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The Hays County Commissioners Court received an update on pretrial services from the Hays County Pretrial Services Director Randy Foken.
The update came at the court’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, July 25. It was delivered in response to a public comment involving the backlog of cases and pretrial detainees struggling to contact their attorneys in the Hays County Jail. The public comment was made on the agenda item requesting case management software for pretrial services.
According to the Hays County website, as of July 23, 82% of the jail population (452 people) was held pretrial in the Hays County Jail. Of that pretrial population, 7.5% were held for less than a week, 15.9% were held for one week to under one month, 45.4% were held one month to under six months, 15.5% were held for six months to under one year, 13.1% were held for one year to under three years and 2.7% were held for more than three years.
Foken said that his office officially assumed responsibility for pretrial services as of July 1. He has a staff of eight people, including himself.
“We have absorbed approximately 1,100 cases that are currently on pretrial supervision,” Foken said.
Foken said his office has spent the last six months studying the history in Hays County regarding individual releases for pretrial detainees. He said his office was requesting case management software as a next step in order to ascertain which pretrial services need addressing and which are effective.
“Coming into the operation, [we] had very limited resources available,” Foken said. “We are collaborating with others — including working very closely with the mental health court — to establish a process to evaluate and, more importantly, treat individuals that have … mental health, substance abuse or co-occurring disorders.”
Foken said pretrial services has also been working with the Coalition of the Homeless to establish housing opportunities for those in need after being released from pretrial detention.
Foken said the next steps would be gathering information on prior history, opportunities for housing and employment and ascertaining the needs of pretrial detainees while “realizing because they have not yet been convicted, we’re not allowed to discuss anything regarding the individuals present case for which they’re charged.”
Foken added that these assessments would help evaluate an individual’s suitability for pretrial release by determining the risk of not appearing in court and whether they are a danger to themselves or the community.
“While we are going to be doing the interviews, the key piece for that is having funding to pay for those other services,” Foken said, adding that pretrial services are looking at contracts with outside providers to meet the needs of the program.
Foken said when it comes to pretrial diversion programs, his office is currently engaged in discussions with the district attorney’s office to determine a process to allow for additional people to receive that opportunity.
“While the decision is in the hands of the district attorney to decide who could qualify, they have asked for our input, and we’re working with them to identify what measures we could take to make sure the individuals can move safely through the system and hopefully address some of those underlying factors,” he said.
He added that they could provide options to the district attorney for case dismissal. He said these could be based on those that successfully complete a pretrial diversion program.
Foken said it has taken time and that it will likely require even more time to adequately address issues with both current and future public safety in mind.
“We [have to] make sure that those individuals get the resources they need to have so that they don’t come back through the system at all. It’s a very complicated process, but I believe we can be very successful,” he said.
Hays County Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe, Precinct 1, said she wanted Foken to address the concerns raised during the public comment portion of the meeting and the item where these relate specifically to the difficulty of providing more adequate communication between pretrial detainees and their attorneys. Foken said he is working with the jail and the Hays County Information Technology Officer Jeffrey McGill to establish video conferencing inside the jail for those that do not have immediate access to their attorneys.
He said the video conferencing will be completely private to support attorney-client privilege.
In addition, he said that his office has been asked by the magistrate to swiftly provide individuals taken into custody with a financial affidavit.
He said prompt distribution of the financial affidavit would ensure the magistrate could determine whether pretrial detainees qualify for a court appointed attorney in a timely manner.
Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell, Pct. 3, said he is pleased with the work that has been done so far to improve the way the county has handled pretrial cases, as opposed to its efforts in the past.
“I just want to encourage Mr. Foken to continue … [to] try to find ways and programs in which we can solve these problems,” Shell said. “There’s a lot of work being done, and I really appreciate it.”
