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?

The precise nature of Bell County bail

An article which appeared today in the Temple Daily Telegram once again brings up the issue of artificially high Bell County bail amounts (“Setting bail not a precise procedure,” by Paul A. Romer, October 5, 2008). Yet again Judge Ted Duffield defends his practice of magistrating defendants with pre-set bail amounts without making any determination as to the ability of an individual defendant to make bail.

Not once in the article, though, did it mention that Judge Duffield inquired as to an accused’s financial situation and whether or not that defendant could make any particular bail amount. No, on the contrary, he apparently continues to set bail amounts according to the usual preset bail schedule without any regard to his legal duty to see that a bail is not oppressively high and without any regard to the ability of the accused to make bail.

County Commission Richard Cortese said the public does not care about bail amounts. He claims that “defense attorneys and family members of the person arrested are the people who usually get upset and complain about high bail amounts.” He then continues by stating that the victims of crime generally believe bail amounts are too low. “They want the person who broke into their house to stay behind bars,” he said. Wow! An elected official that has never heard of the presumption of innocence. Innocent until proven guilty? Not in Bell County! Are there any constitutional rights that can survive in Bell County?

Setting bail in Bell County is a precise procedure, the only problem is that it is precisely wrong.

Why high bail amounts cost taxpayers money

The Temple Daily Telegram ran a story today about the artificially high bail amounts in Bell County. The story (“Jail statistics show bail range, averages”, by Paul A. Romer, Sunday, September 28, 2008) quotes me as saying, “By setting high bond amounts, they are keeping bond companies fully employed but are making people need court-appointed attorneys because they can’t afford to hire an attorney after paying their bond… Then the taxpayers get to pay for it.”

That is absolute, 100%, correct.  However, the very next paragraph goes on to say “Attorney John Galligan said it is common for bail hearings to reduce bail amounts by 80 to 90 percent.”  That I don’t know about.

Sure, the typical felony defendant’s bail gets reduced from an ungodly number down to $1,000 once they plead guilty.  But, that’s usually the only way to get such a huge reduction.  Otherwise, the judges usually reduce the bail from an ungodly amount down to just an unholy amount.  What good does that do?

Here’s the problem, though: a good number of defendants post bond before they get a bail reduction.  Then, they are paying their bond companies huge sums of money to get out of jail.  That typically means that there is no money left to hire a criminal defense attorney.  So, since they are charged with felonies, what happens?  They get a court-appointed lawyer.  Who pays for that?  We, the taxpayers. 

So, by setting initial bail amounts so high, a defendant has to pay what little money they have saved up over time, or what little money their families can scrape together, to get that person out of the jail.

The situation is better if the defendant hires a criminal defense lawyer first, because then the lawyer can go to the judge assigned to the case and get the bail lowered to a more reasonable amount.  That only happens, though, when the defendant hires the lawyer first.  Meanwhile, though, that person sits in jail and waits until the defense attorney can go to a judge and get a lowered bail amount (unless they have so much money that they can afford to hire a lawyer and hire a bondsman — and not very many people do).

So, why are we forcing people to stay in jail longer than necessary with these artificially high bail bonds?  Why not just set a reasonable bail amount to begin with and save everyone (including the taxpayers) a lot of money?  Well, according to the article, Judge Ted Duffield was at a conference and unavailable for comment.  Where was “Million Dollar” Judge Ivey for comment?

Another look at who is in the Bell County Jail

I thought I’d take a look at the BCJ population data from the middle of the week, since I looked at it last on Sunday.  The numbers are just about the same all across the board.  Have a look:

Just who is in the Bell County Jail, anyway?

The article in yesterday’s Temple Daily Telegram made me stop and wonder just who, exactly, is in the Bell County Jail at any given time. The article was ostensibly about bail amounts in criminal cases, and how they are set. The interesting thing, though, was the idea that a bail amount in a Bell County criminal case could be set in any amount without any apparent logic or legal authority for doing so.

Well, a little investigation revealed some interesting information. Here is a breakdown of just who is in the BCJ right now:

Keep in mind that the BCJ only has 708 beds. I guess 70 inmates are sharing beds? However it works out over there, it seems like there are still an awful large number of people in the BCJ with excessive bail amounts. I don’t know, because each case is unique and I have not studied each and every case (obviously). I do wonder, though, if anyone else has.

For example, looking at State Jail felony offense possession under a gram cases, there are 35 inmates in the BCJ right now with that offense being the most serious thing they are charged with. I don’t know what percentage of those have no prior felony convictions, but I imagine a good number of them are first timers. And, of course, those with no prior felonies are automatically entitled to probation on their first State Jail felony possession case. Automatic probation. And yet, a good number of inmates are sitting in jail, an average of 77 days so far, most with bail amounts of $25,000! $25,000 and they are guaranteed probation if it’s a first felony offense? What is the rationale behind this?

By the way, for all of you good criminal defense lawyers out there, notice the median bond amounts. Now when someone asks you what their bond is likely to be set at, you can say with some confidence that the normal Bell County bail for a:

1st Degree Felony = $150,000
2nd Degree Felony = $75,000
3rd Degree Felony = $75,000
State Jail Felony = $25,000
Felony probation revocation = $50,000
Class A Misdemeanor = $5,000
Class B Misdemeanor = $2,500
Misdemeanor probation revocation = $5,000

Of course, looking at these numbers, something appears quite curious. Notice the neat stacking of numbers. What a coincidence that a median Class A bail amount just happens to be twice that of a median Class B bail amount. There appears to be a slight problem with the pattern though. Because a State Jail Felony is $25,000. Doubling that should make a Third Degree Felony $50,000 (but the median jumps up to $75,000). The Second Degree Felony is at $75,000, which oddly enough is half of a First Degree Felony, at $150,000.

Does this neat pattern indicate that Bell County bail amounts are being set according to some predetermined value ladder? Surely the local magistrates are obeying their sworn duties to apply and uphold the law and are individually setting each of these amounts, right? Well, see this post if there is any doubt

[The data used in this analysis is available on my website as an Excel file, by clicking here. Keep in mind, though, that this spreadsheet only shows one offense for each inmate, the offense with the highest bond amount. The most current list is available on the Sheriff’s website: Bell County Active Inmate List.]