A blending of resources
Joint Processing Center would consolidate inmate bookings and free up law enforcement
On Nov. 5, voters in Houston and Harris County will have the opportunity to make our city and county safer, streamline government, enhance cooperation between the city of Houston and Harris County and improve criminal justice and mental health treatment — all in one fell swoop. Harris County Proposition 2, which allows for construction of a joint city-county inmate processing center, is a major step forward for local governance.
Fewer than 15 years ago, the city of Houston and Harris County planned to spend more than $6 million to build two libraries less than two miles apart in Clear Lake. Critics blasted the plan, saying it was emblematic of how poorly the city and county worked together to coordinate their projects for the public good. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, and the two governments combined their efforts to create the Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library.
The relationship between the city and the county has improved enormously in the intervening years, and the two governments now have a historic opportunity to greatly increase public safety while actually reducing law enforcement costs. Now it’s up to the voters to make it happen.
Voters will decide whether to allow Harris County to issue $70 million in bonds to finance some of the costs of building a joint processing center across the street from the county jail complex downtown. The bond issue would require no tax increase; the county would pay off the bonds with savings produced by the new facility’s operation.
It isn’t often that a public proposal comes along that can unite the support of city and county leaders, law enforcement officials, mental health proponents and tightfisted fiscal conservatives. But the processing center has the support of Houston City Council, Harris County Commissioners Court, Police Chief Charles McClelland, Sheriff Adrian Garcia and mental health advocates concerned about the revolving door in our criminal justice system.
The Joint Processing Center would handle all inmate bookings and releases for the city and county, eliminating the redundancy inherent in operating two separate systems, as is done now. As a result, the city will be able to shut down its city jail system, freeing up more manpower for law-enforcement functions. In exchange, the city will contribute $30 million to the building of the center and will pay the county an additional booking fee per inmate.
The joint processing center will free law-enforcement officers from much of the laborious task of booking inmates into jail and is expected to free those officers to return to the streets within as little as 20 minutes, compared with current wait times of nearly an hour. And more officers on the street means safer streets for the residents of Houston and Harris County.
Of no less importance is the effect the joint processing center is expected to have on recidivism rates.
The Harris County Jail is now the largest mental health facility in Texas, with hundreds of people diagnosed with mental illnesses cycling through the system each year. In fact, one recent study showed that, of the more than 900 people who revolved through the jail system at least five times in 2011-2012, 538 had confirmed mental health diagnoses.
The new joint processing center will allow us to provide systematic mental health and other services that are now provided only on an ad-hoc basis. This will include having mental health experts “divert” incoming nonviolent defendants to hospitals and other facilities more appropriate to their needs. In addition, outgo- ing inmates will be matched with programs that provide mental health, housing and/ or substance abuse treatment that can make them less likely to commit crimes in the future.
That’s not just a more effective law enforcement and criminal justice system, it’s also a more humane system. And it leaves Harris County Jail space available to house those who are a genuine threat to society.
This is not another jail. Although the new center would contain some inmate beds, those would be only for those inmates charged with minor offenses who will be part of the system for 72 hours or less. The processing center is a great improvement in the logistics of handling those who are already arrested.
Our hope is that voters will support the county bond issue in November and when early voting begins tomorrow, allowing construction to be complete within about three years. We expect to begin seeing the benefits of the joint processing center shortly after it opens. And we’re proud to say that, once again, the city of Houston and Harris County are cooperating and coordinating to reduce crime, reduce costs and to provide badly needed public services.