Houston's juvenile courts have some of the highest incarceration rated in Texas, such that Houston accounts for one fifth of all juvenile incarcerations in Texas. This is because of two Republican juvenile court judges with very harsh sentencing tendencies. Democrats swept the judgeships in Harris County last election and all Republican judges including those two lost their seats.
In response, one of those judges, Glenn Devlin, asked all juvenile defendants coming before him for detention hearings (sort of like bail for juveniles) if they planned to kill anyone. If they said "no," he then released them, claiming that was what the voters wanted. This temper tantrum has horrified everyone, both prosecutors and various justice reform groups who were already critical.