Even as Harris County faces budget pressures with assessed property tax values falling $7.1 billion in 2009, Sheriff Adrian Garcia is renewing the call for building a 2,193 bed jail that could result in a tax hike.

In 2007, voters rejected a $195 million bond measure for a 2,500 bed new jail that would have grown the criminal justice share of the budget by 9 percent, including $9.6 million annually to staff the new jail. The proposed jail could be voted on in November 2010.

Many options to control the jail population that are consistent with public safety have not been implemented. The Harris County jail is under federal investigation and its population has swelled to 10,500, with the County also paying to lock up more than 1,000 inmates in Louisiana.

In 2007, House Bill 2391 authorized police officers to issue tickets and notices to appear in court for certain minor misdemeanors instead of making an arrest and bringing the suspect to jail. Harris County has declined to implement this policy. The Travis County Sheriff’s office is issuing tickets and 90 percent of suspects show up for their hearing.

Also, most but not all of the County’s judges use a graduated sanctions model with sanctions such as a curfew and increased reporting to reduce revocations from probation to jail and prison. Without this proven approach, probationers may either be revoked for a minor initial violation, or many accumulated violations may lead to a revocation because a swift and certain message was not sent.

Additionally, Harris County is jailing 1,200 first-time offenders for possession of less than a gram of drugs, a state jail felony. Lawmakers excluded these offenders from state jails, with the intent that they be placed on probation, which is the approach most other counties take in all of these cases.

Other possible solutions include more rapid processing of cases (5,093 inmates are awaiting trial), victim-offender mediation for minor property offenses, work release, a day reporting center with a work program, and electronic monitoring.

– Marc Levin