Harris County Will Hire 3 Visiting Judges To Help Reduce A 100,000-Case Criminal Court Backlog
Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend $2.5 million on three emergency response dockets, in an effort to reduce a massive backlog in criminal court cases.
The funding will be used to hire three visiting judges and support staff to work through 1,000 of the longest outstanding criminal court cases. It will also be used to cover office space and hire additional attorneys to help work through the backlog.
In a press conference ahead of the court session, Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she expected to be able to have the visiting judges in place by the end of August, for a total of six months.
“This is an emergency initiative. It is to break a vicious cycle of crime and incarceration, and make a meaningful dent in our crime rate,” Hidalgo said. “We need to invest in what works.”
Read more: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/criminal-justice/2021/07/20/403645/harris-county-to-hire-three-visiting-judges-to-help-reduce-criminal-court-backlog/
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