Number of Texas Detainees Jailed Out-of-County Doubled in Five Years
A June 2024 Texas Tribune analysis found that the number of detainees shipped to jails outside the county of their arrest had more than doubled in five years to a total of 4,358, up from 2,078 in June 2019. Meanwhile, the share of counties holding detainees elsewhere climbed from 31% to 41% in the same period.
Most jail detainees have not been criminally convicted but are awaiting trial, meaning they are legally innocent and protected from punishment by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Yet jailing them dozens or hundreds of miles farther from loved ones and legal representation certainly feels punitive.
Jails say they face a crisis of overcrowding and understaffing that forces them to ship detainees to other counties, and sometimes even to other states. As PLN reported, the Harris County Jail has an $11.3 million contract with private prison giant CoreCivic to hold County detainees in lockups that the firm operates in Mississippi and Louisiana because a shortage of guards has rendered hundreds of beds in the Houston jail unusable under Texas Jail Commission (TJC) standards. [See: PLN, Oct. 2024, p.41.]
Sabine County ships detainees to Louisiana, too, including Jess Hampton. His difficulties illustrate challenges that accompany long-distance jailing. Hampton was accused of child sex abuse, but a Child Protective Services investigation cleared him. The agency closed its case. But Hampton was still in the Louisiana jail 11 months later, frustrated in his attempts to communicate with his attorney—whom he relied on to make court dates that were missed. So he remained jailed on a $250,000 bond, an amount he called unaffordable.
A 2021 state law limiting bail releases helped drive up jail populations statewide. Overcrowded state psychiatric lockups have forced more mentally ill residents to wait in a jail bed for treatment. The guard shortage triggers TJC caps on the number of detainees that can be held. As a result, the state incarceration rate hovers around 751 prisoners and jail detainees for every 100,000 residents—far above the national average of 614 per 100,000.
Crime expert and AH Datalytics co-founder Jeff Asher said that it’s “difficult to know exactly what is driving incarceration rates, but typically it’s not crime rates.” Following a brief uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s violent crime rate in 2023 was identical to what it was in 2012.
So what’s driving incarceration in Texas? Asher said, “It’s more about enforcement.” The number of law enforcement officers swelled from about 55,000 in 2012 to over 78,000 in 2023, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) opposes easing bail requirements, and his administration has no clear plans to address jail overcrowding.
Sources: Texas Tribune, Prison Policy Initiative
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