Funny, the story doesn't mention the main criticisms that will resonate with voters: That a) it will cost a quarter-billion [dollars], b) it would cause property tax hikes during a recession, or c) that the Sheriff can't staff current facilities without overtime and doubleshifts and couldn't staff the new facility.
That's okay, there's a full year before any election. I'm sure the Chron will get around to discussing costs and whether the the county can afford it sometime before then, right?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Avoiding the issues
A reader points out that the Houston Chronicle has an editorial this morning which appears to obliquely reference Grits' criticism of the proposed Harris County jail expansion (I assume I'm among the "judicial issue bloggers" to whom they're reacting, though they offered no reciprocal linkage). The Chron thinks building more jail space would be just fine and dandy, thank you very much. Check it out. I reacted thusly in the comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
23 comments:
Gosh, Grits, whatever will you do now that the liberal HC has disagreed with your holy pontificating?
Huh? What would you have me do?
And why would you expect them to agree with me? If I'm not mistaken, they supported the bonds in 2007.
Their ed board is generally a bit less worried about profligate spending and higher taxes than I am.
With a little luck, perhaps the Houston voters will have more sense than the Ed board at the Houston Chron. -- crime fighting is not solely a criminal justice issue. In the past there has rarely been a time when enforcement oriented approaches were not the automatic reflex policy response. Conversely, prevention has never been supported politically, legislatively and financially. Yet, it is clear -- enforcement approaches alone cannot and will not reduce crime. We need to rely less on reactive enforcement policies (i.e., jails, prisons, police, courts) and more on prevention strategies aimed at reducing the criminogenic pressure of adverse environments and conditions. We need enforcement to deal with immediate current problems and we need prevention to reduce future problems.
As the old saying goes, "We need to walk and chew gum at the same time." Right now our responses to crime operate on a single dimension - enforcement. It is very expensive and not very effective.
Below are two comments posted on the unofficial venting blog for the Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies reagarding your recent post that was copied to their blog. Thought you might enjoy them. My favorite is the deputy who sees his responsibility as punishing violaters, I guess in lieu of the judge and jury.
"Grits,
You are as liberal as the day is long. "cite and release" is a stupid option which should never have been allowed. The reason we file charges is to punish those who violate the law.
Its the same thing as stopping an illegal alien with no verifiable identification and writing him a bunch of tickets and sending him on his way. That ticket makes about the best toilet paper he has seen in a while. There is no punitive action by citing and releasing.
Arresting gets the crook detained for a minimum of 24 hours, often involves the vehicle being towed, and exposes him to the nasty overcrowded holdover cells. Most first time offenders who are not born to career criminalism will not return. Give them a ticket and they will treat it for what it is, a worthless piece of paper.
Furthermore, illegal aliens are not detained longer than a day after their local charges are complete. ICE pulls drags of illegal ATWs at 2 am every night. They transport all of these scoflaws to their facilities for their processing, identification, and eventual deportation.
You obviously want these programs to stop, and want spank on the wrist law enforcement to become the norm in this county. You should move to Austin, they probably subscribe to your type of beliefs."
"Okay Grits....here we go again. A Police/Sheriff's Dept. is a black hole you pour money into. That is a hard and cold fact of life. If "the people" want safe streets, "the people" have to pay a bill. Cite and release? We are already doing that, with all the Class C thefts. You want to write a ticket for weed? Go to the legislature, and get the law changed so that two ounces or less is a Class C. We have had this arguement before, so come back when you have some new insights.
Lower the jail population? Not going to happen, in a county of 4 million plus.Jail crowded? Food bad? Don't look good in orange? Quit breaking the law, ***hole. Grits, come back when you have a better arguement. Remember, a theft is just a theft, right? Unless it is YOUR stuff. Have a nice day...........semper cop"
Blog is at:
http://www.hcso.bravehost.com/
Enjoy!:~)
Grits - you know your doing something right when you hit a nerve like that. Expecially when the positions they spouse are both indefensible and ineffective.
