The Dallas Morning News asks "What should we do about the jail during pandemic?"
The debate around jail detention involves a sharp contrast of opinions about how to reform the system between those who say there is a smarter way to assess risk and those who worry about letting the wrong people walk the streets.
Nearly guaranteeing this issue would erupt in a public debate, a Harris County judge recently decided to release a murder suspect on a pretrial bond after the man requested a bail reduction on grounds that he feared that COVID-19 would strike the county lockup and “spread like wildfire.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has answered with an executive order barring inmates accused or previously convicted of violent crimes from being released from jails on personal recognizance and has sought legal action to stop some releases.
So what needs to happen in the short run is that our system needs to make the best decisions it can, and officials need to understand that public anxiety is riding high. We are in a volatile moment, so it’s particularly important to be transparent about what’s being done and why. At this moment, the public needs to know that dangerous people are not being released, and the public needs to see that people who can be safely released are not being held behind bars during a pandemic.
That means extra care in ensuring judges have as much information as they can as they make individual bond decisions. District attorneys, police officials, judges, pretrial services and sheriffs need to take this opportunity to better refine a system that would allow for better decisions about who needs to be in jail and who doesn’t. It also requires leaders in the criminal justice system to outline the thinking that guides their decisions. The more information they share, the more our communities can be confident about what’s going on in our jails.
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