Good morning, Your Honor.   

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the Court about this critical issue. My name is Dianna Williams, and I am a Criminal Justice Community Organizer with Texas Advocates for Justice. Our members are individuals and families impacted by mass incarceration and criminalization in Texas. We use our personal stories and direct experience with incarceration to build power and lead campaigns to transform the criminal justice system and build safe and healthy communities.

I’m going to talk a little bit about data because it reveals why we are here today. Because our organization works with justice-impacted people, I hope that I can be helpful by tying that data to our organization’s members’ lived experiences. And I hope everyone listening will realize that the data and the lived experiences lead to the same conclusion: this settlement will make Harris County a better, safer place. 

40% of people charged with misdemeanors in Harris County served time in jail because they could not afford bail. That 40% charged with misdemeanors were deprived of their liberty simply for being poor. That is where we have to start. It’s unconstitutional, and it is wrong.  

Objectors have said that, regardless of how wrong this is, we must continue such violations in the name of public safety. But the fact is that the evidence shows us that money bail makes us less safe. There are at least four clear data points here, two out of Harris County.

• In 2013, a study by the Arnold Foundation found the following:

• When held for 2-3 days, low-risk defendants are almost 40% more likely to commit new crimes before trial than equivalent defendants with no more than 24 hours.

• When held for 8-14 days, low-risk defendants are 51% more likely to commit another crime within two years after completion of their cases than equivalent defendants with no more than 24 hours.

• Then in 2017, a report on the Harris County Bail System in the Stanford Law Review found that people held pre-trial because they could not afford bail were 22% more likely to be rearrested the following year. 

• It makes sense that when New Jersey ended money bail altogether, violent crime decreased by 30%. 

• And in 2018, after Harris County was prevented from holding most people pre-trial, violent crime dropped by 10%.

These numbers should come as no surprise to anyone. What do we think happens when you lock someone away and deny them access to their family, community, school, or job, even for a day or two?  

This brings us to where the data meets lived experience. I will share the stories of my family and two others to give the Court an idea of the actual impact here.

I will first read the stories directly that two TAJ (Texas Advocates for Justice) members asked me to share.

The first story:

My brother got pulled over and had traffic ticket warrants. He was taken in and given a $5,000 bond. He had just moved into his apartment months prior and got a dog named Hawk. After his arrest, his mother had to decide if she would send off a payment for her daughter’s college tuition or bond her son out, who had just gotten to a place of some security. She was not able to bail out her son. This caused him to lose his car due to tow fees. He lost his apartment and Hawk because he sat so long in jail, unable to afford his bond.

The second story:

My husband was charged with a misdemeanor terrorist threat when I was six months pregnant. I could not afford to bond him out because both our incomes were needed to pay bills. He stayed in jail while his court date got reset time and time again. I sunk into this deep depression and went on to have a premature child. I received my tax refund soon after having our baby and used it to bond him out. We used the remainder of the money to get an attorney who dismissed the charges. I never actually told anyone this story until now. I realized that the child he and I created during that tough time was the best thing for this earth. She is solid and beautiful, but the harm caused by cash bonds is genuine and long-lasting. My husband missed out on the moment most men wait for, the day they see their baby girl. I am so relieved that a part of this monster has been destroyed. 

And my family’s story:

Being stopped, detained, arrested, and put in jail for days, hopeless from fear of losing your car, job, and family relationships, and made to feel guilty before even being convicted of a crime. I know that agony because incarceration affects not only the person detained but also the family. I lived through generations of close family members placed into the criminal justice system for low-level offenses. My father. My brother. My son. All were drug-related offenses. Money for cash bail was never an option in my family; we didn’t have it. We lived paycheck to paycheck, much like many folks still do. Because of that, it was always less of a hardship to leave our family member in jail to “sit it out,” not realizing the collateral damage that thought process carried both emotionally and financially for the family.  

At age 61, having lived 50 years through the process of having my family members locked up for drug charges, having them wait for a judge to hear the case, or having some legal representation to be provided, I see the damage very clearly. My family’s misdemeanor arrests would have been best handled as public health issues with alternative solutions to arrests and pre-trial detainment. It would have stopped the recidivism in my family had the family structure not been penalized for lack of good judgment by our family members. In my family’s case, past misdemeanor low-level arrests and detainments will continue to impact my family’s wellness significantly.

And so before I close, I want to talk about one more place where data and real life come together. And where the destruction of families also means the destruction of public safety.  

Numerous studies have shown that incarcerating someone increases the likelihood of their child becoming involved in crime. My family is a perfect example. Remember my father. My brother. My son.

And when you consider that pre-trial detention leads to a higher likelihood of being convicted and longer sentences, these impacts are all compounded because that child’s parent — if detained pre-trial — is more likely to stay incarcerated for a longer time.

Had all the people I talked about not been in systems with money bail; their outcomes may have been very different. And so now we have a choice. We have an opportunity to show our true priorities. Do we choose to spend funds per day to jail someone in Harris County — when it is not working — or do we choose to save that money and put it into programming — like treatment, housing, employment opportunities, mental health services — that actually improve lives and reduces crime instead.

The choice is obvious. I thank the Court for the time and thoughtful attention you have already devoted to this matter.