The local violent crime rate is soaring, with homicides alone up over 35% compared to last year. One of the reasons for the rise in violent crime appears to be the turnstile spinning away at the Harris County Jail. Law enforcement officers are doing their jobs, investigating crimes and making felony arrests. Unfortunately, some local Criminal District Court judges have been repeatedly releasing violent, felony defendants from jail on relatively low bonds or PR bonds, essentially ignoring the threat to the public. These felony defendants usually have extensive criminal histories, repeatedly victimizing people and businesses. IMHO, when our elected judges keep blatantly disregarding public safety, it's time for us to elect some new judges. Regardless of political party affiliation, these judges must be held accountable for their reckless bail bond decisions when they come up for re-election next year. Hopefully, they will draw competent primary opponents.
So, who are these local judges and what exactly have they been doing? Fortunately, local Channel 26 News has documented some of this reckless judicial behavior in their detailed "Breaking Bond" investigative series -- please click on the link below to see their reports. You will see how bonding decisions made by local judges have directly impacted people's lives. Clearly, local judicial elections can have dire consequences for all of us.
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UPDATE 7/23/21: According to a Channel 13 investigative story: Despite a huge backlog of over 90,000 cases, our Harris County judges have only held 113 trials over the past 12 months. Wow. So, judges repeatedly release violent defendants from jail on bond and then don't hold trials? Justice isn't only blind, it's reckless, lazy, and incompetent, too. Again, we need to elect some new Harris County Criminal District Court judges next year. Please click on the link below to read the story:
UPDATE 3/25/22: During the March 2022 Democratic primary, ten (10) Harris County incumbent judges lost their bid for re-election. Still, most incumbent criminal court judges won their primary and will be in contested races this November. Stay tuned, my friends.
For more information on the March 2022 primary results, please see the link below:
FOR MORE POSTS, please routinely check HarrisCountyDemocrats.com.