As ABC13 monitors the situation at the Harris County Jail, the Jail Standards Commission held its quarterly meeting in Austin on Thursday, and the update is not good.
While Harris County has shown some improvements with booking inmates within 48 hours, they’re at the same time taking steps backwards in terms of how long inmates are staying on average at the jail, jail leaders said during Thursday’s meeting.
According to the assistant chief of detentions command at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Commander Phillip Bosquez, the current length of stay at the jail is now 197 days. For perspective, the state average for length of stay at other jails is 46 to 56 days.
Bosquez says they’ll tackle the issue in chunks, pointing to the potential of reducing it in 30-day increments.
The director of the jail standards commission, Brandon Wood, calls this concerning and says the jail is going in the wrong direction after their numbers increased since the last quarterly meeting held in November.