Harris County officials said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to staffing challenges for both the sheriff's and district attorney's offices, creating a perfect storm of more than 90,000 backlogged cases and subsequent overcrowding in the Harris County Jail—already the second largest county jail population in the U.S.
"We have an overall caseload crisis," said Jim Bethke, director of the Harris County Justice Administration Department. "This is a systemwide challenge; it's not just the courts or the [district attorneys] or the defense. I think we're going to have to work together ... to address these cases and get out of this crisis."
According to officials with each of the offices, one of the major factors contributing the caseload backlog and subsequent jail overcrowding is a lack of adequate staffing due to the ongoing pandemic. Across both sides of the judicial system, county officials said staff members are either testing positive for COVID-19 or getting exposed to COVID-19 and are forced to quarantine at home while still getting paid. As a result, the district attorney's intake staff has been cut by 25%, and the sheriff's office is routinely having to back-fill positions in the jail and pay for overtime.
Further exacerbating the situation, county officials said fewer jury trials are being held due to the ongoing pandemic, and warrants are being emailed instead of physically taken to the Harris County Joint Processing Center—creating an additional backlog of warrants.
"As long as we don't have an adequate mixture of both prosecution and defense, the [judicial system] will not run properly, and we end up backlogging cases, and those who are innocent and need to be out [of jail] are penalized," Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said. "Someone has to prosecute in order for the case to be completed and whether the outcome is a dismissal or a conviction leading to them going to our state jail—either way the case being completed results in our jails not being as crowded. Justice delayed is justice denied and there are people who are not getting justice because the system is bogged down."
While efforts are ongoing to alleviate overcrowding at the Harris County Jail, both the Harris County Sheriff's Office and the district attorney's office came to Harris County Commissioners Court on Jan. 26 with funding requests to help staff keep up with the workload in the short term.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office requested nearly $24 million in additional funding to cover costs already incurred that are over budget and to get the office through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Feb. 28. More than $17 million of that request is solely for labor needed to staff the Harris County Jail, according to county documents.
"Unfortunately—and this is not the situation we want to be in—the sheriff feels that these funds are necessary to get through the end of the [fiscal] year at the required staffing level," said David Berry, executive director of the Harris County Budget Management Department. "From my office's perspective, this request is consistent with where we are. ... I think we're on pace where our costs for the [fiscal] year will exceed the budget, with respect to the jail."
