Something to be proud of in Texas

[Kevin Seitzer]

Harris County (Houston metro) is reforming the bail system:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/harris-countys-new-progressive-judges-are-upending-the-bail-system/

[Sour Masher]

Wow, way to go Texas! This is a good thing. Hopefully more counties follow suit.

[onejayhawk]

It will be interesting.

I will quibble on one point already. I do not consider DUI to be nonviolent in the sense that they do, ie not posing a threat to the community.

J

[Ken]

I do not consider DUI to be nonviolent in the sense that they do, ie not posing a threat to the community.

That's not what non-violent crime means though.

[onejayhawk]

That's not what non-violent crime means though.

Perhaps I should have said physical threat. Regardless, I would not include DUI on the list.

J

[senorsheep]

Nice. Colorado is working on bail reform, too. Your post got me to look up the details of our two bills currently under consideration:

HB19-1225: Ends cash bail requirements for low-level traffic, petty, or municipal offenses, with a few sensible exceptions (traffic offenses involving death or injury, eluding a law enforcement officer).

HB19-1226: Requires each state judicial districts to implement a pretrial screening process and criteria for releasing certain individuals subject to no bail conditions. Also, requires that individuals be released with the least restrictive conditions possible without monetary conditions so long as they don't pose a substantial risk of danger, failure to appear in court, or obstruction of the criminal process.

These sound pretty good to me. I don't like our justice system using overbearing financial shakedowns to advance their goals.

[TranaGreg]

Nice. Colorado is working on bail reform, too. Your post got me to look up the details of our two bills currently under consideration:

HB19-1225: Ends cash bail requirements for low-level traffic, petty, or municipal offenses, with a few sensible exceptions (traffic offenses involving death or injury, eluding a law enforcement officer).

HB19-1226: Requires each state judicial districts to implement a pretrial screening process and criteria for releasing certain individuals subject to no bail conditions. Also, requires that individuals be released with the least restrictive conditions possible without monetary conditions so long as they don't pose a substantial risk of danger, failure to appear in court, or obstruction of the criminal process.

These sound pretty good to me. I don't like our justice system using overbearing financial shakedowns to advance their goals.

esp. when one of the goals is for private correctional facilities to make more money by incarcerating more people.

[senorsheep]

esp. when one of the goals is for private correctional facilities to make more money by incarcerating more people.

Yeah, when they started aggressively lobbying for more expansive law enforcement and harsher sentencing, I think it woke a lot of fence-sitters up to their game.