“I feel confident in saying that we can make a very strong reduction by the end of this calendar year,” said Phillip Bosquez, assistant chief of detention operations command, during the June 26 Commissioners Court meeting.
By the numbers
As of June 30, more than 1,520 inmates are being outsourced to jails outside the county and state, an increase in nearly 300 inmates from last September, according to the county’s jail population dashboard.
Outsourcing more than 1,000 inmates to jails outside of Harris County’s overcrowded jails remains the single most expensive budgeted item taxpayers pay for, according to Budget Director Daniel Ramos. According to the county’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget, at least $52 million was set aside for outsourcing costs from the approved $2.67 billion budget.
What else
Bosquez told commissioners that with the current number of detention officers, they would need to reduce the jail population to around 8,000 in order to stop outsourcing completely. The total jail population stands at 8,712 as of June 30, according to the county jail population dashboard.
Overcrowding and understaffing remains an issue that has led to failed state safety inspections and fatal outcomes at the jail. An open records request from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards showed why Harris County has been on the noncompliant list since May. The report stated how Harris County jail officials were unable to evaluate an inmate who submitted an emergency sick call request for chest pains because the the jailer assigned to the triage was absent.
The impact
Bosquez said they are still in the process of recruiting and training new detention officers, with 33 recently sent to the police academy with a current class of 67 officers. He said they are aiming to fill 136 open positions. Other jail updates that were presented to commissioners include:
- Felony backlog cases decreased by 73 since the April backlog report
- Active pending jail cases decreased by 33% from 16,126 in June 2022 to 10,721 through May
- Average daily population is down 11%, from 9,905 in February to 8,807 in June
- Releases outpace bookings since February
Tonya Mills, the head of justice innovation at the county administration office, told commissioners her office will be working with commissioners in the next couple of week to come up with more strategies to reduce the jail population.
“We can walk through post-analysis and what it would take to bring down the population,” Mills said.
