Harris County Jail Overcrowding Solutions

One of the most talked about issues in Harris County, Texas is jail overcrowding. While a lot of the talk is about the inmates being housed in facilities that are on a par with third world countries the real debate centers around how much the county is spending to house the accused. Anyone that has spent more then a hour in a Harris County jail would likely describe it as one of the scariest experiences of their life. I doubt anyone would describe it as the Harris County Hilton as some judges describe the facility. The county leaders are going to great lengths to try to save money, but they need to ask the law enforcement agencies why they refuse to follow the law. If the Harris County, Texas District Attorney's Office would allow police agencies to write a ticket ordering a person accused of possession of marijuana to appear in a misdemeanor court after their arrests they would not need to be arrested or even processed by the jail, thus helping the overcrowding situation. Most parents of young adults do not understand why the police do not just call them to pick up their son/daughter instead of needing to go through the entire bond process. They become even more upset when they learn this is an option but the District Attorney's Office does not allow it. Another way the District Attorney's Office contributes to the jail overcrowding is by placing extremely high bonds on people accused with Assault Family Violence or Domestic Violence cases. It is completely unnecessary to place a bond of $50,000 on someone that has never been accused of a crime just because they have been charged with a crime involving a family member. Similarly, every bond should be reviewed on a case by case basis. For instance, someone that is accused of rape should not be given the same bond as someone that is a teenager and had consensual sex with someone that is under the age of 17. While both of the cases may be sexual assaults and the degree of felony may be the same I doubt the public would agree that these two cases should be given the same bond amount. Therefore, the leaders of Harris County need to ask the District Attorney's Office some tough questions regarding the procedures surrounding the setting of a bond if they want to reduce the amount of people that are needlessly in jail.