Bell County’s New Jail

I recently joined a group of attorneys and court personnel on a tour of the new Bell County Jail.  We were allowed to see an almost 100% completed jail facility, and we spoke with jail administrators and staff about the new facility.  My verdict?  I like it.  It is very, very impressive.  It is an amazingly large facility, and it’s only going to get larger when they add the new section (as the need arises several years down the road).

And, yes, I know a lot of the local defense attorneys are upset because there are only a small number of meeting rooms where a defense attorney and his client can have a private, unmonitored conversation.  I also think that the video conferencing idea is a bad one (it allows cell mates to hear what an inmate is saying to his attorney, thus destroying the attorney-client privilege and guaranteeing that the conversation will be repeated by the cell-mate at your client’s trial). 

However, all-in-all, it’s a great jail and a wise use of Bell County tax dollars.  Every Bell County resident should be proud, and ashamed that we put off this inevitable construction for so long.

In the end, I am sure that we will find solutions for the minor problems which we anticipate, and the ones we have not yet realized. 

I, for one, would like to see a return to the days when attorneys could drop off correspondence for their client at the front of the jail.  In the olden days, we could write our client a letter and the jail staff would deliver it along with the regular mail.  I don’t know why they quit doing this, but they should start it again.  It allows for quicker communication, and it saves taxpayers the cost of the postage for court-appointed clients.  Even better, take inmate letters to their attorneys and put the letters in our boxes at the district court building.  That would be even more convenient and cost-effective as far as saving postage.  They are doing it already with "inmate service request" forms.  Would an envelope be any harder to put in a box?

Ages of Disposed Cases

Using the Trial Court Judicial Data Management System, I have created yet another chart.  This one shows the number of felony cases that were finalized between October 2007 and October 2008 in each of the Texas counties listed, and then it shows how old each case was at the time it was disposed of:

About the only interesting thing that jumps out at me is the fact that Webb County takes just as long as Bell County does to resolve felony cases.  That’s interesting because Webb County has a pretty generous flat-fee rate for court appointed attorneys.  I would have thought that meant those court appointed attorneys would plead their cases out super fast (in order to maximize their profit on a flat fee case).  That doesn’t appear to be true, though.  I guess flat fees don’t promote a “plead ‘em quick” mentality.

Conviction Rates vs. Compensation Rates

The Texas Office of Court Administration collects statistical information on each court in Texas. Through the use of their online Trial Court Judicial Data Management System, anyone can look at some very interesting statistics concerning Texas courts.

Looking at other Texas counties that have about the same size populations as Bell County, we can see the following conviction rates for the last three years:

This chart contains data from October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2008.

Looking at the chart, you can quickly see that Bell County and Williamson County have the highest conviction rates. But what don’t you see? I don’t see a connection between court-appointed attorney rates and conviction rates. A recent post of mine shows the court appointed attorney hourly rates for these same counties. Looking at that chart and this one, I don’t see a connection.

For example, Jefferson County pays the lowest hourly fees, but they have the lowest conviction rate. Conversely, Webb County pays the highest hourly fees. and they have a slightly higher than average conviction rate.

Of course, Bell County has the highest conviction rate of Texas counties our size – and we are tied for second-to-lowest court appointed hourly rates. However, Galveston has the same hourly rate, and their conviction rate is as much lower than the average conviction rate as our county is higher (70% versus 95% , with an 82% state-wide average).

Bottom line, these numbers are interesting, but I’m not sure what conclusions we can draw from just looking at this limited data set. Looking at just these counties, over the last three years, there does not appear to be a correlation between conviction rates and court appointed attorney compensation rates.

Does anyone have any other ideas on what the cause of higher-than-average conviction rates?

Attorney Ratios: Comparing Bell County

After seeing how the four counties on either side of Bell County compare to us on court appointed attorney fees, I was curious if the pay rate has anything to do with attorney density.  So, I went to the State Bar of Texas, Department of Research and Analysis.  I bet a lot of you have never heard of this part of the State Bar, but you should have.  If you have a statistical question about Texas attorneys, they probably have the answer.

