By Jolie McCullough

TEXAS TRIBUNE – The Texas Senate on Wednesday approved the chamber’s priority bail legislation that aims to keep more people accused or previously convicted of violent crimes in jail before trial unless they can post cash bonds.

Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, previously said her Senate Bill 21 is meant to “address the appalling uptick in violent crimes by defendants out on multiple personal bonds,” which don’t require cash up front. The bill passed out of the Senate on a vote of 23-8 and will now head to the House.

Many bail reform advocates have criticized the bill, as well as the governor’s priority legislation in the House, for still relying on a money-based system. Texas’ systems for deciding how to release people from jail while awaiting trial have long been criticized for unfairly keeping poor people locked up simply because they don’t have the cash to post bail.

“Requiring more Texans to pay to stay out of jail before trial is unfair, unsafe, and wastes tax dollars,” Nick Hudson, a policy and advocacy strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said after the vote. “This bill doubles down on our broken money bail system and further criminalizes poverty.”

When making bail decisions, courts decide what restrictions are needed to release someone from jail but ensure the defendant comes back to court and does not present a threat to public safety. Most often in Texas, that decision is based on a dollar amount.

Aside from restricting release on personal, no-cost bonds, SB 21 would require court officers setting bail to first review a defendant’s criminal history and citizenship status. State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, unsuccessfully tried to remove the citizenship requirement, arguing it could lead to racial profiling.

“Nothing in a person’s citizenship status makes them more likely to be a flight risk,” he said.

Huffman disagreed, saying someone who didn’t have ties to the community or had an immigration hold could be a risk to not show up to future court hearings.

Multiple senators also questioned Huffman’s bill for limiting who could be bailed out by nonprofit charitable bail organizations, a move that has been promoted by the for-profit bail bonds industry. After the in-custody Minneapolis death of George Floyd prompted nationwide unrest and protesters were arrested across the country, nonprofits that sought to post people’s bail saw millions of dollars in donations.

SB 21 would also bar charitable organizations that are not churches from posting bond for anyone accused, or previously convicted, of a violent crime. In Texas, the Texas Organizing Project paid to bail out and track hundreds of people in several counties last year. Huffman assured protesters accused of misdemeanors would still be able to be bonded out by such groups under her bill, but said it was important to limit the nonprofits because they’re a “new phenomenon.”

“I don’t think there’s enough accountability, we don’t know who these individuals are,” Huffman said.

In response, state Sen. Borris Miles, a Black Democrat from Houston, detailed a hypothetical scenario where he could be peacefully protesting but someone with a rifle would come up and call him the N-word.

“I’m sure I’m going to respond in a physical way … so am I a violent protester then and they can’t bond me out?” he posed.

Huffman’s bill is largely a response to Harris County. After federal courts found the county’s pretrial release practices unconstitutionally discriminatory against poor people, local officials in 2019 stopped requiring most people accused of low-level crimes from putting up cash to get out of jail on bond. The court ruling doesn’t apply to felony cases, but a rising homicide count and repeat high-profile murders allegedly committed by people released on bond has sparked outcry from local Republicans and law enforcement.

On the floor, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, expressed the need for a change in Harris County. He referred to Caitlynne Infinger Guajardo, who in 2019 was murdered, allegedly by her husband days after he was released on a no-cost, personal bond after allegedly assaulting her.

Bail reform advocates have pointed to other deaths, including Preston Chaney, who died in the Harris County jail from COVID-19 after he was kept behind bars on a low-level charge for months because he was unable to pay $100 to get out.

By WIFR Newsroom

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – All dispatchers in the city of Rockford’s 911 Center recently completed updated training on calls involving domestic violence and strangulation from the Strangulation Task Force.

The Strangulation Task Force is a joint effort between the Mayor’s Office of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Prevention and the 17th Judicial Circuit Domestic Violence Coordinated Courts. Dispatchers learned about intimate partner domestic violence with focused attention on strangulation in domestic violence and human trafficking cases, according to an announcement from the city on Tuesday.

“Strangulation puts a survivor at an increased risk of homicide. Even incidents of strangulation that are initially deemed non-fatal could eventually lead to death due to non-visible injuries and health repercussions caused by strangulation,” Nikki Ticknor, Deputy Court Administrator of Domestic Violence Coordinated Courts and Task Force Co-Chair said. “It’s important 911 dispatchers know the questions to ask and signs that may be present over the phone to ensure strangulation victims get the early treatment they need.”

