Criminal justice commission membership shifts

When the Hays County Commissioners Court voted to convert County Judge Ruben Becerra’s criminal justice task force into an official commission of the court, the commissioners made some changes before approving the task force’s new incarnation as the Hays County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission.

“I support the Court’s decision to elevate the Judge’s Criminal Justice Task Force to a Commission,” Becerra said in a press release. “We share in the deep desire to effect change in a positive manner. This is a step in the right direction.”

The commission, which takes the place of an older body that the commissioners’ agenda described as being active “off and on” for about 10 years, will have the same mission statement as the task force. The mission is “to work collectively to manage systemic challenges facing Hays County’s criminal justice system in order to strengthen the overall well-being of our community by developing and recommending policies and practices that improve public safety, efficiency, accountability, and equity. The Commission will collect and evaluate local criminal justice data to identify systemic issues and facilitate collaboration between agencies, experts, and community service providers to improve Hays County’s criminal justice system,” a press release from the county states.

A new voting membership

The new commission also has bylaws and a formal membership and voting process. 

The Court approved Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe, Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell and County Chief of Staff Alex Villalobos as voting members representing the commissioners court.

Where the major difference in membership arose was the broadening of some membership categories and the elimination of two members of the task force: Anita Gupta, seasoned staff attorney with Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Gary Cobb, a former chief prosecutor. The new commission’s voting membership will consist of representatives chosen by the following agencies and organizations: Hays County Sheriff’s Office (both a law enforcement and a corrections representative), District Court, County Courts-at-Law, District Attorney, Community Supervision and Corrections Department (adult probation), District Clerk, County Clerk, Justices of the Peace, Constables, Information Technology, Juvenile Probation, Municipal Judges, the Hays County Bar Association, the local police departments (one representative for the collective group of departments operating in Hays County), Hill Country MHDD Center, the Central Texas Dispute Resolution Center, and one representative selected from social services agencies operating in Hays County (the task force had included a representative from the Hays Caldwell Women’s Center). In addition, Countywide Operations Criminal Justice Analyst Samantha Jones was named to the commission as a voting member, bringing the total number of voting representatives to 22, the county press release said. 

“The Commission will, as needed, draw on additional subject matter experts within the county to serve on committees that will focus on specific issues and initiatives and report to the full Commission for consideration of recommendations,” the county press release said. “Details about meeting dates and times will be forthcoming.

During Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting, Villalobos voiced his opposition to the exclusion of Cobb -- who has experience in indigent defense -- and Gupta, who has experience with immigration law.

“If we don’t address it now, we’re taking that resource away from this commission,” he said of the two positions.

Shell suggested that the commission could have a committee that deals with indigent defense.

Local grassroots group Mano Amiga echoed Villalobos’ concerns about the elimination of Cobb and Gupta from the commission, calling the move an attempt to water down the diversity of the commission.

“Republican commissioners booted Anita Gupta, seasoned staff attorney with Immigrant Legal Resource Center, as well as Gary Cobb, former chief prosecutor for Travis County, from their roles as voting members of county efforts to meaningfully tackle reform,” a statement from Mano Amiga read. “Instead, Commissioner Lon Shell pushed to endow his former intern [Jones, the criminal justice analyst], a recent Texas State undergraduate, with the voting powers he dared to strip away from these highly reputable legal experts.”

Mano Amiga is also assembling a coalition of Hays County-based businesses and organizations called the Public Defender’s Alliance. The group supports the creation of a public defender’s office in Hays County. 

“A Public Defender’s Office would be an alternative to overworked court-appointed attorneys, allowing low-income defendants to receive thorough support that goes beyond just showing up at the sentencing hearing, while also reducing the number of people in the overcrowded Hays County Jail,” a Mano Amiga statement reads. 

Providing a public defender’s office is one of the pretrial services strategies the county judge’s task force had been looking at.

The Public Defenders Alliance will be holding its first event at Splash Coworking on April 17.