Harris County OKs funding for jail reform

Commissioners, charity grant target overcrowding and racial disparities

Commissioners back a sweeping plan to reform the criminal justice system, a week after the jail began shipping out inmates to avoid going over capacity.

Harris County commissioners voted Tuesday to back a sweeping plan to reform the criminal justice system, a week after the Harris County Jail began shipping inmates to other counties to avoid reaching capacity.

Commissioners voted to accept a $2 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation and to allocate more than $3.3 million from general-fund reserves to help pay for the reforms, which were announced by District Attorney Devon Anderson earlier this month.

“I was in support of spending some money to do this, and I think it’s a plan that’s good,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, a member of the county criminal justice coordinating council that helped develop the plan.

Radack said that in the long term, the reforms, which seek to reduce racial disparities and improve conditions in the criminal justice system, particularly at the county’s massive jail, could help prevent high jail populations that have plagued the county jail for years.

“It can make our criminal justice system more effective and efficient here in Harris County,” Radack said.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the country, had issued a national challenge for jurisdictions to come up with innovative solutions to address jail overcrowding and racial disparities in the system. Harris County was awarded the grant two weeks ago.

The county’s plan calls for hiring two coordinators, implementing a new case-management system, funding a new court and

“(The reforms) can make our criminal justice system more effective and efficient here in Harris County.” Steve Radack, Precinct 3 commissioner

allowing defendants to pledge personally to appear in court without requiring them to obtain a bond.

Of the two new positions, one would be a racial and ethnic diversity coordinator who would build and maintain ties between criminal justice officials and minority communities.

The other position would be a jail coordinator who would troubleshoot problems in the jail complex to ensure that detainees are released as expeditiously as possible.

Overall, the goal is to reduce the jail’s daily population by about 1,800 — or 21 percent — over three years. The jail, one of the largest in the country, typically holds 8,500 to 8,700 inmates.

On April 15, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, shipped 133 inmates to private jails in Jefferson and

Bowie counties to avoid overcrowding.

The transfers — which are expected to cost the county about $180,000 a month in boarding fees — mark the fourth time in the past year that the sheriff ’s office has had to send inmates to jails in other parts of the state.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, urged Anderson and Sheriff Ron Hickman in a Monday letter to implement reforms that he said might prevent issues like jail crowding.

Ellis said the MacArthur grant plan was an “important step in the right direction.” He also called for increased pre-booking and pre-trial diversion, reforming the way bail is set and assigning counsel earlier in the booking process.

Hank Griffith, the county’s deputy director of grants, said different agencies in the county will work up their own moredetailed plans of how to spend the county money that’s involved.

The county budget office will then transfer that money to, for example, the district attorney’s office. Commissioners will have to approve those transfers as plans are finalized, Griffith said.

Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said officials will be meeting regularly in the coming weeks.

The coordinating council “is excited to get started on the plans that have been talked about for months,” McShan said.