REQUEST FOR PROSECUTORS The Harris County District Attorney is working to address a criminal court case backlog and is asking for more prosecutors. SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICECOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER In January, the Harris County District Attorney’s Oce requested $13.6 million to fund 82 new assistant district attorneys and 43 support sta in 2022.
2021 2006
3K
2,830
2.5K
2,325
2K
1.5K
1K
651
474
500
250 350
0
Total prosecutors
Average felony caseload
Average misdemeanor caseload
As of Jan. 24, more than half of Harris County’s jail population was Black, and half of individuals were accused of a violent crime. SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENTCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
WHO’S IN THE SYSTEM
Violent | 50% Serious | 11% Property | 10% Drug | 11% Other | 18% Under 19 | 2.3% 19-25 | 20.7% 26-35 | 34.1% 36-45 | 24.9%
46-55 | 11.4% 56-65 | 5.5% 66 and older | 1%
AGE
Get Back To Life WITH INCISIONLESS TREATMENT FOR ESSENTIAL TREMOR AND
Black | 51% White | 31% Hispanic | 17% Other | 1%
RACE/ ETHNICITY
OFFENSES
TREMOR-DOMINANT PARKINSON’S DISEASE
$50,000 JAD grant last year to look at legal services from an equity stand- point. The grant allowed Beacon Law to reachmore clients by expanding the income eligibility for services. The organization works with cli- ents who are chronically homeless, but it also serves clients living pay- check to paycheck who may be on the verge of homelessness. “It’s a daily struggle for some people who have tried to scrape by and have done their best with the resources that they have, but there denitely is a lack of support and resources for people out there in order to break the cycle and move forward with their life,” Truong said. Implications on individuals The JAD plans to continue conduct- ing research and developing dash- boards this year. A use-of-force policy report and a bail bond dashboard are expected to be released in the rst quarter, Correa said. “There’s a lot of talk about bond and bail reform, which from a system per- spective is the most obvious example of, ‘If you’re poor, you can’t get out.’ Being poor or rich is what’s driving justice over there,” Wiley said.
Other ongoing areas of study deal with addressing inequalities in the system; supporting survivors of crime; and addressing the root causes of crime and criminal justice involve- ment such as mental health, home- lessness, substance use and poverty, Correa said. Restoring Justice is one of the only indigent defense providers in the country alsooering trauma-informed counseling, Wiley said, because he found trauma is often at the root of cli- ents’ circumstances. “The direct response to those ail- ments, to those root causes, has been to throw someone in jail, and all that does is destabilizes, and it makes the problem worse,” he said. “You could take a fraction of those dollars spent on the policing system, the jail system, the prison system and do the upfront mental health, homeless, substance addiction treatment … to prevent all of that wasted money and help that person’s life as well as help society.” Shawn Arrajj and Jishnu Nair contributed to this report.
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For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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BAY AREA EDITION • FEBRUARY 2022
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