(Texas Scorecard) – The Harris County Sheriff’s Office announced plans to begin retrieving hundreds of inmates currently housed in out-of-state facilities following a steady drop in the county jail population.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez attributed the decrease to improved efficiency in the local criminal justice system, particularly recent efforts by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to expedite case processing.
District Attorney Sean Teare said earlier this year that he would not prosecute “nuisance crimes” in an effort to reduce jail overcrowding, calling the situation a humanitarian crisis and promising to address the situation “one way or another.”
“We are not stopping anything by prosecuting them and sending them to jail,” Teare said at the time.
More than 340 people have been referred to mental health services instead of being prosecuted. New felony courts and hiring efforts have helped reduce the court backlog and average time spent in jail, according to county officials.
Harris County officials have been spending about $54 million per year to house more than 1,200 inmates in private and public jails outside of Texas, primarily in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The outsourcing began as a response to persistent overcrowding at the Harris County Jail, which has long operated above capacity. The facility, located in downtown Houston, is the largest in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. Staffing shortages and a backlog of unprocessed criminal cases exacerbated the issue.
The jail population has dropped by about nine percent since February, from a high of 9,905 inmates to 8,961 as of last week.
The process of returning inmates to Harris County is expected to unfold in phases and will depend on ongoing population trends and the availability of beds in county-run facilities.
Officials plan to coordinate with judges, prosecutors, and jail staff to ensure a sustainable approach.