THOUSANDS LANGUISH IN CROWDED JAIL

Inmates Can Stay Locked Up More Than a Year Waiting for Trial in
Low-Level Crimes

More than half of the 11,500 inmates crammed into the Harris County
Jail have not yet been found guilty of a crime but await their day in
court confined with convicted criminals in conditions that repeatedly
flunk state and federal safety inspections.

The most common accusation against them: possession of a crack pipe
or minuscule amount of drugs.

Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a speedy trial,
at least 500 county inmates have been locked up for more than a year
as they wait to be judged, according to an analysis of inmate data by
the Houston Chronicle.

About 1,200 have been jailed six months or more though many face only
minor felony charges, such as bouncing checks, credit card fraud,
trespassing or even civil violations. In fact, around 200 inmates,
theoretically innocent until proven guilty, appear to already have
served more than the minimum sentence for the crime they allegedly
committed, based on the newspaper's analysis of inmate data provided
by the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

That's what happened to 60-year-old Billy Holmes. Twice.

Holmes was arrested the morning of May 16, 2005, by two officers who
said he fled when they responded to a disturbance call. Holmes, who
has a pair of 20-year-old prior felony convictions, waited nearly a
year in jail for his first trial. Then in March 2006, Holmes
testified in his own defense that the search was illegal and the pipe
wasn't his. As a black man, he argued, he'd been unfairly chased and
arrested after being approached as he stood holding a garden hoe and
chatting with a friend in front of his home.

The jury split. It took five hours of deliberations before jurors
decided he was guilty after reviewing statements from arresting
officers who said they found the pipe in his hip pocket. He got the
minimum sentence of six months.

By then, Holmes already had served more time than the given sentence
as he awaited trial in Harris County's jail.

in June that the county explore alternatives to prosecution for minor
nonviolent offenses, release more inmates before trial and try to
process all but the most complicated cases, like those involving the
death penalty, in less than six months.

Drug Charges Common

Harris County faces the threat of a U.S. Department of Justice
lawsuit over inhumane and unsafe conditions in its jails, chock full
of low-level drug offenders like Holmes. In fact, about a third of
all county jail inmates face drug possession charges.

Only a handful of accused felons -- just 376 out of more than 38,000
cases last year -- get released before trial based on their own
pledge to appear when required, according to reports from the
county's own Pretrial Services program. That's a tiny fraction of the
14,966 people who scored as low risk in pretrial interviews last
year, one of the major factors judges consider in making bonding
decisions. As a result, many people who can't afford to post bail
simply stay in jail, including some accused only of misdemeanors.

"We're looking at all of that, on scheduling of court cases and so
forth, about giving priority to jail cases," said District Attorney
Pat Lykos. "Right now you cannot tell by looking at the case how long
someone has been in jail ... I can't give you answers right now
because we don't have the data to base a rational answer, but we're
going to get it and we're going to get it soon."

In all, thousands of inmates accused of nonviolent crimes but not yet
convicted remain packed into cells so crowded that many sleep on
mattresses on the floor. Others are shipped to overflow cells that
Harris County rents 387 miles away in Epps, La., at a cost of $9
million last year.

"That's one of the ... biggest travesties," said Mark Hochglaube, a
Houston attorney who has studied the problem as part of a county
committee on indigent defense. Even a person who claims innocence,
Hochglaube argues, when faced with the possibility of being locked up
for months before getting to trial, will likely plead guilty because
first offenders often can get out sooner if they don't fight.

Holmes, his lawyer Joseph Varela says, insisted on his right to trial
- -- even though in the end, it meant Holmes served far more time than
he would have otherwise. In fact, Holmes has racked up about 800 days
in jail at a total cost to taxpayers of more than $32,000 related to
his charge of possession of a lone crack pipe -- a minimum of $40 a
day not counting legal or court costs, transportation and other expenses.

Houston attorney Patrick McCann, a long-time activist on criminal
defense issues, said he believes that the judges' reluctance to
release drug and other nonviolent, low-level offenders who can't pay
bail is the biggest factor behind the county's dangerous jail overcrowding.

Caseload is another factor keeping people locked up longer. The
county's 22 district courts handled 45,163 cases filed in 2008, while
a decade ago, they handled 27,628 cases. Half of Harris County's
district courts have backlogs of a year or longer for 50 or more
felony cases involving jailed inmates, the Chronicle analysis showed.
Some defendants have waited as long as three years or more to see
their cases resolved.

A group of Harris County judges recently requested that the county
commissioners fund a public defenders office to handle criminal
appeals and so-called state jail felonies, low-level cases that
commonly clog the jails and courts. So far the commissioners have not
responded to that request.

Instead that proposal has been folded into the work of Harris County
Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a group formed to study bond,
prosecution and other systemic problems behind a 50 percent boom in
the jail population from 7,600 in January 2004 to 11,500 in February
2009, the county consultant's report says. The county's annual bill:
more than $192 million.

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NOT YET JUDGED BUT JAILED

A county consultant has recommended inmate case processing should not
exceed six months.

11,000: Inmates regularly jailed in Harris County facilities

1,880: Detained pretrial on a single drug possession charge

1,200: Waiting more than six months to be judged

500: Waiting more than a year to be judged

Sources: Houston Chronicle analysis of inmates jailed in July; Harris
County consultant's June report on jail crowding.