Celebrating Our Social Workers at Texas Defender Service
Dear Friends,
In recognition of Social Worker Appreciation Month, we want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible work of the social workers at Texas Defender Service.
At TDS, our social workers are rooted in mitigation investigation—an approach that centers the full humanity of the people we serve. Through comprehensive life history investigations, they uncover and document the social, psychological, and systemic factors that shape our clients’ lives, ensuring those stories are fully told and meaningfully considered.
Mitigation investigation requires not only rigorous investigative skill, but also deep empathy, cultural humility, and the ability to build trust in often difficult and sensitive circumstances. These investigations are essential to ensuring that everyone in the criminal-legal system is treated with dignity and equality, and help guide decision-makers toward more humane, evidence-based outcomes for people facing the most serious sentences. Through our social workers’ contributions, we have saved 58 lives from execution or death sentence since 2018.
We are grateful for the dedication, expertise, and compassion our social workers bring to this work every day!
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
