Office of Criminal Justice Coordination Was Approved Today in Commissioner’s Court
I wrote the following editorial that was published in this Sunday’s El Paso Times advocating for a Pre-Trial Office in El Paso County. I am glad to announce the Office was approved in today’s Commissioner’s Court Meeting.
Vince Perez: Criminal justice reform can save money and keep El Paso safe
By Vince Perez / Guest columnist
POSTED: 05/03/2015 12:00:00 AM MDT
County Commissioners Court is responsible for overseeing the budgets of a variety of entities that make up our local criminal justice system including the Sheriff's Office, the county jail, the district and county attorneys' offices, the public defender and more than 20 District and County Courts.
In all, the county spends more than $170 million every year (about 75 percent of the total county budget) to provide these vital services. Nearly all of your property and sales tax dollars paid to the county are used to fund these functions.
The single most expensive component of this system is the county jail. Last year, more than $70 million of local tax dollars were spent on the Downtown and East Montana jails alone.
While the jail generated $14 million in revenue last year to offset some of these costs, El Pasoans spend more on incarceration (per capita) than nearly all of the 254 counties in Texas. One night in the Downtown jail costs taxpayers $104 per individual.
In fact, the size of the jail budget grew from $55 million in 2008 to $70 million in 2014, even though the jail housed slightly fewer detainees in 2014. These high costs are simply unsustainable, and our community must implement new strategies to reduce the overutilization of our jail system, without compromising public safety.
Unfortunately, America's jails have become America's largest mental health institutions, and in Texas, property taxpayers are shouldering this burden.
Here in El Paso, it is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of local detainees have an underlying mental health condition, and many (if not most) are not receiving the appropriate treatment that could help them stay out of trouble and out of jail.
Many individuals are also chronically homeless. Although it would be more cost effective to treat these types of underlying conditions, there are insufficient services to help these individuals, and our jail is often the only resort.
While many people may assume that the majority of detainees in the county jail are violent criminals (and many are), the reality is that the majority of individuals who go through the jail are often booked on non-violent offenses. Many low-risk defendants have stayed in the jail for days or even weeks longer than necessary because they couldn't afford the court-imposed bond.
Meanwhile, many individuals with criminal histories who may pose a higher risk to the community have often been released from the jail, without supervision or conditions, because they were able to pay the bond quickly.
Currently, there is no designated office at the county to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment or mental health evaluation on individuals who come through the jail.
Such an assessment would analyze a detainee's criminal history and determine whether they have been previously diagnosed with or demonstrate symptoms of mental illness.
This information would be transferred to the jail magistrate judge and can be used at the judge's discretion to determine under what conditions (if any) an individual should be released while they await their next court appearance (which could take weeks or months). Judges have broad discretion to impose conditions such as ignition interlocks for those charged with DWI, or drug testing for those charged with drug-related offenses.
My office has been working on an ambitious initiative to create an Office of Criminal Justice Coordination in El Paso. This office will consolidate several positions throughout the county to help conduct more thorough criminal history and mental health assessments for local detainees and to better monitor individuals who are released with conditions.
This reform is long overdue and has the potential to save millions of taxpayer funds by reducing incarceration costs.
This initiative is also a unique opportunity to bring together the many key stakeholders throughout the criminal justice system to help reduce the overutilization of jails and improve outcomes for thousands of El Pasoans every year.
Vince Perez represents Precinct 3 on El Paso County Commissioners Court.
Source: Vince Perez: Criminal Justice Reform Can Save Money and Keep El Paso Safe (EP Times)
Other Media Outlets:
Commissioners to Vote on New Pretrial Office May 4 (KVIA)
El Paso Commissioner Perez Presents Pretrial Services Office Plan to Council of Judges (EP Times)
Flaw in El Paso's System Puts Repeat Drunken Drivers Back on the Road, Despite State Law (KFOX)