Monday, April 19, 2010

Harris jail crowding forces stop to arresting traffic violators

Here's an example illustrating why I generally oppose new jail building in Harris County: They're using the jail to incarcerate low-level offenders who aren't a threat to anyone, and as long as jail capacity is available, officials won't change the policies that cause jail overcrowding. Without that extra capacity, however, policy change must occur first. Toward the end of last week the rubber finally met the road, reported the Houston Chronicle ("County jail woes spur HPD to alter arrest policy," April 18), when:

The Houston Police Department stopped arresting people for minor traffic violations late Thursday, hours after Sheriff Adrian Garcia told the city to slow down the flow of arrestees into the county's booking center.

“The impact is limited mainly to traffic violations. We're not going to put people in jail for new or existing traffic violations,” HPD Assistant Chief Vicki King said. She said the leniency only applies to people who would have gone to jail for a combination of low-level offenses — weaving in traffic while driving without insurance, for example.

She said public safety is not threatened.

“We will not release criminals back into our city. If you commit a criminal offense in the city of Houston we're going to find a home for you,” King said.

The sheriff's order went into effect Thursday morning. It requires Houston police to call the County Jail every two hours to see how many inmates it can accept.

By Friday, even after the stop-arrest order, Houston city jails started filling. At 9 a.m., the city had 69 inmates ready to send to the county, but was told the booking center could not take any.

The city got the same answer two hours later when it had 99 people waiting. At 1 p.m., it was allowed to send 10 of the 109 designated for transfer. By late Friday afternoon, the city was holding 127 inmates that normally would have been sent to the County Jail. The city's two main jails have a capacity of 400 inmates. Friday afternoon they were holding 360.

This move reminds me of Winston Churchill's observation that Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else. Bottom line: If so many people are being arrested for traffic violations in Houston it was having an impact on jail populations, that needed to stop anyway and nothing except running up against jail population limits could possibly make them change their ways.

OTOH, if jail space exists it's always possible to find violators to fill it; the general rule with jails is "if you build it, they will come." In this case, nobody thinks these arrestees pose a significant threat. Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland told KTRK TV, "These are not dangerous violent offenders that are being diverted, so I don't think the public's at risk."

Harris County could reduce jail overcrowding even more if they would use all the methods in their toolkit. Mostly the responsibility falls to local judges, but both Houston PD and the Sheriff refuse to allow their officers to exercise authority granted by the Legislature in 2007 to give citations instead of arresting people for certain nonviolent Class B misdemeanors. That change would go a long way toward reducing front-end pressure on the booking center, which is where they're facing a bottleneck, but neither agency will pull the trigger. And if those offenders needn't be in the jail, for damn sure Harris County shouldn't be jailing non-intoxicated traffic violators.

MORE: From Kuff.

20 comments:

Carol said...

Arrest for minor traffic violations? Unbelievable. In our county which is also arrest happy to fund the district jail, does not go this far.
Driving without license gets you taken to the magistrates office, your car impounded and call someone to come get you.
Lots of unheard of tickets, such as trinkets hanging from the rearview mirror. (A tassel from high school graduation) there does seem to be plenty of harrassment, but thank God I am not in Texas. It does seem to be "No where like Texas."

Lucas L said...

Grits,
What is the motive for HPD to make these simple traffic arrests? I mean 'weaving in traffic and no insurance' gets you a trip to the city (and then county) jail? Are Officers and their leaders just trying to boost their numbers?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Lucas L asked, "Are Officers and their leaders just trying to boost their numbers?"

That's the only explanation I can imagine. One in four Texas drivers has no auto insurance, so we're talking about a lot of folks.

Anonymous said...

Harris County (along with Bexar, Travis, Dallas and Tarrant) has another problem on their hands: people sentenced to time in prison or state jail who are taking up space in the county jail. My firsthand knowledge from Bexar County is that they wait for a "full bus" before they transport anyone, which is adding to their overcrowding and continued problems. The county could save lots of money if they would transport these people. But as for minor traffic violations, seems to me that if someone is going to be arrested for a class c misdemeanor in Houston, they should go to the city lockup, be magistrated, and let out on a surety or pr bond. Wow, Houston. Wow.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

9:48, to be clear, the state must pick up those prisoners within 45 days of sentencing, and the last I heard the average time was well below that. Perhaps those inmates could be transported more quickly, but according to TDCJ they're not being left there longer than the law allows.

When you look at the numbers, pretrial detention is a MUCH greater source of overcrowding than people who've already been convicted.

