Officer Doug Griffith Discusses the REAL Status of Harris County's Misdemeanor Bail Reforms

 


By Douglas Griffith

President of the Houston Police Officers' Union

The Harris County criminal justice system was changed in 2019 after a high-profile court case resulted in a settlement agreed to by misdemeanor court judges who were serving at the time. The County entered into a consent decree in the case of ODonnell v. Harris County, which changed bail for misdemeanor cases. This consent decree effectively released almost all misdemeanor defendants on a free PR bond without ever seeing a judge, or anyone checking their prior criminal record.

The county was set to spend over 97 million, to implement the settlement, but to say things have not run smoothly is an understatement. This past January, ODonnell was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, yet the county refused to revisit the settlement. The County could have asked the federal court to vacate the decree but decided against it. Meanwhile, Texas Senate Bill 6 was passed thanks to Senator Huffman, changing Texas law regarding bail, even for misdemeanor bonds, but Harris County judges have ignored it. Sadly, this has had far reaching effects on our felony courts as well.

Every six months, the county's paid monitor issues a report declaring that the reforms are working. However, the district attorney's office issued a report on September 2, indicating these reforms were causing crime to increase. Both claims cannot be true.

The Houston Police Officers' Union, sought to get to the truth by looking up readily available public records to see what the hard data had to say. We chose a week at random -- October 11-15, 2021 -- and examined every single docket for all 16 Harris County misdemeanor courts.

During this period of time, more than 9,000 people were set for misdemeanor court docket. We were astonished to find that fewer than 16 percent of these individuals actually appeared for court. This means that for every 100 persons on the misdemeanor courts' docket, only 16 bothered to show.

Judges can give a waiver to defendants that would allow them to miss court. But when the courts order defendants to court, public records document an average failure to appear rate of 76 percent for the week. In fact, there were days in which multiple courts reported failure to appear rates for defendants whose appearances were not waived at 100 percent. Yes, this meant no one showed up for court on some days.

Activist along with some Harris County officials, claim that the reforms are working. By their own records it shows that they are either lying or incompetent. It is obvious from this report that the "reform" is nothing more than social engineering of the criminal justice system.

According to data from the Texas Office of Court Administration, misdemeanor court backlogs in Harris County have increased by 172.79 percent in the past decade, with the greatest portion of the backlog accumulating in the past four years. Meanwhile, the county has dismissed 72 percent of misdemeanor cases the last two years.

When Harris County's misdemeanor judges agreed to this settlement, they claimed that their bold, new system could be used as a blueprint for the entire country. Some even encouraged felony judges to use more free PR bonds because things were working so well. This has led to more violent offenders being released onto our streets with multiple low or no bonds. Over 170 citizens of Harris County have lost their lives because of "reform" in the Harris County Court system.

I ask that Harris County residents look at the district attorney's report, along with our own findings, to conclude that the monitor's report is not only inaccurate, but simply a lie. As the old saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. The report we compiled is from public records that anyone can look up and fact check. The data clearly shows that the situation is even worse than what the district attorney's office determined last September.

When offenders do not go to court, and offenders are not held accountable, the system fails. The Citizens of Harris County will continue to be victimized by repeat offenders as long as a majority of our county leaders continue to push their social experiment. Bail reform isn't working, period!

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