Staggering dockets won't relieve jail overcrowding

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia has taken it upon himself to try to resolve the county's long-term problem of jail overcrowding. It's too bad that it won't solve a thing.

There are 22 district (felony) criminal courts and 15 county courts-at-law (misdemeanor) in the Harris County Criminal (In)justice Center. There is a "holdover" cell in each courtroom that is supposed to hold no more than 19 inmates. As they would say across the pond, that guideline is honored more in the breach than in the observance.

There is a giant holding cell in the tunnel between the county jail and the courthouse that can hold roughly 250 inmates. Now do the math. Thirty-seven courts with 19 inmates is a bit more than 250. The overflow inmates are lined up in the tunnel where they wait.

What is one to do?

Sheriff Garcia decided to stagger the times he has inmates delivered to courtrooms.This means that an attorney may walk into a courtroom and have no idea when his client might be brought over.

The problem with Sheriff Garcia's plan to alleviate overcrowding is that it doesn't. His plan only treats the symptoms, not the disease.

The way to reduce jail overcrowding in Harris County is to find a way to get those people in jail awaiting trial out of jail. Every person brought into the county jail is innocent unless proven guilty. To force someone to stay behind bars due to the arbitrariness of the county's bail schedule is a crime.

The first blog post I wrote dealt with the need to increase the number of personal bonds issued. Every person without a prior criminal record arrested for a non-violent offense should be released with a personal bond. The only reason to keep them behind bars is to coerce a plea out of them. Just wave that offer of time served in front of their face and they will gladly plead guilty to something they didn't do just to get out of that hellhole.

The other way to reduce the jail population in Harris County is to issue citations and summonses for non-violent misdemeanor drug possession cases. Confiscate the goods, issue the person a ticket along with a summons ordering them to appear in court on a certain day at a certain time under threat of arrest.

We need to do away with this notion that anyone charged with domestic assault must be held without bail until such time as he can see a magistrate so a temporary protective order can be issued. If we can find judges who are more than willing to hang around the courthouse (or by a fax machine) at all hours of the night to sign fill-in-the-blank warrants authorizing forcible blood draws, certainly we can find a judge or two who can sign an emergency protective order on short notice. It's not like they're going to read it or set a hearing to determine whether it's necessary or not.

Sheriff Garcia's plan addresses none of these issues.

Stuffed to the gills

Forget about all that 6th Amendment nonsense about the right to counsel, Harris County has decided that's not nearly so important as cramming as many pre-trial detainees into the Harris County Jail in order to coerce guilty pleas.

From: Armand, Stephanie (DCA)
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 2:50 PM
To: DC Criminal Coordinators (DCA)
Cc: DeLeon, Sisto (HCSO)
Subject: Contractual Logistics Transfers
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 2:50 PMTo: DC Criminal Coordinators (DCA)Cc: DeLeon, Sisto (HCSO)Subject: Contractual Logistics Transfers 

Good afternoon,   Due to jail overcrowding, pre-trial inmates with a future date of 35 days or over are transferred to outlying jail facilities in Newton and LaSalle County.      The inmates will be returned to Harris County Jail, two weeks prior to the setting in the court.     Video Conferences are available at both of these facilities to allow the defense attorney to visit with his/her client.         Defense attorneys may contact one of the following individuals to arrange the video conference: Lt. J.D. Clay @ 713-755-8434 or 713-755-8425 Sgts. C.D. Minshew or F. Dlouhy at 713-755-8420 Or Deputy Station at 713-755-1188 or 713-755-1189   Please convey this contact information to the defense attorneys.    This information is also available on the Coordinator’s Resource Webpage under Contractual Logistics Transfer Procedures.       Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
 
Stephanie Armand Business Process Manager Administrative Offices of the District Courts 713-755-5704

Keep in mind that we aren't talking about people who have been found guilty of anything. These are the folks that are supposedly innocent unless proven guilty. These are the folks who are unable to post bond. These are the folks that most people don't give a rat's ass about.

But they're being transported all over the state because Harris County refuses to do anything to address the underlying problem of jail overcrowding -- punitive bonds.

And then there's HB 1173 that would allow counties with populations over 3 million people to extend the time they can hold a suspect without a probable cause hearing from 24 to 36 hours. That's just what we need here in Houston -- there's not enough room at the inn as it is and now we're going to allow the state to hold a citizen in jail an additional 12 hours.

Of course, if it's a bad bill related to criminal justice you know it must be sponsored by Sen. Joan Huffman. Interestingly enough, the fiscal analysis indicates that there should be no additional cost to the state (understood) or to local government (?). Just how many pretrial detainees are being transferred out of the county to make room for the new blood over on Baker Street?

Here's an idea for our legislators in Austin -- how about mandating the issuance of citations for Class B possession of marijuana cases? Confiscate the contraband, issue a citation with a promise to appear and go on about your business. It's going to be cheaper than shipping detainees out of the county and it might just allow Harris County to take care of its business when it comes to holding probable cause hearings within 24 hours.