‘Cite-and-release’ pleases DA
Gonzales praises program for saving time, taxpayer costs
A cite-and-release program for nonviolent offenses — especially involving marijuana — has kept nearly 2,500 people out of jail, saved taxpayers $1.8 million in booking and court costs and put police officers back on the streets to handle higher-priority crime, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales says.
Gonzales, a defense attorney
for 20 years and now just two years into the DA’s position, said the nascent program has been widely praised by judges, police and the criminal defense bar.
“SAPD is the biggest player in this. Kudos to Chief McManus,” Gonzales said Friday. “It has been a great collaboration involving the city manager’s office and the City Council’s public safety committee as well.”
He said the COVID-19 health consequences of keeping 2,500 marijuana users and shoplifters out of jails, courts and police vehicles were an added benefit.
The program was authorized by the Legislature 13 years ago, but not adopted in Bexar County until Gonzales became the DA. About 17 months old now, it works like this:
When police issue a citation for Class A or B misdemeanor possession of marijuana under 4 ounces, or Class B criminal mischief, theft of service or driving with an invalid license, the accused goes to the county’s “re-entry center” (not in the jail or courthouse) and a prosecutor evaluates the case.
If the person is accepted and completes an education program, the violation does not appear on any criminal record.
People who don’t complete the courses or don’t qualify for other reasons move on to a traditional court track, but still might have their cases dismissed eventually.
Gonzales said repeat offenders have not yet been a problem, but that he wouldn’t want anyone using the program “as a revolving door.”
“It doesn’t just benefit firsttime rich kid offenders on the North Side, but helps the poor kid on the South Side, too,” said one fan of the policy, Bexar County’s chief public defender, Michael Young, who represents many of the county’s indigent clients who have benefited. “Joe said he would personally watch the demographics of the program to ensure its fairness.”
Critics of the program, Young said, “should consider that with court-appointed lawyers alone,
we’re saving $180 per case on more than 2,000 people (or $360,000), plus overtime for jail and court employees.”
One such critic, City Councilman Clayton Perry, had his doubts about the scale of cost savings.
“I look at it from the perspective of the victims, whether it’s criminal mischief, tagging, shoplifting … is justice being served? I don’t know that we’re saving millions,” he said. “Chief McManus said that of 1,200 total officers (in the Police Department) we’re only saving the equivalent of about two full-time positions.”
Incremental moves toward decriminalization of marijuana possession seem apparent in large cities and in the Legislature, said Gonzales, though he wouldn’t be precisely pinned down on his personal position.
“Our office has been declining prosecution on less than an ounce, and I don’t think there’s been any increase of crime. I think we should consider more decriminalization on other amounts,” he said.
Gonzales is working with Bexar County commissioners and Young, among others, to urge state lawmakers to expand the scope of cite-and-release programs by including some felony crimes — and not just possession of marijuana but of Ecstasy, codeine, Xanax and other drugs, plus felony graffiti, theft of service and prostitution offenses.
The DA’s website now has a “dashboard” that says 64 percent of the citations its office receives from law enforcement have been for misdemeanor pot possession, but 96 percent of those were rejected by his prosecutors. Most of those who ended up in the normal court system were cited for misdemeanor theft.
There is a wide public perception, Gonzales said, that police and prosecutors “must be smart on crime and not just tough on crime.”
“I’ve been trying to change the culture here, among our 220 prosecutors, that we must always throw the book at people and get the maximum sentence. The vast majority, and many police officers I’ve spoken to, see the benefit of this program.”
He said he’d spoken to district attorneys in Harris, Travis and Nueces counties and consulted with others throughout the nation and felt certain that some form of cite-and-release would soon become the standard for “progressive” counties.