Harris County Commissioners Court has finally admitted that having an adequate number of jailers is more cost-effective than paying for scads of overtime. Just as Sheriff Garcia has been saying all along. Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s payroll was a contentious issue last year. More than once, Garcia asked permission to add employees, saying shortages exacerbated by [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Adrian Garcia’
Suit against Sheriff’s office dismissed
From the Chron: A lawsuit filed by the former technology director for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who had contended he was fired because he revealed its alleged plan to hack into the county government computer network, has been dismissed. A district judge agreed with county attorneys that Wilfrido Mata, who was fired last May, [...]
Still talking about jail overcrowding
Here’s another op-ed about jail overcrowding in Harris County and what to do about it. It’s all familiar stuff – we’ve only been talking about this for a million years or so – but I was struck by what wasn’t said. Harris County has made strides to safely reduce the jail population. Harris County District [...]
The mental health catastrophe is coming
Here’s yet another story about the forthcoming disaster in mental health care that is about to be perpetuated by the Legislature. It starts with one of the best analogies I’ve seen: Dr. Steven B. Schnee, executive director of the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, offered up an extended metaphor one day recently [...]
Jail privatization
Does anyone really think that privatizing the Harris County Jail would be a good idea? The suggestion comes from Commissioner Steve Radack, who said the item is a way for the county to examine all ways of cutting costs as budget cuts take hold and scores of county workers are laid off. “We need to [...]
Don’t claim endorsements you don’t have
Seems like that lesson needs to be re-learned every cycle. We already have two examples of it this cycle. Here’s example one: City Council candidate Eric Dick apologized for advertising an upcoming fund-raiser by sending out a mailer featuring a photo of Sheriff Adrian Garcia standing with Dick in front of City Hall. “I didn’t [...]
Budget testimony from the Sheriff’s office
In addition to all of the education and HHSC-related testimony before the Senate Finance Committee this week, law enforcement agencies who will be affected by cuts to mental health services were also heard from. Here’s a press release sent out by Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia about what they had to say: The Harris County [...]
Harris County braces for state budget cuts
More joy to look forward to. Proposed state budget cuts could cost Harris County government nearly $50 million a year, according to a legislative analyst’s rough estimates, rolling back or eliminating state allowances for dozens of programs that include mental health services, auto theft prevention, alternatives to jail and a school for juvenile offenders. The [...]
Cuts here mean hikes there
The only problem with this AP story is the headline, “Texas budget cuts may shift burden to locals”. There’s no “may” about it – the Pitts budget would absolutely shift a huge burden to local governments. Cuts set off a domino effect: Historically, public schools raise property taxes when the state education agency sends smaller [...]
Ankle monitors
Also on the Commissioners Court agenda this week, Harris County will take another small step towards reducing its jail population by experimenting with ankle monitors for low-risk inmates. Commissioners Court granted Sheriff Adrian Garcia permission Tuesday to do a trial run on 10 to 20 inmates who work outside the jail under armed guard. If [...]
On county jails and treating mental illness
There’s really only one thing that needs to be said about this op-ed, which was co-written by Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia and HPD Chief Charles McClelland. Texas ranks 49th in the nation in per capita spending on mental health services. Only 25 percent of children and 18 percent of adults with severe mental illness [...]
Loren Jackson signs on with Sheriff’s office
Great news. District Clerk Loren Jackson, who was defeated by Republican Chris Daniel last month, will likely stay in county government when his term expires on Dec. 31. Sheriff Adrian Garcia proposes hiring him as his chief of information technology. Jackson is not named on the Commissioners Court agenda, but he is “the special assistant” [...]
State cuts will equal local costs
Grits is absolutely right: Cuts to state mental hospitals would be a massive unfunded mandate for county jails. [S]heriffs across Texas are increasingly frustrated and worried about the ever-decreasing amount of bed space available at state mental hospitals. Too often, when mentally ill offenders come to their jails, sheriffs who are required to provide appropriate [...]
The cost of jailing parole violators
We sure do spend a lot of money putting people in jail that don’t really need to be there. Each month, an average of 2,286 state parole violators are housed in Texas jails, a policy costing taxpayers at least $42 million a year. Harris County has the largest tab — estimated at $7.6 million. This [...]
It’s getting cheaper to outsource inmates
Now how much would you pay to ship your excess inmates somewhere else? The county now can send an inmate to Louisiana for as low as $23 a day. Changes to the deal with the private Emerald Correctional Management also now have the company picking up the transportation tab that Harris County used to pay. [...]
How much would you pay for those inmates?
Harris County has a new plan for dealing with its overflow jail population. Under the new plan, the county’s purchasing agent would ask for all interested bidders to submit their lowest prices for taking inmates, much like it does for the construction of a road. The bid specifications state that the contract is worth as [...]
If you’re looking for a focal point
Democrats will have no shortage of opportunities to play offense in 2012, but if you want to get a head start on that, I have a suggestion. Here’s a bit from this story about Commissioner Sylvia Garcia’s electoral defeat to focus on: No commissioners endorsed [Commissioner-elect Jack] Morman or donated to his campaign, but a [...]
