Go to Jail: Community College Students and the Broken Bail System

Photo by Robert Hickerson on Unsplash

In community colleges in Houston, we rarely discuss the intersection of student lives with the criminal court practices in Harris County. Yet, our students often disappear during the semester, only to return and report that they had been arrested; students have to miss class for court appearance; students who are not physically in jail might have to show up to court for roll call, a lengthy process that takes hours out of a person’s day, or report to parole officers after serving their time, even as they strive to get degrees and rebuild their lives. Why does this affect our students particularly? Because harsh and discriminatory courts in Harris County can haul a poor person in for a minor offense and, if they fail to pay bail, hold that person in pre-trial detention for months, without sight of a trial. Further, many of our students are negatively affected because a family member is enmeshed in the jail system, leaving these students additionally burdened with child care, paying new bills, and increased anxiety.

The Lone Star College System is silent not only on the realities of students involved in the Harris and Montgomery county jail systems, but the ugly realities of the bail system. The bail reform movement has been addressed recently, and the November election might change Harris County policies that especially negatively impact our community neighbors, our students, and their families.

With less than hundred days to early voting, as volunteers are frantically phone banking and block walking for their candidates, one particular group is out in front of the jail on San Jacinto Street, speaking to visitors who’ve come to see their loved ones. Visitors walk up to the jail from the road in groups of two or three, whole families, mothers with small children. A volunteer walks up with a clipboard:

“Do you want to end cash bail?”
Immediately, the visitors stop. Eyes light up in concentration.
“What’s this about? Tell me more.”

The simple option is an important question for our elections and reaffirms the American Federation of Teachers statement on criminal justice and public safety:

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates will support and encourage policies aimed at reforming monetary bail requirements that lead to the unjust imprisonment of underprivileged offenders who can’t afford payment; and
RESOLVED, that the AFT will work with all constituencies to reclaim the promise of racial equity and justice in all our communities.

Franklin Bynum, currently running for judge in Harris County Criminal Court 8, sees the issues as simple: Bynum wants to stop jailing people before trial who can’t afford to pay to get out. The rich can pay bail and get out. But the poor cannot pay bail, and they languish in jail, sometimes for months, before their trial. Bynum is calling for due process regardless of income. Harris County is especially egregious in its discriminatory court practices, holding people without trial. In 2017, a federal judge ordered the courts to let people go if they cannot hold trial immediately. Republican judges in Harris County are suing to continue the practice of jailing the poor.

Visitors to jail often have a lot to report themselves. Reporting to roll call means standing in crowded hallways for hours waiting for a trial date. Not showing up exactly on time might mean being arrested on the spot. One mother with small children reports she had posted bail for her husband, but he was hauled back in after failing to show up for roll call once. This is before facing trial. This person has not been proved guilty yet. Another visitor reports that one hallway in the women’s jail is swarming with gnats. They didn’t have water for five days, so they closed down visiting, lest people find out the conditions inside the jail. If we asked our students and gave them the power to speak on our campuses, we might hear similar stories.

A fair court means that every person should be assumed innocent before they are proven guilty in a court by a judge or a jury of peers. Bynum wants to release people pending their trial and give them a fair chance to fight their case. A twisted consequence of holding people before trial (because they cannot afford to pay bail!) is that desperate people routinely plead guilty simply to get out and get on with their lives. Public defenders encourage them to do so. Pleas are treated like a foregone conclusion, and the court becomes extremely hostile when someone refuses to enter into a plea. There is no presumption of innocence, at least for the poor. Bynum also calls for more diversion programs, like the one that District Attorney Kim Ogg has started in Harris County.

As AFT members, we should see that this approach would immediately impact our students and their families: people will no longer be forced to enter into plea bargains for minor offenses.

In a series of recent tweets, criminal defense lawyer Bynum explains the discriminatory practice of pre-trial detention, holding people behind bars for months before they ever see trial. Effectively, this makes the police officer making the arrest the de facto decision maker on whether someone is guilty or not, rather than the court and the jury.
a href="https://twitter.com/franklinbynum">

Saw a map of marijuana arrests in Harris County, with an overlay of wealth and race. So obvious what neighborhoods are targeted. And because the system is a plea system, there is no real opportunity to challenge it.

— Franklin Bynum 🌹 (@franklinbynum) May 27, 2018

— Franklin Bynum (@franklinbynum) May 27, 2018

The message for union, faculty, and administrators: make the courts fair again.
We urge the college administration to support calls for bail reform, bringing the unfairness of pretrial detention and cash bail more into public focus, so that students can talk about their own experiences on our campuses.