Groups urging bail reform

Harris County and the state should reform an unfair bail system that punishes the poor more harshly, according to civil rights leaders, legislative officials and criminal experts who gathered Wednesday in front of the county’s criminal justice center. Reform, they argued, could prevent another tragedy like that involving Sandra Bland, who was found dead in her Waller County jail cell in July after failing to make bail.

“The death of Sandra Bland was a travesty of justice,” said Johnny Mata of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. “Sandra Bland would probably be alive today if Texas would’ve had a system that is fair.”

Bland was pulled over by a state trooper on a Friday afternoon just outside the college campus where she’d recently been hired for a temporary job. But the July 10 traffic stop escalated into a heated argument, and Department of Public Safety Officer Brian Encinia charged her with assault of a public servant after he says she kicked him. She spent three days in a jail cell alone before she was found dead there Monday morning.

Surveillance footage released by the jail shows Bland standing before Justice of the Peace Delores Hargrave that Saturday. During that hearing, Hargrave told Bland what she was charged with and informed her of her rights.

The justice of the peace said she then reviewed the arresting statement from Encinia, which failed to mention key details of the exchange with Bland that were later revealed when dashcam footage from his patrol car was released to the public, including Encinia threatening to use his Taser on Bland when she refused to put out a cigarette and then questioned his order to get out of her vehicle. Encinia was later cited by DPS for violating its courtesy policy, and his actions are part of ongoing investigations.

With only the trooper’s written statement in front of her to establish probable cause, Hargrave set bail at $5,000, which county officials said reflected Bland’s charge according to a bail schedule. For a nonrefundable $500, Bland would’ve had to pay a bondsman to post the full amount for her bail if she were unable to come up with the funds. Calls went unanswered

Bland made several calls that day from the jail, including to a bondsman who, according to the Waller County district attorney’s office, was not interested in her out-of-state car title. Calls to friends went unanswered. Her family never posted bail.

Advocates familiar with the bail process and statutes like the Fair Defense Act said it never should have come to that.

“There’s still an investigation being done,” Mata said of Bland’s death, which an autopsy shows was a suicide by hanging. “We respect that. However, we feel that an injustice has been committed.”

His coalition reflects more than 25 organizations across the area. He was joined Wednesday by experts like law professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, director of the University of Houston Law Center’s Criminal Justice Institute, who said the need for bail reform is a national concern but is especially needed in Houston.

By following pre-determined bail schedules, magistrates ignore their responsibility to take individual factors into consideration to ensure that the does not merely become a punishment for being poor, she and others argued. Instead it’s meant to reflect an individual’s flight risk and potential public safety concerns. Had a more nuanced risk assessment instrument been used in Bland’s case, she argued, “the question would not be, ‘Does she have $500?’ but, ‘Is she a risk to come to court?’”

Representatives of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Jail Association could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Bland’s case is not unique.

“There are far too many people in Texas jails and prisons that don’t need to be there,” said Brandon Dudley, legal counsel for state Sen. Rodney Ellis. Many of those individuals, some 75 percent in Harris County jails, are detained simply because they cannot pay their bail. Fair Defense Act

Harris County jails were at roughly 90 percent capacity with zero available beds, according to the latest monthly report from the county’s pretrial services. More than 400 individuals were in jail awaiting trial with misdemeanor charges, and more than 5,000 were awaiting trial with felony charges.

In Texas, defendants are supposed to have the added protection of the Fair Defense Act passed in 2001. The act, authored by Ellis, addresses issues like indigent defense and the timely appointment of counsel. But it also contains language about when a defendant should be granted representation. According to some, that right extends to the bond hearing itself, though this is rarely ever the case. Hargrave said in her more than 20 years of working in Waller County, an individual never had a defense lawyer present during the bond hearing. Personal bonds

Advocates also question what they see as the low rate of personal bonds granted to individuals. If an individual is granted a personal bond, he or she is released on the promise to appear in court. Only 7 percent of bonds issued in Harris County are personal bonds, according to Randall Kallinen, a lawyer and the former head of the Houston chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

With so few personal bonds issued, said Kallinen, “the person who has the money gets out.” In other words, “the Harris County jail is housing poor people,” he said.

When defendants end up stuck in jail, unable to pay bond, it not only costs the county to house them, it also often costs the individuals financially, whether it be through lost wages, late bills or other complications.

“We got a lot of calls from our members,” said Tarsha Jackson of the Texas Organizing Project, who said that Bland’s case and her inability to post bail resonated with many. “This is something that they deal with daily.”

And with so many people in jail awaiting trial, advocates say it spreads the jail’s resources, particularly for mental health services, too thin. Legislators announced Tuesday that they will take up the issue of mental health in jails with a study and hearings starting next month.

The coalition and advocates who gathered Wednesday promised to work with legislators to reform bail procedures as well. “We’re going to be communicating,” said Mata.