To get the number of attorneys in each of the four closest counties on either side of Bell County (population wise), I looked at the most recent data available in the State Bar’s Attorney Population Density by Metropolitan Statistical Area Report: 2005-06. That report shows that each county has the following number of attorneys:

The ratio shows you how many attorneys there are for each person in that county.  For example, in Bell County, there is only one attorney for every 993 persons in the county.  That’s the most favorable attorney-to-potential client ratio around for counties our size. 

Also, keep in mind, that not every attorney practices criminal defense law.  One of the few things that you cannot get from the State Bar is a percentage of attorneys that practice criminal law.  The closest thing that I could find was that about 3% of all Texas attorneys belong to the criminal justice section of the State Bar.  I imagine that there are many attorneys who aren’t members of the criminal justice section since the criminal justice section of the State Bar is such a joke right now. 

So, is there a connection between attorney density and court appointed attorney fees?  It appears there might be.  Look at Jefferson County.  They pay the worst, a flat $50 per hour.  However, they also have the most attorneys per population ratio for counties our size.  There are just too many attorneys there to justify paying more than what the market likely will bear there.  Also, Webb County appears to pay the best, and they have an attorney to population ratio about the same as Bell County.  There are anomalies, though.  Williamson County for example pays horribly compared to how many attorneys live in that county.  I would suspect they get a lot of Travis County attorneys; plus, keep in mind that they are being sued by the Task Force on Indigent Defense right now anyway.  So, maybe it’s not the greatest idea to look at Williamson County to see what we should be doing!

By the way, the State Bar has determined that the average hourly rate for retained criminal defense attorneys in Texas is $207.  The median amount is $175 per hour.

One would think that since Bell County has the fewest attorneys per resident of all counties our size that we’d be paid the highest court appointed attorney fees.  Any idea why we aren’t?

Court Appointed Hourly Rate Comparison

What do counties that are about the same size as Bell County pay their court-appointed attorneys?  That was the question that led to this chart:

The population data came from the U.S. Census Bureau. It represents the estimated population of the listed Texas counties as of July 1, 2007.

The rest of the data came from the Task Force on Indigent Defense Website. According to the fee schedules listed there, the following details what local court appointed attorneys are paid:

WILLIAMSON COUNTY:
Except for good cause shown, court-appointed attorney fees will be as follows:
Routine felony plea = $500
Routine felony plea (Spanish-speaking defendant) = $750
Jury trial (per day) = $1,000
Jury trial (per day) (Spanish-speaking defendant) = $1,250

NUECES COUNTY:
Guilty plea, plea of true, or dismissal by Defendant = $250-$450
Dismissal on State’s motion = $100 to $400
Nonjury trial = $60-$80 per hour in court / $30-$60 per hour out of court
Jury trial = $500-$750 per full day, $250-$375 per half day, in court; $30-$50 out of court

BRAZORIA COUNTY:
Guilty plea = $100 minimum
Everything else = $60 – $90 per hour

GALVESTON COUNTY:
$60 per hour

LUBBOCK COUNTY:
$75 per hour; with minimum of $300 per plea

JEFFERSON COUNTY:
Public defenders maxed at $8333 per month (appointed on a monthly basis)
Rotation attorneys paid $500 per half-day in trial or contested hearings
$1,000 per plea/dismissal of single case
$1,200 per plea/dismissal of multiple cases for same defendant

WEBB COUNTY:
$85 per hour on SJF/3rd in trial / $75 per hour hearings / $50 per hour out of court
$100 per hour on 2nd in trial / $85 per hour hearings / $60 per hour out of court
$125 per hour on 1st in trial / $100 per hour hearings / $75 per hour out of court
Flat fee for plea: $500 SJF/3rd; $750 2nd; $1,000 1st

McLENNAN COUNTY:
$40-100 per hour in court; $35-$75 per hour out of court
Flat fee for plea: $400 SJF/3rd; $500 2nd; $750 1st