Ah, my fans! :)
"semper cop," indeed!
Grits,
Thought you might also enjoy their comments about the sheriff of Harris County not signing off on the "Law Enforcement Bill of Rights". Best I can figure is that the sheriff finally realized that the LE Bill of Rights gives the deputies more rights than the citizens have who they serve. Items such as being paid overtime if interrogated after working hours (as I read it even for criminal charges such as committing a homicide - unless it's considered an "ongoing criminal activity" such as a serial killer, I guess), aren't allowed to go by the deputies home for an interrogation, prevents supervisors from investigating the misconduct of their own employees, prevents interrogations regarding anonymous complaints (like I'm going to ID myself when I dime-out a deputy who's dealing drugs), and must give a copy of any and all complaints to the deputy prior to interrogating her so she can get her story straight.
A copy of the LE Bill of Rights is available at the HCDO website, if interested.:~)
http://www.hcdo.com/
So does anyone know exactly how much Harris County has grown in terms of population since the last time they added onto their pokey?
The last bond issue was $195 million. Now, in a recession, the prices has jumped 30% to $256 million. I would like to see if the new processing facility includes new executive suite offices for the staff.
Historically, whenever a new jail is built, a new executive suite goes with it. Let's see the plans.
P.S. The Sheriff pays his chief apologist Alan Bernstein $103,000+, plus a car and benefits. Is that the most efficient use of our tax dollars?
Cops are so always so good at proving what contemptible assholes they are.
Harris County officials are simply repeating history - preparing to make the same mistakes. Should anyone care to remember, Harris County was under a consent decree in the Alberti v Sheriff litigation (1970's filing I believe) for unconsitutional conditions, overcrowding, lack of medical care, and other basic service delivery failures. Harris County repeatedly built new jails then to address those problems and sadly that is the current proposal again. New jails did not solve the problem then, and such actions will not solve the problem today.
Currently Harris County jails are overcrowded because we have failed to utilize the options available to manage the jail population. Some of these options include "cite and release" authority, greater use of ROR (release on recognizance) bonds, pretrial intervention, pretrial diversion, community service, and changes to bail posting procedures (deposit bond, reducing bail schedules, etc.). All the options listed above are not widely used, if used at all, in Harris County.
Why is there a failure by County leadership to change (God, do I dare say the word "reform") the Harris County criminal justice system, you ask. Simple. There is no leadership and desire to do so. For example, the newly appointed criminal justice czar, Caprice Cosper, is a former District Court Judge and a remnant of the problem. Change will not come from her leadership, rather the same old failed solution is being offered again. Thankfully the voters will have an opportunity to reinforce their opposition to building more jails, but sadly that will not encourage our elected judges, County Commissioners, Sheriff, District Attorney, and County Judge, as well as appointed agency heads in Adult Probation, Pretrial Release, and Mental Health & Mental Retardation to strive for substantative change. They all are lacking in leadership desire and capability. Without a real "house cleaning" as what is occurring at Juvenile Probation change is likely not to be considered or embraced.
“Cite and Release”
Just because State Legislators have passed laws that they feel are needed to fix problems concerning jail overcrowding and just because they have factored in what they consider to be an acceptable trade off doesn’t mean they have the slightest clue about anything that really goes on, let alone provide acceptable answers.
Since we are looking at booking and releasing at Harris County, (lets do)
Yesterday’s booking and releasing records indicate that 439 people were booked in.
231 were released within 24 hours.
Of the remaining 208 still incarcerated after 24 hours, the list includes:
98 that were charged with felonies
7 others that were no bonded for a variety of reasons
8 that were held because of warrants generated somewhere other than Harris County
16 that have been released within hours after this 24 hour report
Leaving 129 misdemeanor defendants’s still incarcerated including:
(8) that are being held on felony charges as well, leaving 121
(23) that are being detained and will be released to immigration leaving 98
(79) that have bonds set at $1000.00 or more; the majority are set at $5000.00, indicating that all of these defendants have a prior criminal record, and lots of these have and will make bond.
