Focus on Criminal Justice

The Houston Policy Challenge is an annual policy competition that enables Rice students to learn about and respond to a real-world policy challenge facing Houston leaders and residents. This year four student coordinators – Emma Donnelly, Jason Lee, Ashley Nguyen, and Emma Young – called on their peers to craft policies that address the Houston criminal justice system. After conducting research over the summer, the coordinators developed six issue prompts for teams of students to begin working on in the fall. Under the guidance of the coordinators, the participants learned about the policy issue from faculty, city, and community experts and drew on knowledge and skills they had learned in the classroom to design creative policy solutions. On February 26, participants pitched their policy proposals to a panel of judges that included Judge Franklin Bynum, Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 8, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison, Southern District of Texas, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Goldberg. Each of their proposals addressed challenges outlined in one or more of the issue prompts.

Their proposals challenged us to take a position of critical hope regarding our collective ability to change the justice system in Houston and Harris County. They asked us, as well, to consider what opportunities for critical hope we might create for justice-involved people if we fundamentally change the way we think about and practice community policing and school discipline, pretrial procedures and incarceration, and community re-entry.

Prompt 1: Pretrial Procedure

Cash bail is a practice of requiring defendants to pay money upfront to secure their release pretrial. Those who cannot pay bail are detained in county jails until their trial, despite being legally innocent. In contrast, wealthier defendants are able to pay bail and await trial in their homes/community. The time spent in pretrial detention can have dramatic effects on indigent defendants’ lives: they may lose their jobs, custody of their children, or their home.

Prompt Two: Mental Health and Substance Abuse

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that 64% of people held in jails have a mental health problem; among the population of jailed persons with mental health problems, 76% meet the criteria for substance dependence or abuse. The War on Drugs of the last several decades has dramatically increased the incarcerated population in the United States, particularly for drug offenses. The increasing criminalization of drugs and reduction in social safety nets for vulnerable populations have contributed to this phenomenon.

Prompt Three: Special Populations

Experiences within the justice system can vary greatly among different populations. This may include juveniles, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and women, whose needs regarding services and treatments may differ from the standard within the justice system. Oftentimes, the unique needs of these special populations are not considered or addressed by criminal justice policies.

Prompt Four: Prison Conditions and Services

With over 9000 people incarcerated in Harris County jail facilities, overcrowding has led the Houston County Sheriff’s Office to outsource inmates to other jails, some as far as Louisiana. Overcrowding is one of the key contributing factors to poor prison conditions and services. In addition to financial ramifications, it also contributes to failures to meet basic human needs, lack of programming and medical attention, increased gang activity within prisons, as well as an increase in illness and disease.

Prompt Five: Re-Entry

As over 13,000 people are released from state level confinement each year in Harris County, there is a wide variation in what this means for people attempting to transition back into their communities. In addition to supervision services, formerly incarcerated persons consistently face challenges in finding housing, employment, addressing mental health issues, and accessing social services. While some reentry programs exist, provided by the Houston Health Department or the Houston County Sheriff's Office, services are largely provided by non-profits and faith-based organizations.

Prompt Six: Racial Disparities in the Justice System

African American and Hispanic residents in Harris county face many of the same racial disparities in criminal justice engagement that are seen and discussed more broadly on a national policy level. For example, Black students in HISD are 3.85 times more likely than white students to receive exclusionary punishment in schools and Hispanic students are 70% more likely to be disciplined than white students. Racial profiling, disparities in incarceration for drug offenses, and use of force by authorities are some key national policy issues that also need to be addressed in Harris County.