Anonymous said...

They do it, not ofr the money, but because they can. The attitude of some cops is to jail. It's really that simple. The sheriff keeps allowing his deputies to arrest for simple marijuana possession because he is afraid that some clown will get busted later for a burglary while having a citation previously issued for a marijuana bust (impacting his reelection chances) - thinks the burglary is done to by marijuana, I assume.

It's really a philosophy in Harris County - "Book 'emn. Danno" thinking. Constables and smaller cop forces can even be worse. :~)

Anonymous said...

While I do not support arrests for traffic violations and mandatory vehicle impoundment for no dl and no liability insurance, I wonder how many of you would be hollering the loudest if you were involved in an accident with another driver who has no dl or liability insurance. I swear you would be the first one to jump and down about them not going to jail because now it's affecting you.

Grits......you are correct about the number of pre-trial detainees (felony) and AB-M being the problem.

The way the numbers at TCJS compute to me, Harris County could free up 1159 beds right now if TDCJ were to accept 880 of the convicted felons who are not sentenced to the county jail, 194 SJ felons who are not sentenced to the county jail and 85 parole violators who do not have a new charge.

One other point.......Those being held for parole violation only across the state should not be housed in county jails pending a decision of the parole board, especially thosebeing held for administrative or technical vilations. They should be housed at TDCJ. If I were the Sheriff, I would quit accepting those violators too!

Thomas Hobbes said...

Grits - So, if I understand correctly, because the County booking center (the Inmate Processing Center) is having difficulty handling the load, the Houston Police Department has ceased taking people into custody for charges that normally would not result in their transfer to the County booking center? Only arrestees charged with a Class B or greater charge are transferred to the County booking center by HPD. Am I missing something, other than a pathetically transparent ploy to make a central booking facility politically more attractive?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@12:19, what you're missing is that all convicted inmates aren't automatically "paper ready," so it's not accurate that every felon in the jail postconviction is already eligible for TDCJ. The county takes time to get their jacket ready, then once they're notified TDCJ has a limited amount of time to pick them up. Generally TDCJ picks them up more quickly than is required by law.

Thomas, I agree it all sounds a little squirrelly and contrived.

Anonymous said...

Mr Hobbes is correct, the only prisoners transferred from the city jail to the county jail are subjects arrested for Class B Misdemeanors and above such as Buglary of Motor vehicles, DWI, Robbery, etc etc. The instructions given to HPD officers was that the city jail would not accept subjects arrested for traffic offenses or city warrants.
These instructions were given impart to the overcrowding in the city jail due to the county jail restricting the number of prisoners they would accept from the city. Only those prisoners that have not made bond or no bonded are transferred to the county jail. There is usually one county tranfer per 8 hour shift.
As for HPD making traffic arrests, the number is very minimal. The majority of people arrested on traffic stops are for traffic warrants.

Anonymous said...

Class C arrests by Houston police do not wind up in the county jail. They go to the city jail, because the county has no jurisdiction over them. Class C arrests made by Harris County sheriff officers and constables do go to the county jail. Harris county law enforcement won't give out citations for Class B misdemeanors because they point to arrests as an excuse for additional funding from state and federal authorities. Law enforcement is a business, and arrestees are its product. They need to keep turning out more product in order to justify their expansion. There are dozens of law enforcement agencies in Harris County, and they duplicate equipment and services all over the place. I wonder why Houston Metro needs a SWAT team, complete with a van and combat booted officers? Metro provides law enforcement coverage for buses and the train. Why do constables, who should be serving papers, patrol and make arrests? But try getting process served on time! Until the government starts cutting out the redundant "services" and the silliness like the Metro SWAT team, we are going to continue to suffer their demands for increased funding so they can continue with their mission of turning everyone into a criminal.

Anonymous said...

@12:19, what you're missing is that all convicted inmates aren't automatically "paper ready," so it's not accurate that every felon in the jail postconviction is already eligible for TDCJ.

No Grits, I do understand. I'm a retired jail administrator. Getting an inmate paper ready is not that big of an ordeal. Folks just got to get off of their lazy honches and get it.

BTW, in 2008 Nacogdoches County's Judicial System Paper Ready Project cut the time for paperwork to go from the judge to the jail from 36 days to three days, and saved $250,000 in overflow inmate housing.

It was a TAC award winning project.

Anonymous said...

6:37 there are numerous AG opinions that opine that the county sheriff must accept class c offenders who are charged with violations that are state law violations. This would include c penal and traffic law violations.

Hoof said...

