|
John,
In case you missed it, today we released our latest report, Care Not Cages: Stop Racist Policing and Jailing in Harris County. The learnings from this report are something our communities have known: there are significant racial disparities in jails across the country, and Harris County is no exception.
According to the report, in 2017 1 out of 5 people in Houston were Black, yet from March 2015 through March 2018, over 45% of the Harris County population was Black and served 51% of the nights in jail—that's over 3.9 million combined nights.
We also learned that the lead charge driving the most nights spent in the Harris County jail was possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance—the equivalent of a sugar packet.
Of the top charges involved in arrests and bookings into the Harris County Jail, two are associated with driving without proper documentation. Combined, Failure to Maintain Financial Responsibility (No insurance) and No Driver’s License charges were the most common charges among Harris County bookings over the studied period.
Based on these findings, we are calling on Houston and Harris County elected officials to immediately act on the following:
-
Houston Police Department eliminate racial profiling and unnecessary searches.
-
Harris County Commissioners Court immediately prioritize funding pre-arrest alternatives to incarceration for drug possession.
-
Harris County Criminal Court Judges implement a policy to grant automatic personal recognizance bonds to all defendants charged with POCS <1g (possession of less than 1 gram of a controlled substance).
-
Harris County District Attorney stop prosecuting POCS <1g cases.
-
Harris County Sheriff’s Office increase data transparency, accuracy and community accessibility.
It's time for Harris County to stop wasting tax dollars arresting, incarcerating, and funneling people through the criminal court system. What we need instead is investment in community-based response to substance use and recovery rather than punishment. Our communities deserve better than this.
At our press conference today, one of our community members and native Houstonian Darren Joseph shared his experience of being a student at Texas Southern University and being sent to jail for three days after his traffic ticket (failure to signal) led to a warrant for his arrest.
“When I got pulled over, the police officer told me that the car would be impounded—I asked if someone could take it, they told me no. After the three days I was in jail, the cost to get my car out was around $600. The warrant and traffic ticket in combination was close to another $400. I could not afford all of that along with my rent, my car note, paying for school out of pocket, and then on top of that, sitting in jail for three days. It felt like a violation. I felt like no one cared, especially those that have the power. It felt like they didn’t care about my life at all, and this happening more than once throughout my life has really been a burden. I really think something needs to change.”
It's stories like Darren's and stories like my own that ground me in this fight. People should not be targeted for the color of their skin, and elected officials must be held accountable by the people they represent.
If you're interested in getting involved, let me know. Together, we can continue fighting for a Houston that invests in our communities instead of incarcerating them.
To read the report, click on the image below or go to grassrootsleadership.org/carenotcages.
|
