there’s
concerns about
overstaffing low pay
inmate deaths.
What resources would you need your department need
in order to correct that Trend?
Well, first and foremost, I want to say that our condolences go out to any
family that’s been impacted, you know, by the loss of life of someone
that was under our custody
as an agency. And me, personally, I take it very,
very hard.
It’s something that we want to improve on
and we’re always
Seeking continuous Improvement. So that’s first and foremost, we understand that
it’s a human life that had loved ones
that cared for them and so it’s something that we do not take lightly.
It’s a number of different factors.
When we mention 27th, that’s for example,
we think it’s important to really take a deeper dive at each one.
And
for example, each one is investigated independently
by an outside agency. So I think that’s good thing for the community to
know that it’s an independent investigation not led by a so that
that there could be a fresh set of eyes
and they could
determine what happened.
The vast majority
died due to natural causes
and that’s something that’s very unfortunate. Many times we have individuals
that come into our system. We process over 100,000 individuals
that come through our doors every year
and many come with poor health.
We have many that are
older adults, for example, that have a
terminal illness has
diabetes, and many other health factors. And unfortunately they
find themselves,
you know,
here in the in the county jail as Temporary Home.
And tragedy might struck. We also have,
you know, a very
serious
High number of individuals that are here are very serious charges for
example. 800 are here for either murder capital
murder
and so sometimes
there’s already
perhaps a history of assaultive behavior
and sometimes it doesn’t stop upon them entering
Corrections
Facility. It may be that
they become assaultive with one another sometimes or sometimes
with our staff.
And so we look at each one of those to make sure
Sure that our response was appropriate that we utilize
our training. That’s given to try to de-escalate situations
the
duty to intervene. For example, all those are things that we look at administratively,
but
we also want to make sure that we’re leaving no stone unturned. We could
improve our
Corrections
system delivery
medical,
we want to do that our partner here, medical partner is Harris
Health. That’s
the expert in our region and in terms of Community Health
and so they’re our partner here and we want to make sure
sure that we’re working closely with them
to deliver the best care possible. So,
we’re looking at all the different factors to see how we can improve on the situation
and
that we could try to again
limit, but we also need the criminal justice system to move,
much quicker,
average, length of stay
200 days is unacceptable. It’s too long County. Jails were never
designed to be that long.
The average stay around the state is around 60 days
around the rest of the country. It can hover around 30 days. It’s meant
to be just a temporary State
and
We want to make sure that we’re addressing that also Staffing.
Well
minimum standards may be acceptable. In terms
of
regular in a regulatory mechanism that’s in place by the state.
It
may be that we may need more in certain areas to really be able to
deliver
optimal responses to different things. You know, our staff many
times gets pulled in different directions, they’re overworked they
should be paid more.
And so we want to make sure we’re working with cap County leaders so
that we could all be Solutions or
Rented, and we want the public to
have trust in the type of system that we’re operating here in our
community. And it’s,
it’s compared to incredibly challenging when we’re dealing with high
crime, and many of our neighborhoods, and we want to make sure that we’re holding individuals
accountable,
but on the other side, we want to make sure that we do it in a fair.
And
in a
way that reflects procedural Justice,
I don’t know where all of the County Commissioners standard, but at least County
Commissioner
Ramsey said that he would be in favor of a new facility,
he thinks it’s long overdue.
And that we should be able to find money within the budget
to accommodate that and pay Detention officers. More,
how much money would you think your office would need
to
make those improvements if the county commissioner says, or
the commission as a whole says,
what do you need?
Sure.
Yes. Well, I think it’s twofold and I think you touched on two important
aspects. One is making sure that we do look at our facilities.
I think that, in my opinion, they’ve reached their end of life,
the, the buildings that we have right now, with the exception of this
one,
Our joint processing center. We’re never really truly designed
with all the
best practices in mind.
And so, for example, some of our
facilities for housing don’t have any natural light, just natural
life, natural light could be therapeutic,
our population has grown. Since many of these buildings were first
opened
up for as Corrections facilities.
So they reach their end of life. It’s very costly. Some of the parts are no
longer available
maintenance, and all that is very hard. So,
I would say, we need a strategic plan.
Just to see what works
not only now. But for the future of our County, I think that’s very reasonable
and the smart thing to do. Let’s let the
evidence and research guide our decisions.
I think we instead of saying, let’s add more
because I also think we over incarcerate to be quite
Frank.
I think that
we need to find what the right number would me to keep up with population
growth, where we want this to be a growing region,
but
it may not be that we need necessarily
a new like,
additional it.
Maybe that we just need a replacement
and I think that that’s the key is to look, maybe we just need to replace
a dated building
with a more modern View and reimagine jealous
in our community, which I think could be a positive
on the area of Staffing. We are working on a staffing plan to see
what that right number is we believe it’s more than what we have
right now.
But we also want to be good stewards of the taxpayers money and be responsible
and make sure that we’re just not adding more people that maybe
aren’t needed
and so it’s a matter of trying to find what that
That right number is and so we’re working with that with the
county budget office. To try to, determine that based on Staffing
analysis,
and it community, and civil rights activists have
had
Constantly calling for an oversight, from an
outside agency, like the Department of Justice.
What’s your reaction to that? I know that you did
reach out to the FBI to look into at least two cases. I think
it was the pillow
and the Simmons case. Why those two?
Yes.
Well, again, I think that
we understand
the concerns,
we believe this is of critical importance to the community, making
sure that we’re operating a safe and just
gel system.
It’s a responsibility that
I do not take lightly or our team does and we talk about
this every day
so we understand
the concerns and
and, and we support that
I proactively last week even before the, the
more recent request form. A tie proactively reached out to
the FBI and requested
for the sake of transparency and openness
to make sure that they’re looking at things. We want to make sure
that we’re operating in a
again in a
We’ll just way that
they can review these cases
in particular for any potential civil rights violations.
And so we welcome that
degree of oversight. We think in light of
the concerns that are out there
that
lets bring more and
more
set of eyes, that could help. Make sure that if there’s
corrective measures that are needed to do it, if there’s accountability
that’s been miss somewhere that we do that,
we took action Swift action in the case of Simmons, because we
felt they were concerns at the beginning.
That’s obviously,
Lie still being played out in. Sometimes, it’s hard to comment on specific
cases because
many know that we’re very transparent open.
Generally speaking on these cases we’re not investigating them
and so that’s why sometimes
we just can’t speak about particulars because we’re not leading the investigation
on
Ministry of we do
and on these particular cases because obviously
they’ve drawn attention on one
individual was indicted
on serious charges and so we think that that case
and then a more recent one because it happened
And and the communities
obviously
expressed concerns.
We thought let’s let them take a look at it
and then we’ll take it from there.
Last question and this is from
KPRC 2 investigates.
How do you feel about the new interlocal agreement between the
county and City going
into the rodeo?
And do you see more agencies talking and putting plans
together as a result?
I’m not familiar with the interlocal agreement. I’m not sure which
one it is. If it’s specific to the public safety
measures, we do
meet with all our different partners
about safety
and especially in response obviously
to the AstroWorld incident. There is a lot more collaborative.
Native nature, making sure everyone has a seat at the table and we’re working
on
on the permitting process and things like that and so
I know we’re working on that. I think that’s a good thing. Obviously again we want
to improve and make sure that things that may have happened. The past do not have anymore,
so it’s specific to that. I think it’s a positive thing. I don’t know all the
details about the interlocal agreement though.
Thank you.