County inching closer to public defender’s office

Hays County is inching closer to establishing a public defender’s office. 

County commissioners Lon Shell and Debbie Ingalsbe, alongside Mano Amiga, provided an update regarding the public defender’s office on Tuesday. 

“Investment into representation instead of incarceration cannot come soon enough,” Mano Amiga Policy Director Eric Martinez said. “It is up to commissioners Shell and Ingalsbe to carry it forward to the [commissioners] court to make one of the defining moments of a decade — a moment where our community decided to bring a public defender’s office to people so desperately in need of one — to fight jail overcrowding, to fight the case backlog and to fight for a system for improved representation.”

The Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved funding for the creation of the public defender’s office on Aug. 24, 2021. The court earmarked $5 million of American Rescue Plan funding for the PDO. 

Ingalsbe said a discussion regarding the public defender’s office is expected to take place during the next commissioners court meeting after receiving two respondents to its request for proposal. 

“I feel that we are so much closer, I know it’s taken much longer than we all anticipated, but on April 26 we do plan to take an agenda item to court for the creation [of a public defender’s office],” said Ingalsbe, who sits alongside Shell on the Hays County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission. “The funds have been secured and we also put money in for magistration and pretrial services that can enhance the service that we are going to provide to the public defender’s office” 

As of Tuesday, the Hays County Jail’s daily average for the week of April 3-10 was 666 inmates with a peak of 674 on April 4, according to a report from the Hays County Sheriff’s Office read during commissioners court. The jail’s capacity is 410 inmates but jail standards ask that capacity be reduced by 10%, lowering the county jail’s capacity to 368. Hays County outsourced an average of 213 male and 22 female inmates to jails in Atascosa, Blanco, Comal, Fort Bend, Grimes, Lee, Maverick and Red River counties. The cost to outsource inmates for the week was $110,005. 

Martinez said approximately 80% of the total jail population are pretrial detainees. 

“These are legally innocent people who’ve only been charged but not convicted of the crime of which they have been accused,” Martinez said. “They’re a legally innocent individuals. They’re simply there because they’re too poor to afford their freedom, too poor to afford bail and unable to pay 10% of their total bail to a bondsman. Eighty percent of people in our jail can expect to spend at a minimum 30 days in jail. That’s 30 long days away from their loved ones, from their families, from their ability to work and worship. Thirty days that they will not see the outside of the jail cell. That is the most common experience for the vast majority of people in our county jail.”

Martinez said county taxpayers will pay anywhere from $80-$100 a day per person for those in the county jail. 

“Those individuals in our jail cost our taxpayers,” Shell said. “That’s a liability. That’s not just a liability for the person that’s there but the other individuals in the jail, the staff in the jail and our taxpayers. So, what we’re trying to do is to put another piece of this puzzle together so that we can solve some of these problems in a fast-growing area and now an urban area.” 

The Hays County Jail has undergone an expansion, which was approved by Hays County voters in 2016. But Shell said the county will still have to outsource inmates even with the expansion. 

“That obviously is not in the best interest of criminal justice,” Shell said. “It’s not good for those that we’re trying to ensure that their constitutional rights are protected. It’s not good for victims. It’s not good for families. It’s not good for our community. So, I think we all recognize that all of the players recognize that that is not good.” 

The commissioners hope to discuss applicants during the April 26 meeting and then come up with terms for a contract with the finalist. A Hays County District Court or County Court-at-Law judge would have to support the public defender’s office in order for it to be officially created. 

Shell said he believes a public defender’s office can help alleviate the stress the criminal justice system faces in the county.  

“I think the public defender's office is a step for us to move forward for us to find ways to improve our system in collaboration with all of those participants whether it’s judges and attorneys and prosecutors and clerks and also our community members,” Shell said. “I’m extremely impressed with the respondents we’ve gotten for our request for proposal. I think either of the respondents could do a very good job. I think now it’s going to be up for the commissioners court to make some decisions and recommendations based upon input that we hear from others.”