Support for a Public Defenders office

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I support the creation of a Public Defender’s Office in Hays County; doing so is just good problem-solving and a just policy.

The fact that Hays County is paying exorbitant expenses of outsourcing Hays County’s incarcerated population, and has been for several years, is inescapable. As an attorney, a taxpayer, and a policy analyst, it is clear that criminal justice reform is urgently needed and long overdue.

For years, the same special interests have controlled the Commissioners Court that has the fiscal, equitable, and moral responsibility to upgrade the efficiency and fairness of our County’s criminal justice and penal system. Unfortunately, trying to fulfill that responsibility “the same ol’ way” leaves the County paying a roughly $60,000 bill every week to pay to transfer and lock up the County’s prisoners in faraway counties. These special interests seem to believe that throwing our tax dollars at a bigger jail is always the only solution to this harrowing problem. However, doing so is neither the proper economic nor moral answer.

Pretrial detainees - legally innocent people who have been charged but not convicted of a crime - now occupy more beds in our jail than any other group. Others detainees are accused of a violation so minor that a simple citation - rather than incarceration - would just as easily serve justice, at much lower cost.

On Tuesday, May 7, 2019, the Hays County Commissioners Court has the opportunity to move forward in the prudent pursuit of a Public Defenders Office. This proposed office would include legal representatives and staff who are specialists with the skills that we need the most: mental health practitioners, counsel and aides for juvenile defendants, counsel protecting the constitutional rights of immigrants, counsel at magistrations, as well as legal counsel coverage for 15% of all indigent misdemeanor and felony cases.

Thankfully, one-half of the costs for this proposed office for the first four years of implementation - starting with 80% of costs in Year 1 - would be paid for by the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, if the Commissioners vote in favor of submitting a grant application to the TIDC.

Given the huge amount of money that is needlessly wasted in transporting incarcerated detainees to jails elsewhere, let’s hope the County Commissioners exhibit moral and fiscal wisdom in finally addressing one of the root causes of overpopulation of our jail facilities and take action by creating a Public Defender’s Office.

Jimmy Alan Hall