Federal Lawsuit Claims Dallas County Bail System Illegally Leaves the Poor Languishing in Jail
In a Jan. 9 article, the Dallas Observer spoke with Dallas County officials from pretrial services about the changes being made to help reduce the high number of poor people serving time in jail without being convicted of a crime.The changes were a response to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which reported that more than 70 percent of Dallas County Jail inmates could not afford to pay bail.
Some of the changes the county has made: creating the pretrial division in June, implementing a new risk assessment tool to identify these people and offering low-cost bonds to help them get out of jail.
“At the end of the day, these individuals come in charged with a crime, but they are innocent until proven guilty,” said Duane Steele, deputy director of pretrial services. “We as pretrial officers believe that.”
Dallas County magistrates who set bail amounts seem to have missed the memo.
Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-county-sued-over-bail-bond-system-that-punishes-poor-defendants-10287600
= new reply since forum marked as read