Why the heck does the Constable need arrest powers anymore? They do just about everything BUT their required duties of serving warrants and civil papers. But it's not about the job for them. It's about the part time off duty jobs. Accountability? Whatever...

Anonymous said...

Just declare every citizen a felon and be done with it.

Anonymous said...

A critical interest group that is driving the decisions to unnecessarily arrest people and build more jails is being overlooked: bail bondsmen. Why are so many people sitting in the county jail pre-trial? Because the judges won't let them out on personal bonds (in 2008, only 376 felony defendants in Harris County -- 0.9% of felony arrestees -- received a personal bond; only 7.3% of misdemeanor defendants received a personal bond). No personal bonds = more money in the pockets of the bondsmen. More money in the pocket of bondsmen = more campaign money for judges and sheriffs and commission members (or no money in the campaign chests of opponents). As long as criminal justice decision-making is driven by a multi-million dollar industry that profits off of people being arrested, there will be a continual drive by the powers-that-be to arrest more people, keep more poor people in jail pre-trial, and build more jails and prisons. Follow the money. It's that simple.

Anonymous said...

9:23. You have a good point. Its time to look at revamping the bond system. It is only set up to make the bondsmen and the county money. Think about this. Say a bond were set at $50,000. The defendant will have to come up with $5000 to pay a bondsman. The defendant doesn't get that money back. If the bond were set at $5000 instead the defendant could post the bond themselves and getting it back would give them incentive to show up for trial. And, if convicted that money could be applied to any fines and fees. But, then the bondsmen and the county make less money. The county makes more money because, in the above example, with teh $50,000 bond, if the defendant doesn't appear, the county gets $50,000 (if they actually make the bondsman honor the bond, which doesn't happe in some counties). Whereas, if the bond is set where someone could post the bond without going through a bondsman the county only gets $5,000. So, the bondsman make the initial 10% or so and when someone absconds, the county gets 10 times what they would otherwise get. That might be fine, except, there is a contstitutional right to reasonable bail. Like many of our other constitutional rights we have given that one up in the name of being tough on criminals (but, aren't they supposed to be innocent until proven guilty? yeah right).

Anonymous said...

Bail Bond business......
now here's a part of the CJ system that Grits doesn't spend enough time shining a light on.

Anonymous said...

The month of March was dedicated to a warrant round up for traffic citations; I believe the figure for the Houston Municipal Courts alone was 2.2 million open warrants. Its no surprise that many blamed this warrant round up on the fact that government needs the money! Government spends money!

The choice is to stop writing traffic citations, which isn’t going to happen, or continue utilizing the same system that has always been there.

A few bloggers here are getting the impression that the article suggests that traffic offenders are impacting the Harris County Jail because HPD is so busy putting them in jail, however this just plain aint so. The City Jail is what the article is about and the defendants that are being held there that are charged with more serious offenses are the ones that were not being transferred to the Harris County Jail. This created an impact on the City Jail and so the decision was made not to arrest anyone who had a traffic warrant. Typically the practice of not arresting people who have a traffic warrant goes on everyday of the week anyway.

As for giving out citations for certain non-violent class b misdemeanors, which ones are you suggesting should wind up in with the pile of 2.2 million open warrants that are already in existence. A non-violent class b misdemeanor for theft for example, (and there are plenty on the books), if given citation status, would seem to be a rather silly notion in that no one really thinks the trustworthy thief is going to show up for court. I could be wrong everybody who thinks the will show up raise your hands, not everybody all at once now.

Anonymous said...

Harris County jails are terrible. I personally know someone in there today and he had worn the same clothes for 7 days before he was given clean clothes. He also didn't have a hot meal for atleast a week after he went in. The Harris County Jail website makes things look good to us on the outside saying that the inmates get clean clothes atleast every 2-3 days and hot meals twice a day. The inmates fill out forms for the commissary which is only available once a week. This week only 4 inmates out of 40 something in the unit were able to get things from the commissary because the women that work for this company said the inmates were too loud so, they left.My friend has lost 14# in 10 days due to the horrible food they are served. One day for breakfast they had a cold boiled egg, a orange and a single chocolate cupcake. I don't think this was very healthy for breakfast or any other meal. What happened to the hot meals? Where are our tax dollars being spent? They sure aren't being spent on food for these people. These people in the jail are small time offenders that are serving a short amount of time only, not years. How would our city officials feel if they had to spend time in the jail and be treated like these people are treated? They wouldn't like it. I live by the old saying "Treat people like you want people to treat you".