County looks at court system efficiency

ANAHUAC—County commissioners recently met to discuss ways the court system could be more efficient in an effort to reduce costs.

Griffith Moseley Johnson and Associates, Inc., consultant and analyst Suzanne Bradford presented findings from a court system study, based on data from 2024, to the Chambers County Commissioners on Tuesday, Aug. 12.

GMJ reviewed misdemeanor and felony court data, conducted a peer comparison of jail data to seven other counties with similar populations, and conducted a peer comparison of judicial data.

Overall findings showed that the county was incurring unnecessary costs, 88% of the jail population was awaiting case disposition, the courts were not meeting professional standards of processing times, and the courts were not processing cases at the rate of peer and state averages.

Bradford said what stuck out most was the jail population waiting disposition, but noted it included misdemeanor cases.

Bradford concluded that the county could save approximately $743,000 annually if the courts met the peer average and could save $1.7 million if the courts matched the best-performing peer.

Carl Griffith, previously a county judge, said savings could be substantially more, noting the daily jail rate used in the calculations may be outdated.

For peer comparisons, GMJ utilized data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and the Office of Court Administration.

Bradford explained that 69% of pretrial inmates were convicted of felonies, saying it was “relatively high.” Notably, the peer average was 51% and state average was 53.7%.

Griffith said areas like that are what are costing the county money “because you’re not moving your cases as fast through the court.”

For total pretrial percentages, Chambers County is at 88%, while the peer average is 65.5% and the state average is 69.8%.

For inmates with convictions, Chambers County has an 8% rate, while the peer average is 14% and the state average is 13%.

Griffith commended Sheriff Brian Hawthorne and the courthouse staff for working together to relocate inmates from the jail to Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities.

Bradford commended the county for its recovery from COVID-19, a feat not many courts could claim.

Cleared felony cases went from 646 in 2019 to 300 in 2020, but jumped to 768 in 2021 and 1,012 in 2022. Cases regulated back out with 838 cases in 2023 and 874 in 2024, and misdemeanor cases followed a similar trend.

Bradford explained that 100% clearance rate meant the courts were keeping up with cases, and over 100% meant the courts were keeping up with backlog.

Prior to 2024, the courts were tackling backlog, but Bradford said 2024 was “a little concerning” because the clearance rate was 91% for felony cases. The peer average was about 104%, while the state average was about 103%.

The standard for felony case clearance, according to the Conference of State Court Administrators and Conference of Chief Justices, is 100% in 180 days. The standard, according to the American Bar Association, is 100% in a year.

Bradford noted the standards are rigorous but said the county could improve in clearing felony cases, as 48% took over 180 days to clear.

The highest percentage of felony cases in both the 253rd and 344th District Courts were dismissed cases.

The next phase of the study could include analyzing increments of case processing time, which would entail analyzing the time from arrest to indictment, from indictment to case file date, and so on.

Additionally, the next phase could include analyzing court processing times for inmates compared to those on bond, diving deeper into case dismissals, exploring the creation of an additional district court and more.