The Cost of Indigent Defense in Bell County

How does Bell County stack up to other counties when it comes to Indigent Defense?  These charts explore some of the many facets of that question.  Bell County is compared to several counties with similar populations.  Bell County is also compared to each of the counties surrounding Bell County.  Finally, the total expenditures for the entire State of Texas are shown, as well.

Bell County Felony Cases

Bell County Misdemeanor Cases

Bell County Juvenile Cases

Subtotal Showing Expenditures and Grants

Grand Totals

* Has a Public Defender’s Office.

This data was obtained from the Task Force On Indigent Defense Public Access Website. The data is available on each county’s “County Data Sheet.”

Welcome to the Bell County Justice Center

The Bell County misdemeanor courts and associated departments are now fully moved into their new building at what the County is calling the Bell County Justice Center.  While it is too early to tell if adding the county departments to the building will mean that justice finally makes an appearance in the Justice Center, it will be welcome news for many now that both the felony and misdemeanor courts are in the same building for the first time in quite a few years.

Instead of the “temporary” courthouse annex on Second Avenue, all of the misdemeanor courts are now next to the district courts.  The physical address for all of the criminal courts is now 1201 Huey Road, Belton, Texas 76513. Here is a Google Map of the entrance from Loop 121 onto Huey Road.  You can click on the link labeled “Directions” to get detailed driving instructions from your location to the new complex:

Once you arrive at the intersection above, you can see the complex over to your left.  The turn onto Huey Road looks like this:

As you can see, the street sign indicates it is the 1200 block of Huey Road (even though Google thinks it is Huey Drive).  It intersects with the 2200 block of Loop 121.

Once you enter onto Huey Road, you’ll drive just a short bit to get to the entrance to the complex. 

The complex now consists of the county and district courts, the county and district prosecutors, the county and district clerks, the Indigent Defense department, the Pretrial Services department, the Bell County Jail, adult probation, and the Justice of the Peace for Precinct One.

There is only one public entrance for the entire building, and there are deputies on duty manning the metal detectors.  Therefore, please leave all of your guns, knives and bombs at home.

I cannot imagine what a nightmare the Justice Complex is going to be on Monday mornings when the parking lot is full of potential jurors, defendants, lawyers and the rest of the public trying to fit through the bottleneck that will undoubtedly occur.  I suppose the lesson is, “be early.”

If you are going to the Bell County Jail, you’ll turn to your right and just keep driving as far as you can.  Eventually you’ll run into the jail.  The entrance is in the corner, and you’ll have to walk a

bit across a little foot bridge to get there.  They have a beautiful round entrance area which you’ll see on your right as you walk by it with the summer sun beating down on you from above, but someone decided to put flag poles right in the middle of the driving surface and then on top of that someone roped off the entrance anyway.  A beautiful and convenient drop-off location blocked off with $3 worth of cheap rope.  That’s classy!

Regardless, the new courthouse complex is fantastic and it looks like a million dollars (though I suppose I should say it looks more like almost $100 million dollars)!  Even though the voters repeatedly voted it down, and even though the public may scream about the expense, I (for one) realize how badly the county needed this expansion.  Also, as a criminal defense attorney I previously spent a good chunk of my day driving back-and-forth between the district and county buildings.  At long last, I have one-stop shopping since the county’s “Justice Complex” is now open for business.  Let’s just hope that not all of that complex justice is out-of-stock.

See you at the new courthouse!

Court Appointed vs. Retained Attorneys in Bell County Felony Cases (1993-2009)

I created the following table with data provided by the Texas Office of Court Administration.  This table shows the total number of felony cases resolved during the last 17 years in Bell County, Texas.  It then shows how many cases out of each total had a defendant represented by retained counsel and how many were represented by court-appointed counsel.  It then shows the percentage of court-appointed cases for that year.

Interesting.  In 2009 – even with the country in a major recession and presumably more Bell County citizens out of work than any of the other years for which data is available – the percentage of defendants with court-appointed attorneys dropped from 82% in 2008 to 55% last year. 

Here’s a bar graph showing the changes:

What’s the reason for the change?  Perhaps you’ll recall an earlier post of mine (“Why high bail amounts cost taxpayers money”).  In that posting I argued that the high preset bail bond amounts imposed by Bell County magistrates result in criminal defendants qualifying for court-appointed attorneys because they’ve spent all of their money on bonding out of jail.

Well, since that post, the new Pretrial Services Office in Bell County has been bonding out more and more criminal defendants on PR Bonds.  So, even though the preset bail bond amounts have not lowered like they should have, it does not matter since PR Bond is getting more and more people out of jail and back to being productive members of society.

With more criminal defendants able to return to work, there have been more retained attorneys.  It’s nice to be vindicated by data.

Types of Criminal Cases Handled by Bell County District Courts in 2009

How Long Does It Take To Resolve a Criminal Case?

Felony Cases

According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Bell County district courts handled 2,283 felony criminal cases during the year 2009. Of those cases, just 10% were cases which were resolved within the first 60 days after the case was filed. Only 7% were completed between 60 and 90 days, and another 6% were completed between 90 and 120 days. The majority of all felony criminal cases, some 77% (almost 8 out of every 10 cases filed), required more than 120 days to resolve.

Statewide, there were a total of 282,897 felony criminal cases resolved in 2009. Overall, almost one out of every three felony criminal cases (or 32%) were resolved within the first 60 days after being filed. There were an additional 9% of cases which were resolved within 60 and 90 days, and another 8% from 90 to 120 days. The remaining 51% of cases took more than 120 days to complete from date of filing to final resolution.

Misdemeanor Cases

According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Bell County misdemeanor courts handled 9,010 cases during 2009. Of those, 15% of all misdemeanor cases were resolved within the first 30 days after being filed. However, only 6% were completed between 31 and 60 days, and another 6% between 61 and 90 days. The majority of all misdemeanor criminal cases, some 73% (roughly 8 out of every 10 cases filed), took more than 90 days to resolve.

Statewide, there were 611,694 misdemeanor cases resolved during 2009. Of those, roughly one out of every four misdemeanor criminal cases (or 23%) were resolved within the first 30 days. Next, there were an additional 11% of cases which were resolved within 31 and 60 days, and then another 9% from 61 to 90 days. The remaining 57% took more than 90 days to complete.