Report: New bail system working
More people released on personal bonds, but recidivism rate flat
Harris County’s newly revamped system for processing arrestees on minor offenses is working well, preventing needless jailing of poor people without risking more crime, according to the first official report.
The monitor’s 76-page report released Thursday found that while fewer people were jailed and more were released on cashfree bonds, incidents of recidivism remained low. The new bail system also nearly obliterated racial disparities in pretrial detention — a key goal of the 2016 lawsuit that placed the country’s second largest urban jail in the spotlight on a major civil rights issue.
Brandon L. Garrett, a Duke University law professor leading the oversight team for the sevenyear federal consent decree, framed what he saw in the first six months reviewing court outcomes as a “promising and exciting start.”
“Early data shows that overhauling the bail system in Harris County is working,” Garrett said. “Gone are the days when a poor person would be locked up solely due to an inability to pay.”
He said thousands are being released in low-level cases. “People’s jail stays are far shorter. Hearings are far more robust and fair. And we see no change in repeat offending.”
Garrett was chosen by the parties in a 2016 federal civil rights lawsuit to monitor bail practices along with deputy monitor Sandra Guerra Thompson of Univer
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack said it is too soon to judge if the system is working.
sity of Houston Law Center and a team at Texas A&M University’s Public Policy Research Institute and at the Duke Center for Science and Justice, a community working group of law enforcement, community and business leaders.
Future biannual assessments will evaluate the county’s open hours courts, multilingual court access, electronic notification system for court dates and the effectiveness of pretrial supervision. The team will also analyze the efficiency and thoroughness of court procedures.
Dane Schiller, spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said, “As they note in their report, they lack adequate data to examine the effectiveness of supervision of individuals released on bond, and that they intend to return to this in their next report on their ongoing analysis.”
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the report confirmed “commonsense criminal justice solutions” that have been successful in New Jersey and California can also work in Harris County. Commissioner Adrian Garcia, a former sheriff, concurred that data indicated “those serving up scare tactics against criminal justice reform are wrong. So far we have not seen any sort of uptick in recidivism from people who previously were kept in jail only because they are poor.”
But Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack, a former police officer who voted against the settlement in the bail case, said it is too soon to judge if the system is working.
“The report was far from conclusive,” he said, adding, “there are things that are supposed to be contained in this report. The reality is this is a seven-year project.”
Ray Hunt, executive director of the Houston Police Union Officers’ Union, scoffed at the findings, saying they don’t reflect the reality on the ground, where dozens of people on bond have been charged with murder. A
“The report was far from conclusive. There are things that are supposed to be contained in this report. The reality is this is a seven-year project.”
Steve Radack, Harris County commissioner
handful of these were released on misdemeanors.
“Maybe this Duke professor needs to spend a few weekends out here on the Houston streets,” he said.
Elizabeth Rossi, attorney for the indigent plaintiffs from Civil Rights Corps said, “We haven’t seen the catastrophic increase in crime that the bail industry purported to predict.”
She said the report was promising. “Even at this preliminary stage of the implementation process we’re already seeing the benefits of a system that doesn’t rely on money.”
Judge Darrell Jordan, who took the stand in the case and became a major voice for dismantling the old two-tiered system: “I’ve taken a lot of hits the past four years for fighting for bail reform, but this evidence brings a measure of vindication.” He said the findings showed “indisputable evidence that bail reform has made Harris County safer, and ended discriminatory practices in our courts.”
Others on the bench shared that sentiment, according to Allan Van Fleet, who represents the misdemeanor judges: “The bugaboos we’ve been hearing for the past couple years from people like the attorney general just are not backed up by the data.”
Evidence in the lawsuit revealed that pretrial release minimizes the disruption to defendants’ lives and livelihoods whereas even a short jail stay is likelier to result in future criminality. The landmark 2019 settlement and consent decree requires a public defender be present at initial magistrate hearings. Most misdemeanor defendants are sent home on personal bonds. The remainder, who face higher risk offenses, must be given a substantive hearing where a prosecutor must offer clear and convincing evidence to support any pretrial conditions.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the bail system in its early phases demonstrated bail reform “is not only the right thing to do, but it’s keeping our communities safe and building a judicial system that works fairly for everyone.”
“Race disparities are shrinking, fewer nonviolent offenders are being pointlessly warehoused in our jail at taxpayer expense, and more defendants are being provided public defenders,” she said.
County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said he was encouraged by the early results. “This system took decades to build, and it will not be dismantled overnight,” he said.