begins at 9 a.m. CT on 88.7FM. You can also listen online or watch live on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[155723,53304,94772,155724,92745,3084,87128,32051,4977,56,58,4978,57,3743,66,223,2899,4979,155725,49451,155726,155727],"class_list":["post-453161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-air-conditioning-in-texas-prisons","tag-car-care","tag-chris-brown","tag-christian-brothers-automotive","tag-city-finances","tag-city-hall","tag-continental-club","tag-driving-in-houston","tag-full-show","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-matters","tag-houston-news","tag-john-whitmire","tag-local","tag-news","tag-prisons","tag-shows","tag-spongebob-squarepants","tag-texas-prisons","tag-tom-kenny","tag-vehicle-maintenance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}