NEW LAW ALLOWS CITATIONS FOR SOME DRUG POSSESSION

Ticketing May Reduce Jail Overcrowding

Law enforcement agencies can reduce the strain on the overcrowded
Lubbock County jail - if they begin to write tickets instead of
taking some misdemeanor offenders to jail.

Legislators overwhelmingly passed a law that began Sept. 1, making
possession of less than four ounces of marijuana a ticketable
offense instead of making officers arrest people and take them to jail.

Six other misdemeanors are also ticketable at officer discretion.

HB 2391 could reduce jail populations across the state and save
counties money without reducing the severity of punishment
associated with such drug possession.

The Lubbock County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Public
Safety say they've told officers they have the option to ticket.

But the Lubbock Police Department says it lacks the proper paperwork
and channels for ticketing offenders rather than arresting them.

"We've looked at that, and we really haven't changed the way we're
operating," Dale Holton, assistant Lubbock police chief said. "This
is an option we're not procedurally ready to handle right now."

But he added the department would be open to making the change.

District Attorney Matt Powell supports the law and is confident the
courts and law enforcement agencies can work together to utilize the
freedom the law allows.

"Anything that gives officers more discretion, I don't have a
problem with," he said.

In fact, Powell's office gave law enforcement officers discretion on
one of the crimes months before the law went into effect.

Powell said for the last several months his office has encouraged
officers to issue citations for driving with an invalid license. He
said it's up to the officer, but for non-habitual offenders,
sometimes writing a ticket is the best course of action.

"Our objective is to get those guys legal to drive," he said.

With the other crimes, however, Powell said he doesn't feel the same way.

"I don't like thieves," he said.

"With some of these offenses, maybe a trip to the jailhouse is warranted."

State Representative Carl Isett said the bill, which passed
unanimously in the House and 29-1 in the Senate, was designed to
give law enforcement officers a tool in managing their local jail populations.

"All of us are concerned with overcrowding in county jails," he
said. "This bill is meant to ease the burden on the jails."

The bill can ease that burden, Isett said, by allowing those people
who sit in jail for these misdemeanors only because they cannot post
bail to forego the process - thus freeing space for violent offenders.

With a severely overcrowded county jail - Lubbock County is
currently building a new jail because its current facility is
outdated and too small - Lubbock could benefit greatly if law
enforcement agencies in the county used the opportunity to write
tickets, law enforcement officers and court officials say.

"There has been no effect yet," David Slayton, courts administrator,
said. "If officers start using citations, the effect could be
dramatic. It totally revolutionizes the way we do things."

Lawmen's response

"We're not going to handcuff their discretion if they're given it
legislatively," Maj. Don Carter with the Lubbock Sheriffs Office
said. "Every case is an individual case, and it's got to stand on
its own merit."

He added: "If you have the opportunity to write a citation, why wouldn't you?"

The Department of Public Safety, likewise, will let officers
determine the necessity of an arrest and possibly issue a ticket,
leaving it up to the Criminal District Attorney's Office to assign a
court date, said Cpl. John Gonzales.

"Our policy still is to maintain an arrest, but the discretion
belongs to the officers in the field based upon the facilities," he said.

Lubbock police will continue to arrest people because the
department's citations are currently set up for municipal court,
which only handles class C misdemeanors. With these eight offenses
being class A and B, they are under justice of the peace court
jurisdiction, and the police department's tickets are not currently
set up to handle that.

This is not a philosophical issue, Holton said, as it is the
responsibility of the police department to enforce what the
legislature dictates.

The number of arrests for possession of four ounces or less of
marijuana rose more than 60 percent this September over last - from
66 to 104 arrests.

While not jailing offenders - particularly those caught with
marijuana - in a state known for its tough-on-crime attitude might
sound counter-intuitive, Isett says no changes to the punishment for
these crimes have been made.

"Of course I have concerns, but it doesn't decriminalize anything,"
he said. "The crime itself has not in any way been lightened."

He said the law does not provide for criminals to avoid punishment
or even delay punishment.

Effect on taxpayers

Isett said the bill could save counties an average of $66 dollars
per day for each person the law keeps out of jail.

Lubbock County's daily cost is less than average, but when
multiplied by the number of monthly arrests, is still significant.

Kelly Rowe, chief administrator with the Lubbock County Sheriff's
Office, said the average daily cost of jailing a person is about $38.

The law could potentially save $38-$50 per person in jail costs
since the average person arrested on a misdemeanor does not spend
significant time in jail, Rowe said.

In figuring potential savings, opportunity cost also comes into
play. For every day a person sits in the Lubbock County jail, his
citation is reduced by $100.

Therefore, arresting a person instead of writing a ticket costs
around $140 per day.

To put that in perspective, law enforcement agencies made 145
arrests in September for the offenses now ticketable under the new law.

If each of these people were jailed for only one day, it could have
cost the county about $20,000.

Holton said, however, implementation of the new law might just delay
some of those costs because people who fail to appear in court after
being issued a citation then have to be booked and jailed.

What it means to courts

When a person is arrested for possession of less than four ounces of
marijuana, he is booked into jail and stays there until he goes
before a magistrate and pays his bond. He is then accountable to his
bonding company to show up in court at his scheduled time.

If that person is issued a citation for the same offense instead of
being jailed, the officer gives him a court date and he is supposed
to show up at that time. Slayton said if the offender fails to show
up, a judge can issue a warrant for the person's arrest, but before
that, there is not the same level of accountability as with an arrest.

The problem with officers giving court dates, Slayton said, is it
often takes more than 30 days for the Criminal District Attorney's
office to file a case because of its backlog. If the person shows up
before the case has been filed, the judge has no jurisdiction and
must reset the court date.

"We're planning a discussion with law enforcement agencies in the
county to come up with a good plan, rather than an arbitrary date
just to show up," Slayton said.

Another issue with the new law is when officers write tickets for
arrestable offenses, there is no arrest record for that person
unless charges are filed by the CDA's office.

From the court's perspective, Slayton said it's not really a
problem, but could cause a headache for law enforcement officers.

"What we're concerned about is convictions," Slayton said. "But from
a criminal justice perspective, it's a problem because knowing
someone has multiple arrests is helpful to officers."

One idea Slayton said he's heard is the courts could be responsible
for fingerprinting and the other actions normally associated with booking.

"It's weird to think it's the courts' role to do that. It's kind of
an unintended consequence," he said.