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The Harris County jail has reached 102.31 percent of capacity, 9,660 inmates, as of Oct. 1. That is about 1,000 more inmates than mandated by the state (90 percent capacity is the rule). The county wants to spend $267 million for construction of new jails that will take many millions of dollars more to operate each year. While Harris County and the city of Houston struggle to hire qualified peace officers, these proposed jails threaten to divert hundreds of new peace officers to the job of warehousing inmates. Flawed criminal justice policy, not crime, is the cause of our jail overcrowding. Only 1,297 jail inmates (around 14 percent of the total jail population) are convicted misdemeanor offenders serving their sentence. There are more than three times that many not yet convicted, just waiting for trial - more than 4,000 pretrial detainees. Working-class people live paycheck to paycheck and need to get out of jail while awaiting trial to feed their families and to afford a private lawyer, rather than a county-paid lawyer, to defend them. Harris County's pretrial release agency creates one of the lowest personal recognizance bond (get out of jail with a promise to appear in court) rates in Texas. Originally created a few decades ago to ease jail populations, this local bureaucracy has grown and now feeds itself with a diet of probation fees and burdensome bond conditions. Harris County has the highest probation revocation rate of any major county in Texas due to the onerous conditions. The Harris County jail is also holding 1,319 state jail felons as compared to an additional 577 for the entire rest of the state. Why won't the state take them? Maybe it is because Harris County is the state's per capita leader in jailing trace drug cases, such as empty cocaine vials. All sides of the issue agree that drug treatment works, so let's do it. State District Judge Michael McSpadden suggests treating trace drug cases as misdemeanors. Good idea. While we're at it, how about spending a fraction of the $267 million of proposed new jail money on a 1,000-bed drug treatment facility? Harris County has a growing population categorized as "others" that fits into no listed category of jail inmates as reported by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Last August, the county held 799 "others" and in September this grew to 940 -- the largest per capita amount anywhere in the state. Many of these "others" are people sentenced to drug treatment who are languishing in jail, often for many months, waiting to start their treatment. Our criminal court judges also contribute to the jail overcrowding. They do so by hiring plea-bargain attorneys in clear defiance of state law (the Fair Defense Act) and creating an assembly line of one-size-fits-all prison or jail sentences. Some judges jail individuals merely for failing to have a lawyer and also give jail time after a jury mandates probation. These practices must stop. Just who is driving new jail construction? The four Harris County commissioners have millions of dollars, much from construction interests, in their campaign accounts. Does that answer the question? Conservatives, moderates and liberals agree: No more jails in Harris County. Randall Kallinen is a Houston civil-rights lawyer who is an adviser to the University of Houston Law School's Criminal Justice Institute and a board member of the Harris County Criminal Lawyer's Association. He can be emailed at attorneykallinen@aim.com. |
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We are careful not to duplicate the efforts of other organizations, and as a grassroots coalition of prisoners and social reformers, our resources (time and money) are limited. The vast expertise and scope of the various drug reform organizations will enable you to stay informed on the ever-changing, many-faceted aspects of the movement. Our colleagues in reform also give the latest drug war news. Please check their websites often. |
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