HOUSTON (CN) — Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, the Houston-area's chief prosecutor, has burnished her progressive bona fides with programs that have dropped marijuana arrests by 80%. But her Democratic primary election opponent says her resistance to bail reform is out of sync with a county moving away from mass incarceration.
Speaking Thursday at a forum hosted by the ACLU of Texas, Ogg said she's proud of her record since taking office in January 2017 in the third most populous county in the nation, which at 1,777 square miles is larger than Rhode Island, where she works with 87 different law enforcement agencies.
"We've seen tremendous results with our marijuana program in that no one in Houston, virtually, is being arrested for misdemeanor marijuana. This saved 10,000 people a year a criminal record," she said.
She said that under her tenure more than 40,000 people have completed pretrial diversion programs, enabling them to avoid jail and a criminal conviction.
"So we are pointed in the right direction," she said. "Culture change is never easy. It's not as fast as we wish it would be. But remember, this system took literally centuries being put in place and it’s going to take another term to finish it out."
Sitting on a stage next to three other Democrats, Ogg took questions from three moderators and the crowd of more than 100 people at the headquarters of the nonprofit Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston.
Shortly after taking office, Ogg said she supported a federal class action brought on behalf of misdemeanor arrestees who were held in Harris County Jail for petty, nonviolent crimes and were not able to pay the cash bail magistrates had set for them with no inquiry into their finances.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal found the system unconstitutionally favored those who could afford bail in an April 2017 ruling and issued an injunction ordering the county to release most misdemeanor arrestees on personal bonds, which require little or no upfront fees, within 48 hours.
But Ogg switched course after Rosenthal preliminary approved a settlement. She argued in amicus briefs that there was a danger of "exploding dockets" because the settlement would let judges excuse any defendant from ever having to appear in court, and it would endanger public safety by ordering the release of violent people.
Rosenthal shrugged off Ogg's concerns and approved the settlement in November.
Audia Jones, worked as an assistant district attorney under Ogg, and said, "One of the best decisions I ever made was to leave this current DA's office."
She said: "When we are looking at individuals who are incarcerated because they cannot afford bail and we have a district attorney who made promises that she would support cash bail reform, but in fact was the only Democrat to oppose it, we have a problem."
Jones said she would go a step further and institute similar bail reforms for people charged with felonies. She said 70% of the felony arrestees in Harris County Jail are awaiting trial and have not been convicted. "And these are nonviolent offenses," she said.
There are also three Republicans running for district attorney. They declined the ACLU's invitation to the forum.
Of the Democratic candidates, Jones is proposing the most extreme reforms. She said she would decriminalize any drug possession for personal use.
Follow @cam_langford
