Floodplain Building Regulations Pass; Harris County Jail’s Post-Harvey Overcrowding

Photo of mural on Bayou City Cycles, 1303 Cullen Blvd.: Leonid Notax via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • Re: Harris County Jail’s Post-Harvey Overcrowding
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    Can solve the issue in one sentence. Release everyone with a minor drug conviction.

  • I had a nightmare that I was stuck next to HEB on a flight to Seattle. The flight attendant finally shoved a pacifier in its gullet and the entire cabin erupted in applause.

  • @HEBIsBetterThanKroger: Two thirds of the inmates at the Harris County Jail are pre-trial defendants unable to post their bond. Some are detained for weeks or even months awaiting trial because the bail is set beyond their financial means. In order to have a bondsman post your bail, you must provide sufficient collateral to cover the bond. Many pre-trial defendants likely could be released on their own recognizance or with a much lower bond, but the Texas criminal statutes, such as they are written, do not allow judges to do that.

  • Rusty Shackelford, that boy ain’t right

  • You guys! We all can’t live in a liberal paradise..

    @Jardinero1: This is true. The current cash-for-bail system is sad.

  • In other news, City of Houston adopts ordinance to address something that caused 2% of houses to flood, ignores what caused the other 98% of houses to flood and moves on ….

  • HEB: I just got done doing an eviction. The tenant left a bunch of stuff behind. I told my guys to clear it out. There was a small bag with a bit of weed in it. I took it out (vs. leaving it) and left the property. A bunch of cops who were watching the place for drug activity pulled me over and searched my car. Found the little baggy with about .01 oz of shake and took me to jail. Yeah, all the charges ended up being dropped (I wasn’t the ‘king pin’ they originally thought) but that didn’t mean I didn’t get a tirp to jail, have to get processed in the system, stay for a day, etc.

    So it’s hard for me to feel sorry for their overcrowding plight when they arrest for stupid shit like that.

  • Jardinero: In my case, I couldn’t bail myself out. Even though I happened to have that cash on me. Instead I had to go though the whole 1 day to process in / 1 day to process out and try to remember a f’ing land land to call to get someone to post bond (since their phones can’t call cells. Not that I have many of them memorized either)