Leaving 19 criminal defendants still incarcerated on $500.00 bonds and of these 10 have 2 or more misdemeanor charges, leaving (9) who had not been booked long enough to get released and 5 of those have since been released through Harris County Pretrial Release leaving (4)
(of that 4)
One is charged with a bad check and even though his bond is set at $500.00 indicating a first offense, he had a prior theft by check where he received probation and a month later had his probation modified, and a month after that had his probation revoked and then remained a fugitive for 4 years.
One has a hold with a no bond from another police agency
One is charged with criminal trespassing and will probably get a pretrial release
And last but not least one is charged with, (of all things) (evading arrest)
What is most interesting is that of all these people who were arrested over one third of those who were released within 24 hours had been given citations and did not appear in court. That’s (80) of whom tax payers wasted time and money not once but twice and have been released to do what? Maybe the third time will be the charm, maybe the fourth, the fifth maybe, how much will each one of these
(80) end up actually costing tax payers? I do not know but I’m sure the State Legislature has factored that in.
This stuff is time consuming but I guess next we should take a look the background of all those who received bonds over $1000.00 so that we can get a fair analysis of why?
I am going assume before getting started that quite a few of them have a pretty good criminal history.
I don’t disagree that something needs to be done about jail overcrowding, but I do disagree with a number of bloggers that want to stay with this “Avoiding the Issues” platform, by pointing fingers in the direction of law Enforcement and Judiciary.
If you don’t like something then do something that matters. If marijuana should be legalized then legalize it, but don’t make it a non-crime (crime) or allow something that really shouldn’t be a crime to spill over into thought patterns that also make real crimes a non-crime. Theft is a crime, tearing up property that doesn’t belong to you is a crime, (take a stand). There are plenty of attorneys that advocate everything but decriminalization because that would be going to far, please do stop avoiding the issue by advocating putting a band aid on the problem. Something is either criminal behavior or it is not, you can’t be a little bit pregnant, you can’t commit a little bit of murder, so if you want to point fingers point them at the Law Makers not those who are sworn to uphold it.
If I’m scared I’m going to call a cop.
9:02, most of those with previous citations and failure to appear were class C misdemeanors, and they're only a TINY fraction of total tickets given out. The vast majority of those who receive citations pay them; it would be the same with the Class Bs.
Also, since the Sheriff thinks the booking center needs expansion, wouldn't reducing the number of bookings directly help solve the problem? For those released within 24 hours (a majority, you say), each one who could be diverted would reduce pressure on EXACTLY the part of the system the Sheriff says needs expanding. That's why cite-and-release IMO is exactly on point in the Harris Jail discussion - if the Sheriff won't do what he can within his existing authority and resources to solve the problem, he shouldn't ask for a quarter-billion dollar band aid.
10:09, I can't tell what your point is at all. "If I’m scared I’m going to call a cop." So what? If I'm hungry I'm going to a restaurant. That doesn't change the issues I charged the Chronicle with avoiding: The high price tag, the fact that a larger jail would require tax hikes, not to mention the utter lack of staffing resources for an expanded jail.
It's not pointing fingers at law enforcement to say the proposal costs too much money and fails to address the underlying causes of the problem.
Little grit,
I agree we don't need more jail.
I apologize if I am not making myself clear.
I am not suggesting that another jail is in order, and I again apologize for taking your terminology and using it to make my point.
HOWEVER, while you point, and several other bloggers here point to all of these things as being problematic, i.e. Jail overcrowding, your solutions are just as problematic and skirts or if you wish “fails to address the underlying problem” which is (avoiding the issue). Furthermore you now make claims that I have no idea how you intend to substantiate.
The decriminalization of marijuana would seem to be the obvious answer and that falls directly on the shoulders of State Legislators. Our drug problem continues to be a major source of jail overcrowding in all circumstances, from original arrest to pre-trial drug testing and ultimately post-conviction drug testing, all having the same result (jail). The Law makers in their wisdom as I stated previously are simply trying to make certain crimes a (non-crime) by authorizing the issuance of a citation.
