Letters to the Editor

State incarceration overreach will bankrupt Hays County

Editor,

Hays County’s criminal legal system has long had problems: from our habitually overcrowded jail that’s led to an outsourcing problem to our chronically slow court system. In 2017, Hays County had the 7th slowest district court system in Texas. A July 1, 2021, Texas Commission on Jail Standards report listed Hays third highest in detainee outsourcing. Hays County residents paid $54,000 between June 13-19 alone to send 126 detainees to other counties so that our full jail could stay in compliance with state jail standards. A full jail, slow courts, and extremist “bail reform” measures making their way through Special Session right now promise to only worsen this dire problem.