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The number of inmates in the Dallas County jail is creeping toward capacity, and commissioners are blaming the district court judges.<\/p>\n
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price gave a presentation on Tuesday reporting that 88% \u2014 6,371 of 7,204 \u2014 of the jail\u2019s authorized beds are filled. The capacity for women is alarmingly close to being full, just 73 beds shy of its 952 beds, as of Aug. 16.<\/p>\n
Almost half of these women have been charged with nonviolent offenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just sounding the alarm,\u201d Price said at the commissioners\u2019 regularly scheduled meeting.<\/p>\n
The county spends $12 million a month running the jail, but if the county cannot hold all those accused, Dallas County could also be forced to pay for jail beds elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The reason for the jail\u2019s swelling, the county says, is the increased wait times for steps in the criminal justice process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, that\u2019s what everyone should be focusing on. How do we get individuals that don\u2019t need to be sitting in jail out of jail, right the hell now?\u201d Commissioner J.J Koch said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Of the more than 6,000 inmates, 1,047 in custody are still waiting for felony charges to be filed.<\/p>\n
A person accused of a felony charge is waiting an average of 26 days just for the offense report to be filed with the Dallas County District Attorney\u2019s Office. Once the report is filed, it appears in the prosecutor\u2019s system and the case can be scheduled for a grand jury. Even then, it can take months from scheduling for a grand jury hearing, in part because of forensic testing, Assistant County Administrator Gordon Hikel said.<\/p>\n
Another bottleneck was created by a recent state law that limits when the court magistrate can issue bail during the initial days of incarceration. Once arrested, a person accused of a felony goes before a magistrate, who reads the accused their charges and can set the bail, but only if the person does not have another active felony case.<\/p>\n
If someone has been released on bail for a felony and is arrested again on another felony offense while out on bail, the accused cannot be granted bail by a magistrate or nonelected judge, according to the law created by Senate Bill 6<\/a>. The district judge in the accused\u2019s initial case has the authority to grant the second bail. The accused is stuck waiting in jail until the second offense reaches the district judge\u2019s court.<\/p>\n District Attorney John Creuzot said this can add a few days.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will help them get in front of the judge, but we may not always agree that they need to go free,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cBut that bill can have some consequences, no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Price said he wants the county\u2019s district judges to allow magistrates the power to grant bail in all cases, opening up the opportunity to have an accused person released from jail earlier in the process, as was the case before Senate Bill 6 last year.<\/p>\n Jail Population Manager LaShonda Jefferson told the commissioners that staff members have started to research whether the wait times for these inmates breaches state law. The state caps the amount of time someone accused of a crime can be held if the state or county attorney is \u201cnot ready for trial of the criminal action for which he is being detained.\u201d If the state is not ready to proceed with an indictment of someone accused of a felony within 90 days, they must be released either on personal bond or have a reduction in bail amount.<\/p>\n Creuzot said Dallas County is typically meeting the 90-day deadline.<\/p>\n