And now this mentality has brought us down the road of perceiving other crimes (theft) and (property crimes) in particular in the same fashion. There is a very distinct difference in continuing the debate over whether drug abuse is medical or criminal in behavior and plunging into classifying all Class C Misdemeanors and now Class B Misdemeanors as (citation worthy), when you would be very hard pressed to sell whether theft and destruction of property is or is not criminal in behavior to anyone.
Then you go on to make claim that the vast majority of people do appear in court for Class C Misdemeanors and that is not supported by any factual information anywhere, or I guess you are of the same mind set as Law Makers are in that a certain amount of theft and destruction of property is an acceptable trade off.
The City of Houston Municipal Courts (alone), not including all the other municipalities in Harris County or any of the 16 Justice of the Peace Courts; [just] The City of Houston, has been said to have over 2.2 million open warrants on any given day for Class C misdemeanors, here on your blog if I am not mistaken, if I am I do apologize again, but I honestly believe I am correct and I believe it was reported in the news as well. I am positive that the only way these warrants can exist is by failure to appear in court, and I’m just as positive that a fraction of that number is unacceptable when something other than traffic violations are in question.
I would think that the fact that in one 24 hour period over a third of the people released were in fact these people you claim do appear would be evidence enough; many of these people are bad check writers and that is, like it or not (theft), just ask any merchant.
In Houston our theft problem is not only of great concern it is rampant and not something we wish to trade off in order to accommodate anyone. There also seems to be an underlying tone of pointing fingers at our Sheriff, who is not only in law enforcement, but around here he’s the Sherriff, and I have to assume since he probably has a better handle on the crime situation than we do his take on needed jail space is in all likely consistent with rising crime.
I apologize if I am not making myself clear.
I am not suggesting that another jail is in order, and I again apologize for taking your terminology and using it to make my point.
HOWEVER, while you point, and several other bloggers here point to all of these things as being problematic, i.e. Jail overcrowding, your solutions are just as problematic and skirts or if you wish “fails to address the underlying problem” which is (avoiding the issue). Furthermore you now make claims that I have no idea how you intend to substantiate.
The decriminalization of marijuana would seem to be the obvious answer and that falls directly on the shoulders of State Legislators. Our drug problem continues to be a major source of jail overcrowding in all circumstances, from original arrest to pre-trial drug testing and ultimately post-conviction drug testing, all having the same result (jail). The Law makers in their wisdom as I stated previously are simply trying to make certain crimes a (non-crime) by authorizing the issuance of a citation.
And now this mentality has brought us down the road of perceiving other crimes (theft) and (property crimes) in particular in the same fashion. There is a very distinct difference in continuing the debate over whether drug abuse is medical or criminal in behavior and plunging into classifying all Class C Misdemeanors and now Class B Misdemeanors as (citation worthy), when you would be very hard pressed to sell whether theft and destruction of property is or is not criminal in behavior to anyone.
Then you go on to make claim that the vast majority of people do appear in court for Class C Misdemeanors and that is not supported by any factual information anywhere, or I guess you are of the same mind set as Law Makers are in that a certain amount of theft and destruction of property is an acceptable trade off.
The City of Houston Municipal Courts (alone), not including all the other municipalities in Harris County or any of the 16 Justice of the Peace Courts; [just] The City of Houston, has been said to have over 2.2 million open warrants on any given day for Class C misdemeanors, here on your blog if I am not mistaken, if I am I do apologize again, but I honestly believe I am correct and I believe it was reported in the news as well. I am positive that the only way these warrants can exist is by failure to appear in court, and I’m just as positive that a fraction of that number is unacceptable when something other than traffic violations are in question.
I would think that the fact that in one 24 hour period over a third of the people released were in fact these people you claim do appear would be evidence enough; many of these people are bad check writers and that is, like it or not (theft), just ask any merchant.
