High court deals blow to bail system
Justice Thomas denies county’s request to block reform order
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt another blow Wednesday to Harris County’s controversial bail system, refusing to halt a court order even as county officials began releasing more than 100 misdemeanor inmates who couldn’t afford to post cash bonds.
Justice Clarence Thomas denied Harris County’s request less than 24 hours after the county filed a challenge to an appeals court decision that had left in place a strongly worded order tossing out the current bail system.
Even before the high court ruled, however, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez began releasing indigent inmates charged with misdemeanors who did not have other special holds or certain family violence restrictions.
Among those released
Wednesday was Edward Gonzales — no relation to the sheriff — who was arrested Monday on misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and trespassing.
The 38-year-old construction worker was accused of damaging a fence while helping a friend move, but he said the fence was already damaged when he arrived. He sat in jail more than 36 hours, however, because he couldn’t afford to make the $500 cash bond.
Finally, early Wednesday, he was released on a personal bond after promising to appear in court.
“Free at last!” he yelled as he walked outside. “It feels good to come out.”
The new no-cash bail system “helps a lot,” he said.
Andre Medina, 17, a high school senior, waited outside the Harris County Jail for his grandmother.
He had been in jail for two days after being arrested on a criminal trespass charge in Pasadena. Late Tuesday night, he, too, was released on a personal bond.
“Right before I saw the TV judge, I prayed I could get out,” Medina said, referring to the hearing officer who read his charges via a television link. “It feels good. I’m going to go home and shower.”
The court orders and costly legal fight came in a federal lawsuit filed last year by two civil rights groups — Texas Fair Defense Project and Civil Rights Corps — and local law firm Susman Godfrey on behalf of Maranda ODonnell, a single mother who was held for two days on a charge of driving without a valid license because she couldn’t afford the $2,500 bail. Similar lawsuits filed on behalf of two other people were merged into the case in August.
Chief U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in Houston issued a 193-page ruling in April that the county’s bail system was unconstitutional and ordered the release of indigent misdemeanor defendants using personal bonds.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday morning rejected the county’s efforts to halt Rosenthal’s injunction while they challenged the full ruling in court. The county filed the same day for emergency consideration before the U.S. Supreme Court. Courts have ‘clearly spoken’
The latest legal blow left county officials weighing their options and refocusing efforts on challenging the larger order from Rosenthal, said First Assistant County Attorney Robert Soard.
The county still has the option to ask another justice or the full Supreme Court to reconsider Thomas’ ruling. Follow-up requests to other justices often are referred to the full court, according to the high court’s public information office.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg — whose office has already begun supporting personal bonds for misdemeanors — praised the court’s decision.
“There is no longer any legal reason why the county cannot comply with Judge Lee Rosenthal’s order,” she said, in a written statement. “Holding people in jail solely because they are poor violates due process, and the courts at every level of our federal judiciary have clearly spoken.”
Ogg joined with the sheriff and County Commissioner Rodney Ellis in filing documents with the court opposing the cash-bail system. One of the 16 criminal court-at-law judges sued in the case, Darrell Jordan, has also indicated he opposes the current system. Six hearing officers and top county officials are also named in the suit.
Trisha Prigilio, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said being stuck in jail can ruin people’s lives over minor offenses.
“What was happening under the previous system was an outrage,” she said. “We have people who are held in jail with devastating consequences for their families and their lives, just because they can’t afford to pay a bond.”
The county, however, has argued that broad pretrial release on personal bonds can lead to dangerous criminals going free, saying the court order would “upend the pretrial bail system in the largest jurisdiction in Texas and the third largest in the United States.”
County officials have invested millions of dollars to reform the bail system starting this summer, with a beefed up pretrial services department and a pilot program to provide public defenders present at bail hearings. A tool to assess the risk posed by a defendant is set to go into effect July 1.
Precinct 3 County Commissioner Steve Radack said the county wants a chance to complete its reforms without federal intervention.
“I want the end result to be fairness, and that’s what we have been striving for,” Radack said. “I don’t think you can always get court-ordered fairness.”
The bail bond industry has also opposed the order, which will release thousands of potential clients without requiring them to post bond.
Veteran bondsman Carlos Manzano, of Americas Bail Bonds, said he and many of his colleagues believe the overuse of personal bonds will create a dangerous situation for the community.
“It’s kind of like just like giving everybody a slap on the hand,” he said. “It’s going to blow up in the county’s face. It’s just a ticking time bomb.” A welcome surprise
For those who were released Wednesday, however, many of whom had been facing days or weeks behind bars over misdemeanors, the change offered a surprise opportunity to resume life outside of a jail cell.
“I’m going to call my grandmother,” said Traylessee Cunningham, who had been held in jail since early May. “Nobody knows I’m in jail.”
Cunningham was charged with misdemeanor trespassing on May 10, just days after she said she had fronted nearly $10,000 in funeral costs for her twin brother. She was unable to post the $500 she needed to get out of jail on the trespassing charge, so she remained in jail for weeks, missing her brother’s funeral.
“That messed me up really bad,” Cunningham said.
She is also facing a felony retaliation charge involving her brother’s former girlfriend, she said.
For Devin Walton, 27, getting out of jail means going back to work cooking barbecue in Oak Ridge North. He wants to go back to his wife and their two children in Chambers County and work on a car he’s rebuilding.
“Get back to my kids, that’s the ultimate goal,” he said.
Walton had been held after getting into a fight with his brother. He could not come up with the $5,000 needed for the $50,000 bond and had been in jail almost a week.
He’s lucky, he said, to have an understanding boss.
“I probably would have lost my job,” he said. Changes ahead?
Legal experts said the county has just about used up all its options in challenging Rosenthal’s order.
“There’s no question that Justice Thomas has concluded that there isn’t clear and obvious irreparable harm to the state if the stay isn’t granted,” said Lonny Hoffman, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in federal procedure.
Sarah R. Guidry, executive director of the Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Policy at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, said Thomas’ rejection of the county’s appeal will force local changes.
“This is going to put a fire under the county to figure out how to implement this,” she said. “It’s also going to have a huge impact on the bail bonds industry. They’re going to have to figure out a different way to make a living. They’re not going the get the bulk of their income off of poor people who are charged with low-level crimes.”