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: Grits for Breakfast

Judges have tools to reduce Harris jail overcrowding, if they'll use them

An excellent op ed by attorney Rob Fickman appeared in yesterday's Houston Chronicle (rightly) blaming Harris County judges for jail overcrowding. He provides specific suggestions for how judges must change their behavior if the county hopes to solve the problem without building a new jail that voters don't want:?Judges setting bonds must remember that the people they are setting bond for are, whether they believe it or not, presumed innocent. Bond is supposed to be set only in an amount high enough to assure the defendant's appearance in court. Judges need to stop thinking like prosecutors when they set bond. Bond set in amounts calculated to punish the defendant for the crime charged, punitive bonds, ignore the Constitution and waste jail space...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).