Between Nov. 1, 2017, and Oct. 31, 2019, 47% of domestic violence survivors who completed a lethality assessment reported to Rockford Police and Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department that their partner attempted to choke or strangle them, according to an announcement from the city on Tuesday.

“Callers will not often not use the word strangulation,” Jennifer Cacciapaglia, Manager of the Mayor’s Office of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Prevention and Task Force Co-Chair said. “It’s imperative that we train dispatcher to listen for audible symptoms in order to save more lives in our community.”

To view the original article, click here.

By Hayley Miller

By Florian Martin

It’s an issue that has been raised over and over again by critics of Harris County’s bail practices: people accused of violent offenses committing crimes while they’re out on bond.

But while many agree that there is a problem, not everyone agrees on how to address it.

At a committee hearing for Texas Senate Bill 21 last month, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg presented data showing that the number of defendants charged with new crimes while out on bond has gone up every year for the past five years.

The number of those accused of accused of a crime while out on two to four bonds quadrupled from 2016 to 2020, from 1,812 to 7,312.

SB21 would prohibit judges from giving low-cost or bonds to defendants who have previously violated bond conditions or who are accused of multiple crimes.

What everybody does seem to agree on is that Harris County’s misdemeanor bail reform is not to blame – even though it keeps coming up in the discussion.

Harris County is currently bound to the terms of a settlement from a case that found its use of misdemeanor cash bail unconstitutionally discriminated against people who couldn’t afford to pay. Since then, people accused of misdemeanors in Harris County are often let out of jail with no cash bail – so-called personal recognizance or PR bonds.

Studies have shown letting those accused of low-level crimes out of jail on low-cost or no-cash bail has not led to an increase in reoffenses.

At a recent Crime Stoppers news conference, the group’s victim services director Andy Kahan, said he agreed, and wanted to clear up any misconceptions on where they stand.

“Crime Stoppers supported misdemeanor bond reform wholeheartedly,” he said. “We have no issues with anybody being released on a PR or general order bond on misdemeanors.”

But Kahan did take issue with what he said was a growing number of people let out on low bail amounts for felonies, and criticized the Harris County Justice Administration Department for not including statistics on reoffenders in a presentation on felony bail practices.

JAD is tasked with identifying best practices to increase public safety while ensuring fairness and bringing down incarceration rates. Research policy analyst Colin Cepuran, who created the presentation and also testified against SB21, doesn’t dispute the data. But he said comparing the raw numbers from year to year can be misleading.

“It’s true that more defendants are receiving bonds and more defendants are receiving multiple bonds and more bonds are failing,” Cepuran said. “But that’s happening because more cases are being filed and thus more bonds are being issued.”

If you take that into account, he said, the rate hasn’t changed much.

Cepuran added that more defendants are receiving bonds for more than one crime.

“A defendant might receive a cash bond for an aggravated assault, but also receive a personal bond for the drugs found during the investigation for the assault,” Cepuran said. “In that circumstance, the defendant has to abide by the conditions of the cash bond, the more restrictive bond.”

SB21 also includes a requirement of judges to study a defendant’s criminal history before determining bail. Still, Cepuran said these kinds of bills do more harm than good, because they discriminate against poor defendants — in particular people of color — and work against bail reforms that seek to address the issue of overcrowding jails without harming public safety.

Then there’s a backlog of felony cases that has grown sharply since Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area and damaged the criminal courthouses, leaving them closed for weeks. The problem has only worsened due to COVID-related closures.

That means more defendants are on bond for longer, which increases the likelihood of people violating their bond conditions, Cepuran said.

Crime Stoppers’ Kahan agreed that’s a problem. And he also agrees with the Justice Administration that the responsibility to stop the trend falls to individual Harris County judges.

“This is something that we’re seeing district court judges do on their own,” Kahan said. “They’ve kind of taken it upon themselves to kind of piggyback what’s happening in the misdemeanor courts to the felony courts.”

Kahan said that while SB21 isn’t perfect, he thinks it’s a good first step.

“It was basically,” he said, “in a proverbial war, the first shot to discuss the issue.”

To view the original article, click here.

By Alex Jokich