County to appeal ruling critical of Houston-area bail system

By JUAN A. LOZANO - Associated Press - Tuesday, May 9, 2017

HOUSTON (AP) - County officials said Tuesday that they will appeal a judge’s ruling that found the Houston-area’s bail system unconstitutional for people arrested for lesser offenses, despite pleas from several local religious leaders who had called on them to settle the case.

Harris County commissioners voted to appeal last month’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who determined the county’s bail policy for misdemeanor defendants violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling was part of a lawsuit accusing the county’s bail system of keeping misdemeanor defendants jailed only because they can’t afford to pay a bond. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was similar to at least 11 others filed across the country, is a single mother who was held for two days on a charge of driving without a license because she couldn’t afford the $2,500 bail.

Before they voted, the commissioners heard from religious leaders in Houston’s Baptist, Catholic and Jewish communities who argued that the bail system weakens the criminal justice system by unfairly keeping poor defendants locked up.

Samuel Karff, rabbi emeritus at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, the oldest Jewish congregation in Texas, called on the commissioners to settle the lawsuit and “make right a sad and terrible injustice.”

Joseph Fiorenza, the former archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston, told the commissioners: “God says he hears the cry of the poor. … The way God hears the cries of the poor is through the hearts and wills of those capable of (giving) the poor access to bail bonds.”

In her ruling last month, Rosenthal wrote that the county’s policy of detaining indigent misdemeanor defendants before trial violates equal protection rights against wealth-based discrimination and due process protections against pretrial detention.

Rosenthal, through a preliminary injunction, ordered the county to begin releasing by May 15 low risk indigent inmates who can’t afford to post cash bail on personal recognizance bonds while they await trial on misdemeanor offenses. Some defendants, such as those who have immigration detainers or have an outstanding warrant in another jurisdiction, wouldn’t be eligible for such bonds.

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan said he believes the county’s bail system is constitutional and that the lawsuit has slowed down changes that the county has been making to its criminal justice system.

“Do we have a fair system in place? We believe … we have a fair system in place, which is being improved. But it does take some time to do some of those improvements,” Ryan said.

Among the initiatives Harris County is working to implement is a new pretrial risk assessment tool that judges would use to make bail decisions. An algorithm helps identify if a person is at risk of committing a new crime or failing to return to court if released on bail. The system, set to be implemented in July, is intended to ensure low-risk defendants are diverted from the system as early as possible.

“Harris County has made some significant changes over the years, but there’s still a very long way to go,” said Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who was the only commissioner who voted against appealing the judge’s ruling.