A committee established to reform the county and state criminal courts in Tarrant County has unanimously decided on measures to hold judges and court employees accountable, improve the efficiency of the courts and reduce the Tarrant County Jail population.
The group was formed after an April 2 commissioners court meeting where a reorganization of the courts was proposed and County Judge Tim O’Hare suggested there was abuse in the court systems, saying, “We don’t want to see people get paid for 40 hours of work when they’re really working 10 hours ... We don’t want to see mismanagement of dollars where somebody is being paid more than their salary is supposed to be.”
The meeting led the commissioners to delay the proposed reorganization of the courts and form the committee to discuss how to best make changes in the criminal courts, which are made up of 21 Republican judges and their staffs. The committee was made up of judges, county leaders and attorneys.
The Star-Telegram obtained a copy of the committee’s report, which calls for substantial changes. The report recommends a measure that would publicly track the number of inmates in the Tarrant County Jail waiting for their day in court and how many cases judges hear. It also calls for a review on the efficiency of the courts to be presented in January 2025.
The report calls for a public criminal justice dashboard that would include a minimum number of cases to be dealt with by each court, as well as the number of in-custody inmates seen per court.
“We spearheaded the effort to get trial data published to the public, so they can see which judges are holding which cases and which judges have trial more often,” County Commissioner Manny Ramirez told the Star-Telegram in an interview Tuesday. “So I think that this report illuminated that fact that we need our judges to see which prisoners are held on which charges etc.”
Ramirez was not on the committee but was briefed on it’s report.
A spokesperson for O’Hare did not respond to a request for comment and Commissioner Roy Brooks declined to comment on the report. Brooks and O’Hare are the two commissioners court members on the committee.
Tracking jail population
The report creates a color-coded “jail population benchmark,” which states that contingency plans will be activated when the jail population transitions from green (the least severe, when there are less than 4,060 inmates) to yellow to red to black (the most severe, when there are more than 4,800 inmates).
“It concerns me when I looked at our jail report and saw that the average length of stay was over 100 days,” Ramirez said. “But yet, the average sentence was about 70 days, which means people were being held prior to trial, and then just let out after trial due to time served.”
As of Wednesday morning, 4,190 inmates were in the Tarrant County jail. The average stay was listed at 133 days.
The jail population was an issue both Commissioner Alisa Simmons and O’Hare mentioned during the April 2 meeting that led to formation of the committee to study reform.
“The committee took a very innovative approach when looking at how the County could enhance efficiencies within the entire criminal justice system and really ensuring all stakeholders are focused on improving operations at all steps in the process,” Tarrant County administrator Chandler Merritt said in an email Wednesday.
Merritt also mentioned the improvements to the public dashboard.
“Some of these metrics will include case disposition rates by Court and number of in-custody inmates per court,” Merritt said. “While many of the mandatory reporting requirements of the state are based on cases, stakeholders also discussed adding metrics that shift the paradigm to focus more on individuals within the system versus just looking at case information.”
Merritt also said the county secured a $400,000 grant from the State of Texas to create a “temporary felony court to assist in the backlog of in-custody cases with greater expediency.”
The report said the courts should prioritize in-custody cases to effectively expedite criminal-case disposal when the jail population reaches the outlined concerning thresholds.
Training for judges, court employees
A section of the committee’s report titled “prevent fraud, waste and abuse” includes four steps —”Approvals, Training, curriculum development and discipline” — criminal judges can take to prevent the issues that led to the creation of the committee on April 2.
The section calls for new training for all criminal court employees and the development of a curriculum created by the Courts Auditor’s office, Budget and Risk management, and Human Resources to be reviewed by all criminal court employees and elected judges.
There is also a section of the report titled “discipline,” which states that all criminal court employees and elected judges must work in accordance with state and county guidelines, as well as civil service rules, to ensure elected judges’ “core duties” are fulfilled.
The three judges on the committee — Ryan Hill, David Cook and Charles Vanover — did not respond to requests for comment on why the “fraud, waste and abuse” section was necessary to include in the report or on what examples of abuse were found.
“I think that anytime that you don’t have a clear chain of command, and clear oversight, then it becomes muddy and employees, and employers don’t know what to expect,” Ramirez said.
“With the system that placed a courts administrator, who was appointed by a panel of judges, and then that courts administrator, supervised nearly 100 employees, it was not very clear on who reported to who, where the chain of command was,” Ramirez said.
At the April 2 commissioners court meeting, multiple judges spoke in opposition to the proposed restructure and asked the commissioners to leave the current structure in place.
Court administrator eliminated
The report recommends that the position of criminal courts administrator — previously held by Gregory Shugart, who resigned from his position on June 17 — not be continued and requests it be cut from the 2025 fiscal year budget. Merritt said a three-member elected judge panel will oversee the Criminal Courts instead.
The report also states that appropriate staff will work with the judges to finalize an organizational chart by July 15 for the upcoming fiscal year budget and recommends reclassifying an open magistrate position.
Merritt acknowledged these changes were part of the initial reorganization commissioners were presented with on April 2 but said “the charge from the Commissioners Court narrowed the focus to only criminal courts. The initial structure is still being finalized and will be submitted as part of the FY25 budget process for the Commissioners Court consideration.”
Many who came to speak at the April 2 meeting criticized the reorganization of the courts as executive overreach.
“I don’t think it’s particularly fruitful to complain,” Ramirez said. “My charge from the county is to find solutions. And I think that through this process and thoroughly formulating this working group and putting the task on them to find the best practices, and then make sure that we’re operating as efficiently as we can — I think we’re on the absolute right track.”
The final section of the report is an “efficiency review,” which states there are opportunities to create more efficiency in the criminal courts by reducing “unnecessary and redundant positions.” and calls for leaving vacated positions open.
“It seems like everybody’s been working in silos, to accomplish individual missions, but there’s not been one singular vision,” Ramirez said. “Now through this working group, and through this report, it’s my hope that there’s greater collaboration among everybody.”
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