Thousands unnecessarily arrested for minor offenses in Texas, a new report finds

Thousands of individuals throughout Texas had been arrested in 2019 for offenses that would have been dealt with with a quotation as an alternative, in accordance with a current report.

The report, launched by the nonprofit Texas Appleseed in December, checked out arrests made that yr in eight Texas jurisdictions, together with 5 in North Texas. Researchers discovered greater than 15,000 folks throughout the state arrested for probably citation-eligible minor offenses.

“When we say unnecessarily, it means that technically by law, they could have been issued a citation and a summons to appear in court to deal with their charge at a later date, rather than physically placing them in a carceral institution for detention,” stated Jennifer Carreon, director of Texas Appleseed’s Criminal Justice Project.

The bulk of arrests had been for Class C misdemeanors, which embody public intoxication or disorderly conduct, in addition to different offenses which embody low-level theft, possession of marijuana and driving with an invalid license. The information does not depend folks arrested on a number of higher-level costs and warrants on prime of the Class C offense.

Few Class C misdemeanors mandate jail time beneath state legislation, however officers have broad discretion to make arrests and wouldn’t have to elucidate why they arrest somebody for a citation-eligible offense. A bill that would have changed that failed to pass in the 2019 Legislature.

The report recommends an finish to warrantless arrests for Class C misdemeanors with restricted exceptions, and the creation and implementation of a statewide cite-and-release coverage that each one jurisdictions can undertake.

“The data shows us that [with] the justice system that is currently burdening our jails that are busting at the seams, there are ways to help that to alleviate the system to help our communities and to make everybody feel safer by making sure that resources and time are being allocated efficiently,” Carreon stated.

The report discovered stark variations throughout areas. In Austin, which had cite-and-release insurance policies on the books in 2019, simply 4% of all arrests had been probably eligible for a quotation, in accordance with the information.

In distinction, the report discovered Dallas and Fort Worth noticed greater than 20% of arrests that would have been dealt with with a quotation. Dallas and Tarrant counties didn’t have official cite-and-release insurance policies on the books on the time, although they’ve since been enacted, suggesting such reforms may very well be profitable in diverting folks from jail.

A spokesperson for the the Dallas Police Department stated the division couldn’t remark, as a result of it didn’t have sufficient information based mostly on the report’s findings. The Fort Worth Police Department didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The report additionally discovered racial disparities in arrests for possession of marijuana and driving with an invalid license. While Black folks make up about 21% of the inhabitants in the eight jurisdictions, they made up practically 39% of citation-eligible arrests.

Carreon stated the excessive variety of citation-eligible arrests have profound impacts on communities, rising folks’s chance of being arrested once more in addition to losing taxpayer cash and legislation enforcement sources to ebook and arraign the arrestees.

“Every shortcoming, every unintended consequence, every collateral damage that is existing or associated with the use of citation-eligible arrests is disproportionately impacting communities of color,” Carreon stated.

Got a tip? Email Pablo Arauz Peña at [email protected]

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