by Aileen B. Flores, in the 4/12/15 issue of the El Paso Times
A controversial pretrial services office, which is supposed to save the county money but is being opposed by bondsmen, is closer to getting established. The purpose of the creation of a pretrial office is to improve processes, reduce the jail population and consequently decrease incarceration cost—all without compromising public safety, county Commissioner Vince Perez said.
Perez said the new department will help expedite the process of identifying inmates who are low risk and are indigent and who qualify for personal recognizance bonds. It will also help identify those inmates who need mental health assistance.
In addition, the new department will create controls for people accused of more serious crimes. Currently the risk assessment is being done manually at the discretion of a jail magistrate.
“Right now we have individuals who are bonding out of jail, who as long you can afford to pay the bond there are no conditions on your release, you’re back in society and there is not supervision. I view that as a big gap in our criminal justice system and that’s what my plan seeks to fix,” Perez said.
At least four of the five Commissioners Court members have expressed their support on the plan, which originated by Commissioner Vince Perez’s office last year.
Commissioner Andrew Haggerty said he likes the idea, however, he would like to see an assessment of the cost before a decision is made. The court is expected to take a final vote on the consolidation of the county’s pretrial functions on May 4.
Currently, the county’s pretrial functions are scattered throughout different departments. The initiative proposes to consolidate at least 27 positions from different departments.
Haggerty said there is not an estimate on the cost to hire a director to oversee the new department, and there have not been discussions with the department heads on whether or not they are going to have to replace the positions absorbed by the proposed pretrial office. In addition, there has not been discussion on where the new office is going to be placed.
“There are no figures. We don’t have hard numbers for what’s going to cost for the new director We haven’t completely done the due diligence to go to all the department heads to say is there is going to be a need to get more (employees)?, if so, what is that cost going to be,” Haggerty said.
Attorney Stephanie Townsend Allala, who represents the Professional Bondsmen of the El Paso County, attended Commissioners Court Special meeting on Thursday with Pascual and Cheryl Olibas, owners of Freedom Bonds, also to request that the Commissioners Court take more time to plan the creation of the pretrial services office.
Townsend Allala said the county has been collecting personal recognizance bond fees illegally for more than 20 years because the Commissioners Court never created a personal recognizance bond office that would allow collections pursuant to state law. She said the issue needs to be solved before implementing a new department.
Currently, the county issues personal recognizance bonds and collects the fees through an agreement with the adult probation department.
Townsend Allala also asked the Commissioners Court for a feasibility study before making a decision. She said Perez is not saying how much the new department is going to cost tax payers and what implications that the new office could have on the community.
She then talked about problems in other counties where pretrial release programs have reported a high failure to appear in court rate compared with defendants released on commercial bail bond.
Townsend Allala said many of the problems that Perez is planning to address with the proposed office can be solved with the implementation of magistrates available 24 hours, seven days a week — a local bill that is in the Texas Legislature. If approved, it will become effective September 1.
Currently, state law does not allow for a magistrate to work after hours and on weekends. Members of the Professional Bondsmen of El Paso County group in the past have said they fear that the proposed creation of a county pretrial office will put surety bond companies out of business. They said surety bond companies won’t be able to compete against personal recognizance bonds because people would then get out of jail free.
County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal said a formal complaint on the alleged illegal fees was being reviewed by her office.
“We feel very confident at this time that the county has not received illegal fees,” Bernal told the Commissioners Court.
Perez said that his plan is not to put people out of business, and that the impact of the new office to the county’s budget will be minimal compared with the savings that the new office can achieve in the future.
The only additional cost will be the hiring of a director to oversee the pretrial services office, Perez said.
Perez expects that the implementation of the pretrial services office would decrease the jail population by about 10 percent, which could result in approximately $3.1 million savings a year. The incarceration cost in El Paso County jail is about $81 a day per inmate. The average jail population is 1,600 inmates a day, Perez said.
Perez said that according to figures provided by the county auditor’s office about 72 percent of the inmates at El Paso County Jail are waiting their first appearance in court, which can take up to 45 days. The county spends about $70 million annually to operate the jail system, which includes the Downtown Jail and the East Side Jail Annex.
“We spend a tremendous amount of money on our jails, and it’s not because we are keeping violent criminals in jail, is because for years we have been inefficient in the way we process these individuals,” Perez said.
