At the House County Affairs Committee today, legislators and multiple witnesses appeared to believe that, rather than making citations instead of arrests mandatory for certain Class B misdemeanors like marijuana possession and driving with an invalid license (on the second offense), the state should consider just lowering those offenses from Class Bs to Class Cs. Pot possession and invalid license (DWLI) cases are the big drivers - along with DWIs and family violence cases - of misdemeanor incarceration at county jails, the committee was told.
Class C misdemeanors are punishable by a fine only while Class Bs carry a possible jail sentence, and thus typically involve formal arrest and counties paying for lawyers for indigent defendants. So Class Bs tend to cost counties money while Class Cs are revenue generators.
The committee was charged with evaluating the effectiveness of a 2007
statute allowing law enforcement the discretion to give citations for
certain low-level offenses - including pot possession and DWLI - instead
of making arrests. But that authority has not been widely adopted -
only six counties currently exercise the authority.
To reduce misdemeanor incarceration in county jails, reducing penalty categories for low-level pot possession and DWLI cases makes a lot of sense. As the SA Express News reported Feb. 28, "About 73,611 adults in Texas were arrested last year for marijuana possession, according to Department of Public Safety data, accounting for 59 percent of all drug possession arrests in the state." And the DWLI cases are driven in large part, according to testimony, but the much-detested Driver Responsibility surcharge, which is also the subject of interim legislative hearings. It'd be a much cleaner solution to simply reduce penalty categories for these petty crimes than to rely on a discretionary option which, while popular among counties which have implemented it, judging from today's testimony, seems to have never really taken off.
Relatedly, I've put up a reader poll in the right-hand column asking whether Texas should reduce pot possession charges to a Class C misdemeanor. Let me know what you think.
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"Class C misdemeanors are punishable by a fine only while Class Bs carry a possible jail sentence, and thus typically involve formal arrest and counties paying for lawyers for indigent defendants. So Class Bs tend to cost counties money while Class Cs are revenue generators."
So why should the State change anything? If the county sees these Class Bs as costing too much to pursue, the county prosecutors can set policy/discresion to reject such charges and officers will file drug paraphernalia (always present when drugs are present) or DWLI first. Counties that think the Bs are worth of prosecution, are free to enforce them as such.
@9:02, Because counties aren't unified decision making units. The PDs and Sheriffs decide who to arrest and elected prosecutors decide whether to file charges, but those entities are separate from the commissioners courts who must tax the public to pay for jails, lawyers, etc.. There's a disconnect that means the decision makers aren't accountable for the cost.
And in most counties if a DA quit prosecuting pot cases then they would guarantee themselves a "tuff on crime" opponent in the next election.
"And in most counties if a DA quit prosecuting pot cases then they would guarantee themselves a "tuff on crime" opponent in the next election."
In other words "the prosecutor's decision to prosecute in influenced by the local voters." That's Just Terrible!
Actually, 8:26/7:53, according to recent polls, Texas voters don't think marijuana possession should be illegal any more than they want their taxes raised unnecessarily.
News polls are great, but when voter go to the polls the "tuff on Crime" stand will most likely win the election.
More people don't response to, or they are not asked to response to news polls.
the prison industrial lobby will never let this happan. To much money is at stake.
"when voter go to the polls the "tuff on Crime" stand will most likely win the election"
Tell it to voters in Colorado. Texas voters would vote the same way if they were given the chance.
Also, 9:02, there are prosecutors out there who hide behind "we have to enforce the law." If something is illegal, like less than a gram of crack in a tube, then it has to be prosecuted as a felony instead of a misdemeanor paraphernalia charge, according to those types. And Harris County's DA office is run by one right now--Anderson reversed the Lykos policy of charging them as misdemeanors, and the jail started filling up again.
When you can only think inside the box, and can only think of small boxes, your jail will get full, quick.
The ability to issue citations for Class B Possession of Marijuana has been in the Texas law for some time, but because it is discretionary some Sheriffs and Police Departments have decided that they are not going to issue citations "to them dopers". Victoria County is an example of why legislation may be needed to cut down on the jail filler cases. Some of the bright boys in blue who fancy themselves smarter than the average law dogs will get around the proposed legislation Grits mentioned by engineering their traffic stops to always terminate in a "drug free zone" thereby insuring that the case will always be filed higher than a Class B misdemeanor.
Get tough on violent crime!!
Please consider, how morally bankrupt it is to punish nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs.
Right now, really violent predators roam free and rape kits go unprocessed while our precious resources are depleted chasing nonviolent drug users. Treatment is seven times cheaper than prison. Get tough on violent crime! Show fiscal responsibility, demand morally correct policy! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
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They don't want to decriminalize weed because then they lose their best forced prison labor. Lot's of extremely violent cons can't work and are in solitary, so somebody has to make the TDCJ money. That person is an unlucky kid who was busted with a tiny bag of weed.
There's a girl I know doing 4 years in a max security Texas prison because she was caught with a laughable amount of weed. She received an "enhanced" sentence because cops pulled her over beside a school.
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