Houston council member delays $14 million payment to county to draw attention to jail deaths

A Houston City Council member this week temporarily delayed a $14 million payment to Harris County for its joint processing center for jail detainees, demanding more information about why so many people have died in jail custody.

Citing last year’s Houston Landing “Deadly Detention” investigation that found people with mental illnesses died in county jail custody at a higher rate than the statewide average, At-Large Councilmember Julian Ramirez on Wednesday called on the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to provide more information about efforts to lower the number of deaths before council takes the item up again in two weeks.

Ramirez took the action weeks after the Harris County Jail failed its most recent state safety inspection .

“I did it to call attention to the problem and to make it clear that we’re not satisfied with the way these inmates are being treated,” Ramirez said Thursday. “The city of Houston is the biggest customer in the Houston area, therefore, most of these deaths are going to be Houston residents.”

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Deadly Detention: A Houston Landing investig ation

The city has no control over the Harris County Jail. But it did partner with the county to build the Harris County Joint Processing Center, a modern facility that opened in 2019 and serves as the first step in processing detainees into the jail.

Houston pays the county millions of dollars annually to use the center based on the number of arrestees from the city who are processed there. The city and the county currently are negotiating that annual fee.

The agenda item delayed by Ramirez asked City Council to approve a third amendment to a 2015 agreement between the city and the county. That agreement set the terms for construction and operation of the center.

The amended agreement would extend the terms of last year’s payment — a $14 million flat fee — for an additional year while the city and county hammer out an agreement.

During the five years since the joint processing center has been open, the Harris County Jail has been plagued with reports of overcrowding, understaffing and poor conditions.

The Landing’s investigation found that nearly 60 percent of the 62 people who died of unnatural causes in the custody of the Harris County Jail between 2012 and 2022 had been identified as mentally ill.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has deemed the county jail noncompliant with the state’s minimum jail standards since 2022. The jail most recently failed a state safety inspection last week, which found the jail did not meet minimum standards for staffing, officers failed to conduct regular observations of detainees and a large number of detainees that did not receive prescribed medications.

In 2022, the president of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies union referred to the jail as a “modern-day Alcatraz.”

Ramirez took office in January and said he thought it was important to call attention to the issue early in his term to demonstrate that the situation is untenable.

Ramirez said he asked the sheriff’s office to identify what it is going to be doing differently to improve the situation because “what we’re doing now isn’t working.”

The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The sheriff’s office previously has pointed to understaffing as the source of the jail’s troubles. Commissioners Court last fall approved a 12 percent salary increase for detention officers in an effort to boost recruiting and retainment.

The county also spends millions to outsource the pre-trial detention of some arrestees to private facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

In response to Ramirez’s comments at Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor John Whitmire said he shared the council member’s concerns.

Whitmire said officers have told him they hesitate to book arrestees at the joint processing center because the wait times can eat up an entire shift, taking the officer off of street patrol. Inmates reportedly can spend more than 24 hours waiting in processing before a bed in the jail opens up, the mayor added.

“If everyone would hit the urgent button over there at the county courthouse, process the folks, review their bond consideration and get them to their hearings, the whole system would work better,” Whitmire said.

In a statement Thursday, a Whitmire spokesperson said the mayor wants to improve communication between the Houston Police Department and the sheriff’s office to decrease delays for officers and detainees.

Ramirez’s administrative maneuver, known as “tagging” an agenda item, will only withhold the item from council consideration until it next meets on March 20.

The council member said he hoped the delay will encourage further dialogue between the city and the county about finding a permanent solution to the jail’s problems, Ramirez said. If he is not satisfied with the response from the sheriff’s office, he noted this is an election year for Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who easily fended off three challengers in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

“The voters need to know what is being done to protect our residents,” Ramirez said.