The Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office is working on a plan to bring back inmates who were outsourced to other facilities as the jail population has recently decreased. According to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, the district attorney\u2019s office has been working to more quickly dispose of criminal cases, resulting in a significant decrease in the jail population.<\/p>\n
This decrease in population is expected to lower the amount of money the county pays to send inmates to other facilities. Previously, the county was expected to pay over $54 million to outsource more than 1,200 inmates to facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Gonzalez has been calling on county commissioners to prioritize increasing deputies\u2019 wages as the county heads into budget season. He believes that the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s efforts to lower outsourcing costs should be considered in discussions to increase their pay. However, some commissioners want to see issues with the jail alleviated before they approve boosted wages.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez argues that continuing to outsource inmates will prove to be unsustainable over time. The county jail was never designed for long-term stays, with inmates spending an average of 180 days in the downtown Houston jail. This is compared to the Texas average of about 60 days in other jail facilities.<\/p>\n
About 12% of the jail population comprises homeless inmates, while about 80% suffer from mental health disorders. Sheriff Gonzalez emphasized that the jail is not equipped to handle these social issues, stating, \u201cWe\u2019re not a homeless shelter. We\u2019re a jail system. We need to be dealing with not social ills everyday. We\u2019re the largest mental health hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzalez also warned that the sheriff\u2019s office is at risk of losing qualified deputies to other agencies in the region if it can\u2019t offer competitive pay. This could lead to a more dangerous community, especially in unincorporated areas of Harris County.<\/p>\n
County officials agree that deputies should have pay parity with other local agencies, but finding the funds to back increased wages will pose an issue during budget discussions. Gonzalez suggested looking at essential and non-essential programs to find available funds.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the decrease in the Harris County Jail population is a positive step towards alleviating the issues with outsourcing inmates. However, the county still needs to address the underlying problems, including the lack of competitive pay for deputies and the jail\u2019s inability to handle social issues. By prioritizing these issues, the county can work towards creating a safer and more sustainable community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harris County Jail Sees Dip in Population The Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office is working on a plan to bring back inmates who were outsourced to other facilities as the jail population has recently decreased. According to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, the district attorney\u2019s office has been working to more quickly dispose of criminal cases, resulting in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-reports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.houstonpublicmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/20163806\/173A3689-1-1500x1000.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4846,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4844\/revisions\/4846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}