Houston and Harris County are at the center of a years-long debate over bail reform: how to ensure that potentially violent suspects stay jailed while awaiting trial but not punishing or discriminating against poor people who may not be guilty of the crime they’re accused of.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has made bail reform a priority, pointing to numerous recent headlines about murders committed while a suspect was out on bond. Former Harris County prosecutor Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, and Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, joined the governor at a press conference Wednesday along with Texas law enforcement officials and bail reform advocates.
“Too many judges grant repeat offenders two, three, even 16 chances that they do not deserve,” Abbott said in a press statement. “State representatives must fix that by passing a constitutional amendment. Lawmakers must choose: support the safety of citizens they represent, or the criminals who kill them.”
Huffman has said that over the past four years, 162 people were murdered in Harris County by defendants who were out on bond.
Huffman’s Senate Joint Resolution 5 proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow judges to deny bail to persons accused of “certain violent or sexual offenses or continuous human trafficking.” The bill passed the Senate with a 28-2 vote and is now pending in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
Texas uses a cash bail system that allows defendants to pay a bond while they wait for adjudication. If they can’t afford it, they sit in jail, sometimes for years, even though they haven’t been found guilty. The bail amount is set by a judge, who can use discretion based on a defendant’s prior criminal history or the severity of the offense.
Those who are opposed to sweeping changes to the bail system say it is discriminatory toward poor people and minorities. Under the current system, while a person is in custody, they’re unable to work, pay child support, attend drug or alcohol rehabilitation courses or seek mental health or medical assistance beyond what is offered at the jail.
The Harris County Jail is overcrowded with people whose cases have not been adjudicated and taxpayers are footing the bill to send inmates to other states.
Marci Marie Simmons, director of community engagement for Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, said the organization opposes the proposed constitutional amendment.
“Automatically denying bail and expanding prosecutorial power would deepen the criminalization of poor and marginalized communities and strip judges of their essential role in evaluating individual cases,” she said. “This fear-based approach undermines due process. We urge lawmakers to reject this harmful proposal and support data-driven, community-based solutions that center healing, fairness, and true public safety.”
Harris County Democratic Party precinct chair Cameron “Coach Cam” Campbell said as a 42-year-old Black male, he’s probably “made it past the window of needing a bail bondsman,” but is concerned about the negative effects on those stuck in jail who can’t post bond.
“The trickiness of the space is that by the time you are aware of the injustices and how broken the system is, it probably isn’t going to impact you directly,” he said. “With that being said, there are tons of cases, almost too many to count, where the system is set up to ostracize folks who are emotionally damaged and distressed. The system doesn’t care. We have to reform bail, but it comes back to policy. Correcting the problem of poor folks of color suffering is just a low priority for Abbott.”
Civil rights groups and inmates have unsuccessfully challenged Texas’ use of a cash bail system for years. Lawsuits targeting Dallas and Harris county jails claimed the practice was unconstitutional because it discriminates against poorer defendants, the Texas Tribune reported last year. A federal appeals court ruled against the Dallas plaintiffs and the Supreme Court declined to take the case. The Harris suit was thrown out.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Abbott called on Texas lawmakers to take a bipartisan approach toward fixing the broken bail system “that lets dangerous criminals back onto our streets.”
“These are not isolated incidents,” he said. “Hundreds of Texans have been murdered by violent criminals who had been previously arrested and released on easy bail. Too many activist judges let dangerous criminals out on bail only to see them commit another murder or assault.”
The matter of bail reform has been debated for years in Harris County. The county Democratic Party in 2023 admonished then-District Attorney Kim Ogg for opposing efforts by Democrats to fix the cash-bail system. Current DA Sean Teare has said he supports legislative fixes to current bail laws, such as granting judges more discretion to hold dangerous individuals without bond and expanding data sharing to improve decision-making.
“But sustainable public safety requires a broader vision,” Teare wrote in a March opinion column. “Sadly, the gap between tired political narratives and meaningful change continues to grow. The playbook pushed by some politicians should be familiar by now: scapegoat judges as soft on crime and belittle smart on crime programs proven to save lives.”
The county’s challenges with homelessness, nuisance crimes and jail overcrowding would be reduced if low-level drug offenders were taken to substance treatment rather than incarcerated, said Teare, a Democrat.
Huffman, at Wednesday’s press conference, cautioned against playing party politics in a situation that can have dire consequences.
“This package of bills has real solutions in them that will make a difference,” she said. “These Democrats who continue to not be willing to look at the facts and realize that this is happening in their districts have a moral obligation to take this vote and to pass this on to the Texas voters to make a decision.”