Hey, big secret spender
I know you’re as shocked as I am to learn that there are unknown entities spending large quantities of money in this election. Campaign finance watchdogs say the tactic conceals important information about who is backing a political cause, but both groups insist they have followed the law and anonymity had nothing to do with [...]
The county’s budget woes
Don’t look now, but Harris County is running really low on cash. The $154 million reserve fund Harris County started its fiscal year with is expected to be nearly gone by March as it gets spent to cover shortfalls in property tax collections. Budget projections released Tuesday show the county entering the fiscal year that [...]
Grits visits the Harris County jail
Here’s a thoughtful post by Scott Henson on his visit to the Harris County jail and the proposed booking center, which was touted as a gateway primarily for arrestees with mental health issues. While acknowledging the need for more resources there, Scott hits upon an issue that I don’t think has gotten adequate discussion. Both [...]
Eversole and Radack get jail overcrowding religion
Actually, what County Commissioners Jerry Eversole and Steve Radack have is a case of criticize-the-Sheriff-itis. Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole implied at meeting earlier today that the county’s sheriff, Adrian Garcia, acted improperly and wasted tax payer money when he moved inmates from a jail in Lousiana to a jail in Texas. “If I were [...]
More on the proposed booking center
On the Houston Politics blog, Chris Moran follows up on his reporting about the new “booking center” proposal with information about how it may play out in Commissioners Court. The city of Houston has designated $31 million to help fund the county’s booking center, where Houston police would bring all of its arrestees and close [...]
New “booking center” proposed
As we know, Sheriff Garcia has been trying to rework the jail bond referendum that failed in 2007 into something that can be passed. On Tuesday, Commissioners Court will have a look at the new proposal, which calls for a 1200-inmate “booking center” that’s being touted as a gateway into and out of the jail [...]
The 287(g) committee
Sheriff Adrian Garcia has formed a citizens advisory panel on how to screen for undocumented immigrants in the jails. The advisory committee will not debate whether to continue the screening program, Garcia said. It will suggest ways he can improve the 287(g) program, which deputizes county jailers to assume some federal immigration enforcement functions. Critics [...]
Jail passes another state inspection
Good news for the Harris County jails: They passed another surprise state inspection by a Texas Commission on Jail Standards team last week. “This certificate of compliance is a direct result of your department’s commitment to excellence and further attests, signifies and demonstrates your department’s dedication and professionalism in maintaining a safe, secure and sanitary [...]
Solving the jail overcrowding problem is everybody’s responsibility
Putting it another way, we need to be choosier about whom we arrest. The Houston Police Department stopped arresting people for minor traffic violations late Thursday, hours after Sheriff Adrian Garcia told the city to slow down the flow of arrestees into the county’s booking center. “The impact is limited mainly to traffic violations. We’re [...]
Fixing overtime
The Sunday Chron had a cover story about overtime expenses in the Sheriff’s department. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office spent $32.6 million on overtime in Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s first year as the county’s top lawman, $22.6 million of it at the four downtown jails, according to his office. In a 4,300-employee department, the 67 who [...]
First steps in dealing with jail overcrowding
They’re baby steps, but they’re in the right direction. The first of 20 county inmates to get their sentences reduced by two-thirds for completing job training will get out of jail Monday. The experiment marks Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s first tentative step away from the long-standing practice of two days’ credit for each day served in [...]
The county budget blues
The news keeps being bad. Not unexpected, but bad. During hearings last month, department heads said worst-case scenarios could mean layoffs, less mosquito spraying, tax office closures and fewer resources to serve a still-growing county population. County Auditor Barbara Schott’s $1.36 billion revenue forecast is close to that worst-case scenario. The county is projected to [...]
The Sheriff versus the deputies
I continue to be surprised at how antagonistic this relationship has been. Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia on Friday released a long-promised “Bill of Rights” for deputies under investigation by the department, but three deputies’ unions criticized the sheriff for not providing the same protections he enjoyed as a Houston police officer. They insist Garcia [...]
Trying to spend less on the jails
As we know, Harris County has a budget shortfall, and in recent years has seen spending on the Sheriff’s department, driven largely be the costs of the overcrowded jails, exceed its budgeted amount by millions. For the upcoming fiscal year, Sheriff Adrian Garcia is going to try to reduce these costs. Harris County Sheriff Adrian [...]
There’s a fix for that
As we know, Harris County has a budget shortfall of its own to deal with. So the fact that the Sheriff’s Office is spending more than it was allotted is drawing some scrutiny. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is projected to overspend its annual budget by $51 million, the third straight year it has blown [...]
Play politics first, ask questions later
The number of homicides increased in unincorporated Harris County last year while declining in Houston. With only a few hours left in the year, 86 murders had occurred in the county’s unincorporated areas in 2009, up from 69 in 2008. The county saw 62 murders in 2007. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said the department [...]