County pays lip service to bail reform
Bexar County’s court-at-law judges have chosen to defend the indefensible, and so far, they are doing a poor job.
In a move that was as unsurprising as it was disappointing, the county’s court-at-law judges, who handle misdemeanor cases, short-circuited a planned meeting to discuss the possibility of bail reform here. There will be no bail reform in Bexar County, they said. Not under their watch.
Oh, Bexar County Judge John Longoria, who received at least $2,850 in political contributions from the bail industry between 2016 and 2018, didn’t use such direct language.
In speaking for the misdemeanor court judges, Longoria said, “We don’t want people sitting in jail only because they don’t have money to pay.”
But that’s exactly what is happening in Bexar County. Officials have identified about 130 people accused of nonviolent misdemeanors who are languishing in jail simply because they cannot pay for their bonds.
People like Janice Dotson-Stephens, the grandmother with schizophrenia who was stranded in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on a criminal trespass charge and a $300 bond. She died in jail this December.
But somehow, Longoria still said, “In Bexar County, we are OK.”
No, the Bexar County system is not “OK.” Far from it. Just ask the family of Dotson-Stephens or those 130 folks who are stuck in jail for being poor. Officials had met to explore replicating bail reform in Harris County. There, the court-at-law judges moved to eliminate cash bail for roughly 85 percent of misdemeanors. Longoria said this was a step too far because it “basically” eliminated cash bail. But it didn’t. The order came with exceptions for anyone arrested for family violence, bond violations and repeated drunken driving offenses. All very clear examples of people who might pose a risk to the public or might not show up in court. And yet, in defending this decision to stick with cash bail, Longoria, inexplicably used the example of domestic and family violence.
“There can rightly be somebody who sits in jail because he slaps his wife around and didn’t have the money to pay for a bond,” he said. “Now, if somebody else (who) slaps his wife around and has the money, then, yeah, they are going to get out. Our current system is not going to bless somebody for being poor and slapping their wives around.” We’re not really sure what his point was because the Harris County order does not grant personal recognizance bonds to people accused of family violence. More important, this is exactly why cash bail is so flawed. Defendants should be judged on risk to the public, not access to credit. If someone is accused of domestic violence, that defendant, rich or poor, shouldn’t be able to simply bond out. Harris County’s order does not allow that. Bexar County’s system does. It “blesses” the wealthy wife beater.
Longoria is a longtime politician, but that’s not the case for many of these recently elected to county court-at-law benches. We’re speaking to you, Helen Petry Stowe, Grace Uzomba, Alfredo Ximenez, Yolanda Huff, Carlo Key, Gloria Saldaña, Melissa Vara and Michael De Leon — none of whom returned our calls about this. Take note of the moment. Bipartisan lawmakers in Austin have introduced bail reform legislation because it is the morally right thing to do. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht has called for reform. So have experts across the political spectrum.
If the legislation passes, then our local judges are simply behind the curve. But if it fails, they are flirting with a lawsuit. Either way, this will become an election issue.
The good news for these judges is it’s not too late to truly ponder and implement meaningful reform rather than pay lip service to it. The local political will exists. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, District Attorney Joe Gonzales and Sheriff Javier Salazar all support reform.
As Harvard Law School noted in its 2016 publication “Moving Beyond Money: A Primer on Bail Reform,” keeping people accused of nonviolent crimes in jail “undermines community safety.”
“Statistical studies have shown that similarly situated, low-risk individuals who are detained pretrial, even for short periods, are actually more likely to commit new crimes following release,” it said. Other studies have shown even a few days in jail pretrial can have major adverse consequences on families and employment. And there are many alternatives to cash bond: Pretrial supervision and court-date notifications are particularly effective. Change is coming, and Bexar County’s court-atlaw judges can either embrace that or get swept away.