Sean Teare
Harris County’s jail population declined 6% since February, and District Attorney Sean Teare secured more than $7 million in funding from the county Thursday to keep the trend going.
The $7.6 million in funding, approved by all Harris County Commissioners, with Harris County Judge Hidalgo abstaining from the vote Thursday, is intended to help prevent drivers of violent crime, support victims, decrease the jail population and cut into the county’s backlog of cases.
Around $2.6 million will go toward expanding the DA’s office’s domestic violence bureau and mental health and diversion bureau to provide more support to victims and defendants and prevent large drivers of crime.
“We will never be able to prosecute our way out of some of the things we’re seeing … We have to work with stakeholders outside to give individuals the mental health care they need so we’re not just keeping people in jail,” said Chandler Raine, first assistant to Teare.
The rest of the funding will go toward forensic investigations, more prosecutors and staff expansion, with the hope that prosecuting more cases will lead to more violent offenders going to state prison, instead of staying in the county jail along with people awaiting trial who can’t afford to make bond. Commissioners said the current case clearance rate is around 30%.
The hope is also that prosecuting more cases could cut back on the tens of millions of dollars the county has to spend to outsource inmates to private prisons.
“The fact that we spend nearly $50 million annually outsourcing people to private prisons appalled me,” said Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones. “I know it’s necessary given the current reality, but the key to changing the current reality is here … I’d rather invest my money in justice than private prisons.”
Just having the District Attorney on the same page as Commissioners Court is a positive development. I don’t want to draw too many conclusions this early on, but I like what I see so far. Let’s keep it going.