Bail reform isn’t a particularly controversial plank of the broader movement to end mass incarceration. In fact, it was a Republican jurist, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, who in 2017 warned the GOP-dominated Legislature that strict bail policies had created an epidemic of de facto detention for poor defendants. In a speech kicking off the legislative session that year, Hecht reminded lawmakers that three out of four people jailed in Texas are accused but not convicted of a crime. Many remain in lockup because they can’t afford bail. “Though presumed innocent, they lose their jobs and families, and are more likely to re-offend,” Hecht told lawmakers. Perhaps fearful the humanitarian angle wouldn’t play in the famously tough-on-crime Legislature, Hecht then appealed to another Republican value: money. “And if all this weren’t bad enough, taxpayers must shoulder the cost—a staggering $1 billion per year.”
And yet state lawmakers have ignored the issue, forcing political and legal activists to effect change at the local level. In Harris County, one epicenter of bail reform, officials on Tuesday voted to settle a longstanding lawsuit challenging the county’s bail practices, one of several filed across Texas in recent years. Advocates for criminal justice reform say the outcome in Harris County could reverberate beyond Texas, sparking reforms elsewhere.
“This is a watershed moment for pretrial reform,” Civil Rights Corps, the advocacy group that sued Harris County, said in a prepared statement. “We believe the agreement lays the groundwork for a system that will recognize the humanity of the people who pass through it, treat them with dignity, and value their freedom.”
