Average stay 204 days
Total jail capacity
Total jail population
Population experiencing homelessness 7%
Bond amounts 77% over $10,000
9,159
9,369
Addressingpublic safety In addition to investing in jury operations, Commissioners Court has taken steps to help reduce crime and alleviate system challenges. In 2021, the court approved a $50 million neighborhood cleanup initiative in high-crime areas and launched both the Holistic Alternative Responder Team and the Gun Vio- lence Interruption Program. Funding for law enforcement agencies has also increased 22% in the past ve years, according to county budget data. Howard Henderson, professor and director of the Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern Univer- sity, said the JAD’s work is helping the county rethink its approach to justice. “I think the social work model that Harris County is implementing is the right thing to do because many times mental health cases and domestic vio- lence cases turn sour unnecessarily only because we don’t have the trained personnel dealing with them,” he said. Harris County Precinct 3 Commis- sioner Tom Ramsey announced in January the launch of a new crime task 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 OFFICE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER In January, the Harris County District Attorney’s O ce requested $13.6 million to fund 82 new assistant district attorneys and 43 support sta in 2022.
As of Jan. 24, more than half of Harris County’s jail population was Black, and most individuals were accused of a violent crime. SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
WHO’S IN THE SYSTEM
2021 2006
0 500 1K 1.5K 2K 2.5K 3K
2,830
2,325
under 19 | 2.3% 19-25 | 20.7% 26-35 | 34.1% 36-45 | 24.9% Violent | 50% Serious | 11% Property | 10% Drug | 11% Other | 18%
46-55 | 11.4% 56-65 | 5.5% 66 and older | 1%
AGE
651
474
250 350
Black | 51% White | 31% Hispanic | 17% Other | 1%
Total prosecutors
Average felony caseload
Average misdemeanor caseload
RACE/ ETHNICITY
OFFENSES
force to reduce violent crime. Accord- ing to JAD data, the county’s crime rate overall has decreased by about 6% since 2015. However, crime was up year over year in both 2019 and 2020, and Harris County’s crime rate was higher than that of Los Angeles, Kings and Cook counties during that time. Harris County Precinct 4 Consta- ble Mark Herman said he believes too many criminal cases are being “arbi- trarily dismissed.” In late 2021 he began re ling cases that had been dismissed by judges, he said. “This is a very bad message not only to our citizens out there, but it sends a message to the criminals, and it emboldened them to make them to go out and commit more crimes and make them victimize more people,” Herman said. Truong said Beacon Law received a $50,000 JAD grant last year to look at legal services from an equity stand- point. The grant allowed Beacon Law to reach more clients by expanding the income eligibility for services. The organization works with cli- ents who are chronically homeless,
and addressing the root causes of crime and criminal justice involvement such as mental health, homelessness, sub- stance use and poverty, Correa said. Restoring Justice is one of the only indigent defense providers in the country also o ering 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 men- tal health, homeless, substance addic- tion treatment … to prevent all of that wasted money and help that person’s life as well as help society.” Shawn Arrajj and Jishnu Nair con- tributed to this report.
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 de nitely 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. Implicationson 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 jus- tice over there,” Wiley said. Other ongoing areas of study deal with addressing inequalities in the system; supporting survivors of crime;
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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BELLAIRE MEYERLAND WEST UNIVERSITY EDITION • FEBRUARY 2022
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