Houston, Texas (KTRK) – 13 detectives have been reporting overcrowding at the Harris County Jail for more than a year now.
The effect of this overcrowding was clear: record deaths and faltering justice.
Harris County commissioners are now exploring a plan to add six new district courts to ease the criminal case backlog.
But the district attorney is now questioning the plan.
“We’re a large county with a criminal justice system adequate for roughly two million people,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
As of Wednesday, the Harris County jail held nearly 10,000 inmates, with more than a thousand outsourced to other counties.
Inmates spend an average of six months in jail, only awaiting trial.
See also: More coverage from 13 investigators on prisoner deaths
“Imagine being the parent of a murdered child having to wait five years for justice,” said Ogg. “And the insult increases the injury if this person accused of killing your child gets bail,” he added.
The county budget office says adding six additional courthouses would cost the county about $30 million in enforcement costs, and then an additional $16 million each year.
It could take years, too.
“It’s not an immediate solution to the problems in Harris County Jail,” Ogg said. “It’s going to take time for the legislature to pass and approve it, and then it’s implemented. Then you have to get the hiring done.”
But without long-term or short-term plans to decongest, the situation in the prison is not expected to improve.
Four prisoners have died this year, adding to a record 27 deaths last year.
“We feel we have a collective responsibility to help protect staff and prisoners, but I’m not going to be able to do that just by dismissing the cases,” Ogg said. “When you have a prison where a warden has been raped, and people are dying, they don’t deserve it. I think our Court of Commissioners should take this issue with urgency when it comes to financing and resolving it.”
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