In Houston our theft problem is not only of great concern it is rampant and not something we wish to trade off in order to accommodate anyone. There also seems to be an underlying tone of pointing fingers at our Sheriff, who is not only in law enforcement, but around here he’s the Sherriff, and I have to assume since he probably has a better handle on the crime situation than we do his take on needed jail space is in all likely consistent with rising crime.
You right it will cost a lot and that’s not something taxpayers want either, so what is the trade off?
I would prefer keeping it to marijuana and not placing all Class C and B Misdemeanors’ under same umbrella as a reluctant trade off for legalization, but I do not want to trade my families safety for the thief who just found out its ok to break into my car because he’s only going to get a ticket and now it’s a free for all, and then find out that my son has been injured trying to stop him because he doesn’t feel the same way. I would prefer that he call a cop, knowing that the thief knows there’s a reason to leave when the lights come on.
You are also right about an election being a year away and having some extra jail space may actually look a little better by then, because crime isn’t getting any better around here.
Anonymous Anonymous said..."If I’m scared I’m going to call a cop."
You must be a Yankee or a coward, in Texas we do things different. If we are scared or our life is in danger, we eliminate the threat. We don't have to call the cops for permission.
It's a good thing for you that you didn't live 100 years ago when you couldn't call 911 for help and pray they make in time to help your s a.
1:26 writes, "crime isn’t getting any better around here"
Why not? It's been going down steadily nationwide for several years, including in Houston.
Also, to clarify, @ 1:24 you write, "you go on to make claim that the vast majority of people do appear in court for Class C Misdemeanors." But I didn't say that. I said most people who get tickets PAY them. Most do NOT show up in court and aren't required to.
The volume of tickets given is so high that a relatively small number (percentage-wise) of scofflaws clog up the system, no doubt. But most people pay their tickets. What they DON'T always pay is the (civil) Driver Responsibility Surcharge (which supposedly will be the subject of new DPS rules issued soon) and that's what's causing all the outstanding warrants when they later get their licenses revoked. Class C traffic tickets, though, are for the most part a golden goose - people just pay and pay and pay.
Also, to be clear, it's not all Class Bs, just a handful of specific ones that are eligible for citations. See the list here. None of them are theft situations like you're describing. Plus, it's only at the officers' discretion. They also retain full discretion to arrest if necessary.
I don’t know Grits you’re losing me.
I agree the Drivers Resp. Act is a ridiculous “piece” of Legislation.
I agree that traffic tickets in general are set up for no other reason than to put money into city and county coffers; which is why I have no problem with citations. However, to make the statement that most pay ignores the fact that huge numbers fail to appear and these numbers are not missing court dates over surcharges, they just plain aren’t showing up.
I took a look at the offenses you say are not in line with my statements and 4 out of 7 are exactly what I said are and should be treated as a crime. Stealing and destroying the property of others is just plain wrong and (criminal).
For 3:17 PM
I am from Texas, I am a gun owner, my kids know how to hunt and fish and they know the difference between right and wrong.
I’m gonna take a wild guess and trust you are not a hundred years old and probably not much of a historian either.
You are a moron, (Texas Size).
Happy Thanksgiving Grits, I’m done here.
The county gets a LOT of revenue from tickets; somebody's definitely paying those fines. But the volume of tickets is unbelievably massive so these arrest numbers are small by comparison to the overall number of tickets. That's the piece it seems like you may be missing.
The "stealing" offenses you cite among the Class Bs are theft by check and theft of service under $500 - not the robbery-type scenario you described.
Also, graffiti and criminal mischief less than $500 may be property destruction, but in practice, as demonstrated above, it's not like they're staying in jail very long. So arresting every last one of them even when it's unnecessary is exacerbating pressure on the supposedly too-small booking center for no good reason.
The purpose of arrest simply isn't punishment. That's up to the judge, despite what the Sheriff's deputies think.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
HCSO blog is found at
http://pub27.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=2240981722&frmid=4&msgid=0
Pretty scary
Post a Comment